RacerX, freeiso and Magnav0x read this, "Free-DC Monster"

[MrTRS]

Reference to "Getting Free-DC Monster started" threadhttp://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2559

While the other thread is trying to develop contributions and a name for the project, it seems like you guys need to work out who is going to do this.

One way would be for each of you to post the advantages of your location and physical setup. Space, net-connection and the like.

And then decide between yourselves who is going to do the project.

Another approach would be that all three of you take on the project and devide up according to region.

freeiso is in the east. Magnav0x is in the middle. And RacerX is in the west. You could each operate a portion of the "Monster" for your area.

Just a suggestion, you guys work it out.
Later, Ray

[magnav0x]

Seems like a few small farms would be a viable solution for a larger scale vision. As mentioned before at my location:

* Dallas, TX (around abouts)
* Large space available
* Well ventilated storage
* DSL connection that has not been down in 9 months and counting
* Strong networking/linux/clustering knowledge and background
* College student with lots of time on his hands :help:


A con to my location is the nice "Tornado Alley" that develops in the spring. We experience very heavy storms at times during the spring here in north texas. So without a UPS, it would experience some uncontrolable downtime.

[MrTRS]

Magnav0x, thanks for the posting. It seems like you might agree to running one of three regional farms. If we can get RacerX in on the discussion we might have a working concept going here.

See this post for some nameing ideas.http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2559

[MrTRS]

Originally posted by freeiso

but one question ... your nick ...
are you saying that you still have one of them beasties running ?
:scared:

No I'm sorry to disapoint you, but the nick is Mr (for mister, male, guy) and my initials T.R.S.

My name is Theron Ray Schultz, and I live in Houston, Texas (in Magnav0x's region) and I'm really, really old.

My email is trs at houston.rr.com if it ever comes up.

[magnav0x]

I would fully support a regional beowulf project for the team. One thing we need to take into consideration is the availability of hardware to spread amongst three the location. As of right now, I have 4 or 5 Celeron 366's laying around that I could build up. I think some of their motherboards are bad though. There's no telling what I have laying around, but I'll try to start gathering as much computer hardware as I can find laying around.

*throws Mr Mom a high five*

after looking it looks like I'm in need or power supplies/motherboards(1 or 2 intel)/NICs

[MrTRS]

Well, lets review. What we, or at least I, have been taling about is a DC crunching farm. Where a person puts together several PC's in order to crunch a DC project. See http://ws9.jobnegotiator.com/html/flinks.html for some examples.

freeiso mentioned a beowulf in an earlier post, which I am under the impression is a seperate project for him.

Beowulf and monster crunchers are vastly different.

[magnav0x]

IMO I think a beowulf setup would be just as good as having them all crunch seperatly. I was under the impression you'd want them to all crunch the same thing, therefor a beowulf setup would work. Correct me if I'm off target here.

[MrTRS]

Well, I'm not the expert but I can repeat some things I have read on other boards.

Most dc project clients are not even SMP aware much less threaded in order to take atvantage of clustering. I have read that the best way to do the dc'ing is to put together a PC or more and start one client per CPU. That is what has led to the Monster Crunchers in the above link.

Beowulf clustering is best used to run one program that can "thread" in order to use the resources of the other nodes to execute whatever one is trying to do.

That is the limit of my knowlege on the subject.

Some body else want to expand on the idea?

[MrTRS]

Just to continue the thought; The link above has a lot of info besides pic's. The idea is to get the most bang for the buck. That guy uses lots of tricks, from net booting to running two boards off of one power supply. He has some well thought out design ideas.

[MrTRS]

Yeh, I have an AMD based board with a 800 mhz cpu. If you PM me your mailing address I will mail it asap. Thanks for taking this on.
Ray

[IronBits]

Yo Magnav0x -- send me your Addy in an email to IronBits AT dBestern.com
I know I have "stuff" I can send ya...

[magnav0x]

You have mail IB. BTW, for future reference I can be reached via e-mail: magnav0x AT erdt-dfw.com

[RacerX]

Sorry, I took so long to jump in. I could put up several more machines. I live up here in the mountains of Idaho where the four seasons are; Almost winter, winter, still winter, and construction. So keeping the machines cool is not much of an issue. I am on via cable modem and a 16 port router (at present) that has plenty of ports left open. I have plenty of room as well. My experience with machines is pretty limited but have many contacts that can walk me through just about anything I need as far as technical stuff. We used to have frequent blackouts in the winter but, none for the past couple years. I really don't see any problems for setting up here. Got a PO box now for Ebay stuff so posting that and having stuff shipped there would work out great.

I also think the diversification via region is a great idea.

[MrTRS]

RacerX,
Great! Glad to have you on board. We talked about a lot of stuff while you were making your way here. Click over to "The Lobby" and read thru some of the threads. Especially this one :http://www.free-dc.org/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2595

We pretty much decided to call the project Hydra because of the Mithical muti-headed creature. And it looks like you will be operating "Free-DC Hydra-W". If that is ok with you.
I will work on a posting calling for donations based on the region a potiential donator lives.

I recently found that Free-DCs Personal Messenging service works pretty well. In my posting I will talk about PM as being the best way for somebody to contact one of you operators.
So, if you don't have it setup already, then I would go into your "user cp" and turn on some of the PM options.

Best of luck and "Here's to Happy Crunching"
Ray