!rant

So last weekend I started collecting hardware for a small scale cluster at home to test scalability of my software. Making some decent progress.

Tomorrow I will replace the switch and this weekend I will set up storage so I can start my first application

Also, turns out that if you start 10 PSUs at the same time it will blow your breakers. So I will have to create an arduino operated relay panel to turn on all the nodes on a delay.

That's stunningly beautiful

@eskizo wait until the rgb comes in! (jk jk)

@ChappIO
Awesome.

Use ws2812 RGB led strips to do effects like cpu(s) load,temperature,etc...

:-)😂😂

@shelladdicted haha well currently I am more worried about its boot sequence since I don't want to run it 24/7 and want to start it remotely. Maybe after a couple of months (if it functions correctly) I might consider beautifying it.

@ChappIO shutdown over ssh
Power up over USB interrupt?

@shelladdicted well the problem is that I cannot power up the PSUs at the same time. Filling the caps will blow my breakers. This means I will have to switch on every psu one by one.

I was thinking I could make a relay box that is arduino controlled. Simply flip switch 1, wait a second, flip switch 2, wait a second etc...

Then all I have to do is enable power on the arduino and the relay box. (Which I can already do remotely)

@ChappIO why you can't keep the PSU powered and let the motherboard handle Off ON?

@shelladdicted because idle 10 PSUs and active network gear draws over 100 bucks in power a year

I and won't even use it every day (or week probably)

@ChappIO Just curious - do you need a dedicated PSU for each module? How much power does one module need?
(Specs? :D)
... OK, really curious.

You mentioned switch so...

@nin0x03 I don't but I paid 7.50 euros for each psu. I cannot make splitter cables for that price.

The nodes are not powerful at all but I will get you some specs later.

@BlurryFace5178 haha nice. I already have the switch, I just need to provision it and then I can hook up all the nodes :)

@nik123 well not too much. I should do the measurements but I think under 1KW under load. The boards are low-power cpu-on-board machines.

Stay tuned for an update this weekend. I will let you know.

@theScientist I am building a small cluster computer at home. They are giving me tips and asking questions about it.

@theScientist Ooooh I see. Well depends what you want to do. If you want to know how to set up the software on a machine and tinker around with linux a lot I would suggest a raspberry pi 3 as a starting (cheap) machine.

If you want to build computers and are you generally interested in consumer hardware you could check out these channels: Linus Tech Tips, Tech Quickie, Jayz 2 Cents.

You could always buy some old hardware from your local 2nd hand shops and tinker around with that. It's not hard to get a used machine from 2010 for about 50 bucks. Take it apart, put it back together. Learn what all the components are and do.

@theScientist No problem! Learn on man!

@nin0x03 here goes

Motherboards: ASRock E35LM1
CPU: AMD Fusion E250 (1c @ 1.5GHz)
Ram: 2gb ddr3
PSU: 300W small form factor
Networking: Ubiquity Unifi (USG + US24 + cloud key)

Later today I will receive a batch of 10 7200 rpm seagate barracuda hard disks.

The nodes aren't powerful at all but the point is that I can test a distributed system for its scalability.

@ChappIO OK, that's really cheap. And more or less low-power.
Have fun! :)

@nin0x03 I definately will :)