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An army of Xeon cores to do your bidding
44 Cores
I continuously explore options for cost-effective (or just plain cheap) parallel computing rigs, and while next-generation, cutting edge hardware is always interesting, I find that retired options from yesteryear can also show potential when their significantly lower cost is part of the overall assessment. Retrofitting a retired Dell workstation with high-core-count CPUs and the maximum allowable RAM, I built a 44-core compute behemoth for less than $600 to run Monte Carlo [1] simulations. Let me dive into the details!
Bill of Materials
Table 1 details my hardware configuration. I found a refurbished Dell Precision T7190 workstation [2] on eBay in nearly perfect cosmetic condition with a motherboard sporting two LGA 2011-3 processor sockets – which were both vacant (Figure 1). The stock power supply is rated at 1,300W, more than sufficient for this project, but alas, one of the CPU heat sinks was missing. The description promised no ventilation shrouds or disks, but the unit came with four hard disks, one DVD-ROM drive, and all the air shrouds, making this a happy purchase ($159).
Table 1
Shockwave Compute Server Specs
| Component | Spec |
|---|---|
| Chassis and motherboard | Dell Precision Workstation T7910 |
| Power | 1,300W |
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