Cheyenne supercomputer with 8,064 Xeon e5-2697v4 and 313,344GB of DDR4 auction!

[Cruzader]

Distribute to multiple sellers in multiple areas. They just have to sell slightly below the current going price

There is not really anything very interesting to distribute from this tho.

Id expect this to end up with a educational facility in a "less rich country" for use as a single system rather than split up.

The bids are already way above the value of cpu/ram and the few resellable standard servers.

 

[wildpig1234]

There is not really anything very interesting to distribute from this tho.

Id expect this to end up with a educational facility in a "less rich country" for use as a single system rather than split up.

The bids are already way above the value of cpu/ram and the few resellable standard servers.

8064 cpu at $20 each plus 32256 8GB ram sticks at $3 is around $260,000 (I am assuming these are the seller cost before the resell mark up of close to 100% to account for removal cost, etc) so i guess the current bid price of $280,000 is now a bit above what it should be.... lol..

 

[Cruzader]

8064 cpu at $20 each plus 32256 8GB ram sticks at $3 is around $260,000 (I am assuming these are the seller cost before the resell mark up of close to 100% to account for removal cost, etc) so i guess the current bid price of $280,000 is now a bit above what it should be.... lol..

If you were interested in quantities like that of those, they are cheaper than that to just buy without the hassle of removing the system.

As much as 4000 might sound like alot, its estimated that about 31000 servers are going into the 2nd hand market in a average day.
There are insane quantities of cpu/ram piled up in warehouses for sale.

 

[unwind-protect]

I wonder how much the missing cable would run you. Tens of thousands I guess, or maybe even 100k. Depends on whether tranceivers are also missing.

 

[Jaket]

I wonder how much the missing cable would run you. Tens of thousands I guess, or maybe even 100k. Depends on whether tranceivers are also missing.

I believe they set all the cables aside for the new owners it states in the auction.

"The internal DAC cables within each cell, although removed, will be meticulously labeled, and packaged in boxes, facilitating potential future reinstallation."

 

[wildpig1234]

over $350K now. someone must really want this thing...lol... Def more than its worth of cpu and ram now.

 

[piranha32]

over $350K now. someone must really want this thing...lol... Def more than its worth of cpu and ram now.

if it's sold with the management software, it is still worth much more than just the scrap value.

 

[Jaket]

over $350K now. someone must really want this thing...lol... Def more than its worth of cpu and ram now.

I agree at this price it's still under $100 per "server" which for a hosting provider if these are even usable like a normal system great deal. But for most not worth it at all. Would be interesting to see who ends up getting it and what they do with it.

I'd love a rack or two if it was usable in the hosting industry.

 

[wildpig1234]

I agree at this price it's still under $100 per "server" which for a hosting provider if these are even usable like a normal system great deal. But for most not worth it at all. Would be interesting to see who ends up getting it and what they do with it.

I'd love a rack or two if it was usable in the hosting industry.

ebay price is around $350-400 for a dual 2697 v4 with 64GB ram without storage. So i guess $100 for each node would still be a good deal right now if you don't have to buy it from ebay...lol

 

[Cruzader]

I agree at this price it's still under $100 per "server" which for a hosting provider if these are even usable like a normal system great deal. But for most not worth it at all. Would be interesting to see who ends up getting it and what they do with it.

I'd love a rack or two if it was usable in the hosting industry.

Only the 2 half full management racks are normal reusable servers.

Anybody after it for actual use would be to use it as the same cluster setup.

- Proprietary nodes with proprietary software and dated fabric
- installed in proprietary chassis in proprietary racks
- cooled by a leaky watercooling that also needs parts you cant get hold of replaced

A host would not touch this with a 10foot pole.

 

[wildpig1234]

sold for $480K .... lol

 

[piranha32]

I hope it will go to a small academic institution, which will use it for research. Even though the computational power of this supercomputer is roughly equal to several GPUs, there are still tons of scientific software which will never be rewritten to take advantage of therm. E.g. atmospheric models, which are (or at least were ~10 years ago) distributed as 100s of thousands of lines of Fortran code optimized for CPU execution, using MPI to exchange data between nodes.

 

[wildpig1234]

I hope it will go to a small academic institution, which will use it for research. Even though the computational power of this supercomputer is roughly equal to several GPUs, there are still tons of scientific software which will never be rewritten to take advantage of therm. E.g. atmospheric models, which are (or at least were ~10 years ago) distributed as 100s of thousands of lines of Fortran code optimized for CPU execution, using MPI to exchange data between nodes.

Gonna need to invest a significant amount of $ to get that water cooling to work again

 

[Cruzader]

Gonna need to invest a significant amount of $ to get that water cooling to work again

Institutions buying stuff like this used will be somewhat used to DIY repairing/upgrading it also.

If they have a engineering department also its not really gone be a hard project for them.

 

[piranha32]

Gonna need to invest a significant amount of $ to get that water cooling to work again

By TechTechPotato''s reporting, it leaks on some quick disconnects

The original user probably didn't want to deal with it and used as a great excuse for an upgrade, but maybe, with a bit of creativity, it will not be that difficult to fix by a skilled maintenance team.

 

[Cruzader]

The original user probably didn't want to deal with it and used as a great excuse for an upgrade, but maybe, with a bit of creativity, it will not be that difficult to fix by a skilled maintenance team.

It was supposed to be replaced 3years ago and that got delayed by covid.

Leaks etc is a result of it just left running and not invested further into as already in the process of buying the replacement.

The damaged parts are also proprietary stuff out of production, so the sections with leaks are RIP or best case parts to reuse.

Auction documents mention that some racks are no longer functional due to damage.

 

[wildpig1234]

so would it have been better to buy a GPU server for the $480K rather than this thing nowaday?

 

[piranha32]

so would it have been better to buy a GPU server for the $480K rather than this thing nowaday?

IF your applications can use them.
Even if the initial investment will be higher, I think GPU cluster will quickly make it up on lower operating costs

 

[Cruzader]

so would it have been better to buy a GPU server for the $480K rather than this thing nowaday?

Those things are so far away from eachother that even comparing them is just silly really.

It's not like that machine was the only system they had and its used for everything.
Institutions like this have gpu clusters also for tasks suited for gpus.

But they are not a replacement for the cpu clusters.