CFD Online Discussion Forums - Hardware http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ Computers, networks, clusters, CPUs, GPUs, memory, graphic cards, ... hardware used for CFD simulations. en Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:41:49 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/images/misc/rss.jpg CFD Online Discussion Forums - Hardware http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/ Server to run Fluent Simulations http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79730-server-run-fluent-simulations.html Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:13:18 GMT Hi, I am looking to purchase a server to run Fluent simulations. I will be running supersonic, viscous simulations with meshes of size around... Hi,

I am looking to purchase a server to run Fluent simulations. I will be running supersonic, viscous simulations with meshes of size around 2million cells. The specs of the machine i'm looking at are:

2 x 6 core processors (intel xeon 2.66GHz)
16Gb ram
2 x 1Tb hard drive
1Gb nVidia graphics card

Will these specifications be sufficient? I have a budget of $8,500AUD, which this machine just falls under. Am I better off reducing the number of cores and increasing ram? Any other suggestions?

Thanks for your time,
Alan ]]> Hardware Alan http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79730-server-run-fluent-simulations.html Linux+CFD: is 64bit really a need? http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79477-linux-cfd-64bit-really-need.html Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:14:18 GMT Ok, I know this may sound trivial as many would immediately think "Of course! 64bit is way faster and more powerful than any 32bit".
Well, I'm most of the time a PCLinuxOS user, it's a very nice system, really fast compared to other 32bit systems (even other Linuxes, although I won't claim it's the fastest), and many complaint there's not a 64bit version. However, I came accross this the other days, and here I quote it:

Quote:
About the 64bit versus 32bit.
I know there differences and I do use 64 bit a lot because of speedy blender renderers. Now let me tell you a fact that actually made me feel stunned.
I have a scene on blender that renders with 1:28 on 64 bits and takes 2:05 to render on 32 bits... This concerns Gentoo, Ubuntu, Mandriva, Fedora, Opensuse... I've tried them all.
Here is the amazing fact... PCLinuxOS 2010 is a 32 bit linux but the did something with the kernel and gcc (it's not only the bfs... I tried it)... PCLinuxOS 32bit renders that scene in 1:15... this is faster then a Gentoo 64 bit with all the custom USE and CFLAGS to help me out.

PCLinuxOS remade linux and set 64bit performace down to it's own feet.
The user doesn't specify his hardware, but anyway, renders are not a piece of cake. Now, in Linux you can use pae kernels which extend the maximum RAM for 32bit systems to 64GB instead of 4GB. My question is then, how convenient is it to use a 64bit system instead of a 32bit? Let's pick the following cases to compare, with the only restrictions of equal CPU clockrate, same amount of RAM above 4GB and same Linux distro in 32bit and 64bit versions:

1) 32bit Processor, 32bit Linux distro with PAE Kernel, software optimized for 32bit.
2) 64bit Processor, 32bit Linux distro with PAE Kernel, software optimized for 32bit.
3) 64bit Processor, 64bit Linux distro, software optimized for 64bit.

Let's suppose also that we are talking of a single desktop machine, budget irrestricted, to work at home, no clusters or similar high-end stations.

Which of these options would have the best performance? Which one of these options would be the one with highest performance/cost ratio?

Naturally I omitted other conditions, so when answering feel free to asume the circumstances. If other UNIX based systems have the possibility of using a PAE Kernel, you can mention them, I simply mentioned Linux because it's what I best know (Windows doesn't have PAE, so don't bother in mentioning it :D). ]]> Hardware CAVT http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79477-linux-cfd-64bit-really-need.html Desktop for Combustion Modelling using Fluent http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79336-desktop-combustion-modelling-using-fluent.html Fri, 20 Aug 2010 09:20:37 GMT I'm starting an MSc project and have funding of around $4000 to purchase a PC, to serve as my workstation and to run simulations. I'm going to be doing 3D simulations of small gas turbine combustion. So it should be steady state, with turbulence and combustion.

I've read some of the other posts in the forum, but i'm struggling to make sense of them. Also the price ranges seem to be either below or above where i'm looking.

So a few questions:
  1. What are the key elements that affect speed, I assume Processor, Mother board and Ram.
  2. Processors, so far intel i-7 and Xenon seem popular, but which model? Should I focus on Clock speed, number or cores/threads or cache?
  3. Ram, should i consider any characteristic other than just capacity and bus speed. How important is a high bus speed?
  4. Motherboard, anything specific to look out for.
In general I'm more interested in knowing what I need to look out for, not necessarily exact product numbers.

Thanks in advance ]]> Hardware JamesZA http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79336-desktop-combustion-modelling-using-fluent.html 6core AMD 1090T or 4core core i7 930 or i7 870 for Fluent? http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79243-6core-amd-1090t-4core-core-i7-930-i7-870-fluent.html Tue, 17 Aug 2010 22:17:26 GMT I am PhD researcher in the process of buying a new computer for Fluent. What is the performance comparison between the Thuban architecture and... I am PhD researcher in the process of buying a new computer for Fluent.

What is the performance comparison between the Thuban architecture and Nehalem. With all the benchmarks it looks like the quadcore Nehalems with their 3 channel memory will be faster than hexacore Thubans with dual channel memory. In some bechmarks even the dual channel i7 870 seems to beat the thuban. Is this true?

Has anyone done any comparisons to compare Thuban vs Nehalem 1366 vs Nehalem 1156?
I intend to overclock them to 3.6 Ghz with 4 or 6 GB memory correspondingly.

I feel I could buy 2 Thuban systems for the price of one 1366 Nehalem system.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks. ]]> Hardware gsg001 http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79243-6core-amd-1090t-4core-core-i7-930-i7-870-fluent.html Hardware required to model sediment dynamics in rivers using SSIIM http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79106-hardware-required-model-sediment-dynamics-rivers-using-ssiim.html Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:18:34 GMT Hello

I'm relatively new to CFD, and I have a limited knowledge of hardware requirements. I want to model sediment movement in rivers (i.e. transient modeling of big systems) using SSIIM (CFD software that does just this), but I have NO idea what hardware I'm going to need to do this!

Can anyone give me some advice? Preferably someone who uses SSIIM?

I wait in anticipation :D

Lindsay ]]> Hardware lindsaywestraadt http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79106-hardware-required-model-sediment-dynamics-rivers-using-ssiim.html Dell T7500 greyhound or donkey? http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79089-dell-t7500-greyhound-donkey.html Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:22:27 GMT Has anyone else got experience with this particular workstation? Despite having 12G RAM and a Xeon X5570, the performance isn't that great. I'm not interested in CPU benchmarks but in real world performance. Opening even moderate sized CFX models takes an age. Older machines in the office are quicker.

Does anyone know of any tweaks to improve the I/O performance? ]]> Hardware XyraWarriorPrincess http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79089-dell-t7500-greyhound-donkey.html File System opportunity from China http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79085-file-system-opportunity-china.html Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:38:23 GMT Hello everybody,
I'm a headhunter from China, now I'm searching a file system development expert for a multinational company, one of Top 500. some requirements are as below:

- At least 5+ years working experiences
- Deep understanding and real experiences on File System development
- Deep understanding on Linux/UNIX Kernel
- Excellent C/C++ skills
- Multi-thread programming skills
- Strong self-motivated
- Quick learner

If you want to know more details, please reach me by sealinjin@haxinternational.com. Thanks.
]]> Hardware HAX http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79085-file-system-opportunity-china.html looking for a server http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79060-looking-server.html Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:54:06 GMT Dear all, Would you please recommend a computer cluster with 48 - 64 CPU, about/more than 64 GB RAM, and Windows based operating system. It will be... Dear all,
Would you please recommend a computer cluster with 48 - 64 CPU, about/more than 64 GB RAM, and Windows based operating system.
It will be used for battery simulation in star-CD ? Thanks in advance.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
:cool::cool::cool:
:mad::mad::mad: ]]> Hardware UT_YANG http://www.cfd-online.com/Forums/hardware/79060-looking-server.html