[gmx-users] master node dilema

[aneamtu at iasi.mednet.ro]

Dear GROMACS users,

We are about to aquire a Dell cluster on which GROMACS will be running  
(Compute nodes: 8 servers - dual Opteron dual core = 32 compute cores,  
Infiniband Interconect).
There are two choises for the master node - as usualy one less  
expensive, one more expensive:
- 2x Opteron 8214 dual core 2.2 GHz
or
- 4x Opteron 8214 dual core 2.2 GHz
My question is wether I can use 2 Opterons on master node or this will  
affect the performance and I have to use the second option with 4  
Opterons. Or say it like this: does the master node affect the cluster  
performace for this small number of nodes?

The second question is if you think there will be a significant  
improvment of performace if I switch from Opteron 2.4 GHz to Opteron  
2.8 GHz ?

Thanks a lot,
Andrei

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Dr. Andrei Neamtu, M.D., Assistant Researcher
Dept. of Biophysiscs
University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr. T. Popa" Iasi
http://www.umfiasi.ro/
str. Universitatii nr. 16
IASI, Jud. Iasi
ROMANIA
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