| 5:27:32 AM PDT - Fri, May 22nd 2015 |
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I am building a mini Cluster for abinitio simulations (mainly NWChem).
1) For large simulations, huge scratch files are created and even swap file is used. So, is there any real performance gain in putting 2 SSD's in RAID 0? Or should i go with 1 fast SSD with double capacity and save a few money (and also worry less for a failure)? In other words, does a 6-core cpu (5820K) read/write data faster than a SSD can provide? Are those reads/writes usually sequential or random?
2) Is Gigabit Ethernet generally fast enough for running a simulation parallel on 4/8 nodes (each node will have a 5820K processor)? Is there any point in purchasing additional GbE cards on each node and using them together (with NIC bonding) with the motherboard's provided GbE?
3) Should i put local disks on each node, or build a stateless cluster with fast SSD's only on master node?
While i am aware that these questions are not easily answered generally, i am specifically interested in NWChem performance, especially CC (CCSD(T), CREOMCCSD(T), IPCCSD), RT-TDDFT calculations.
Thanks in advance for any advice,
Kostas
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