[NMLUG] Spare P2's and boinc

[timothyemerick at yahoo.com (Tim Emerick)]

I have about 8 p2-400's that I'm looking to turn into some sort of project. 
I was going to try to do a LTSP type project but never got around to it.  Now
I've decided I want to set them up in the garage to crunch boinc/seti stuff. 
Couple of questions for the knowledgeable ones.

1. I'm curious about clustering.  Would there be much of a performance gain
by clustering them together in order to run BOINC or just run them
individually.

2. I was thinking of removing the motherboards from the case and mounting
them on a sheet of plywood to be mounted on a wall on my garage.  In addition
to saving space/power it would create an interesting conversation piece. 
What size power supply would/could I use.  Any problems with all those
motherboards running off a single power supply or two?

3. If I just run them in their individual cases, how would I calculate the
amount of power used (no monitors of course).  I would hate to see a $100
increase in my electric bill at the end of the month.

4. In the vein of saving electricity.  What about booting from a single
machine in order to save power from multiple cd and hard drives?

I look forward to hearing some ideas.

Tim Emerick


	
		
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