How to build a Super computer.

[beamthegreat]

Hi,
 
Im just wondering if its possible to make a home-made super (gaming) computer . If yes, how much money do you think I will need to make one? But based on what I know, a super computer is just a bunch of normal pc computer linked together so if Im correct, it shouldnt be that hard. 
 
Btw, if I bought 10 3 ghz core2dual cpu and connect them together, will my computer run at 30 Gigahertz per second?
 
Thanks.

 

[Currawong]

Google "Beowulf cluster".  Not for gaming though, but it is a DIY supercomputer method.
 
To get the best results out of multiple CPUs, you need a VERY high speed interface between them, ideally, which will cost a lot of money.  However, for gaming, the main computation is the graphics, which is why you have graphics cards that can be linked together to double the performance.

 

[JSTpt1022]

Quote:

 
Btw, if I bought 10 3 ghz core2dual cpu and connect them together, will my computer run at 30 Gigahertz per second?
 

No. Parallel computing isn't about raw speed it's about doing multiple processes simultaneously. You would have 10 processors with 2 cores each running at 3 GHz, which is almost like 20 parallel processors at 3 GHz. The thing is, it takes specialized programming to take advantage of that.
 
Besides, get yourself an i7, uber gigs of memory and triple sli and you have yesterday's supercomputer in one box anyway.

 

[TheAwesomesauceShow]

I think I've seen on youtube a company made a cluster of ion micro atx into a large mobo(can't remember if it is an actually e-atx mobo). I also have seen a fast computer using a bunch of SSDs in raid mode and brought up photoshop program in mere seconds.  It is possible. AMD has released a six core processor and put that in an excellent mobo and buy 3 5870 gpu or 3 gtx480.

 

[NapalmK]

Ah I was going to do this last summer but all of the methods I found (Beowolf, and some others I can't remember) ended up being pretty much useless. At most I would have been able to open applications faster or contribute to scientific research so the idea kinda fell through.

 

[demoNMaCHiN3]

cluster of ps3s:
http://www.ps3cluster.umassd.edu/index.html
 
just make sure you don't use the latest firmware which removes the capability of using linux

 

[stewtheking]

Interesting graphic on BBC news about supercomputers today, using treemaps.
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/10187248.stm
 
Not the most relevant to the thread, interesting none the less.

 

[appletree]

Just found this thread and I am wondering why none explicitly said that having supercomputer cluster as a gaming rig is useless (unless maybe the game you are interested in is computer chess). There are just few games that can fully utilize four cores, to have 20+ cores even on one chip (not clustered) would be completely useless. What you really need is to get CPU with cores that can do as many instructions per clock with highest clocks possible. That means buy Intel i7 quad or intel hexacore + watercooling and overclock to the maximum possible. There are already few games out there that can use hexacores and soon new ones will come in upcoming months/years so the hexacore is more future proof if money is no concern. Yet majority of games today requires more GPU than CPU power so higly overclocked i7 + tripple way SLI / CrossFire all watercooled and overclocked + fast SSD for faster games loading would be the best "supercomputer" you can get for gaming.

 

[MomijiTMO]

If you knew the OP, then you would know why no one bothered.

 

[Mushrooshi]

Quote:

Hi,
 
Im just wondering if its possible to make a home-made super (gaming) computer . If yes, how much money do you think I will need to make one? But based on what I know, a super computer is just a bunch of normal pc computer linked together so if Im correct, it shouldnt be that hard. 
 
Btw, if I bought 10 3 ghz core2dual cpu and connect them together, will my computer run at 30 Gigahertz per second?
 
Thanks.

 
I'd go to Overclock.net for this, the Head-fi of Computers
 
(btw, I made a thread on overclock.net about how Head-Fi is the overclock.net of audio )

 

[appletree]

Quote:

If you knew the OP, then you would know why no one bothered.

Was he trolling or something ? If someone asked this on overclock.net I would consider it to be a rather good trolling attempt

(not so sure if similar "uneducated" post on head-fi is meant to be serious or not)

 

[Mushrooshi]

Oh, I decided to actually read the full post.
 
Cluster computing is more than possible, its been done several times (On my college campus tours, I saw a cluster of like 26 computers running), but its really not meant for gaming at all, just hardcore things like folding, rendering, computing scientific data, etc.
 
Oh, and OCN would also believe it is a troll attempt.
 
edit: My system is
 
 

[size=xx-small]CPU i7 920 d0 @ 4.02GHz[/size]	[size=xx-small]Motherboard Asus P6T SE[/size]	[size=xx-small]Memory 6GB 1600 DDR3 OCZ[/size]	[size=xx-small]Graphics Card HIS Radeon HD 4890[/size]
[size=xx-small]Hard Drive WD Caviar Black 640gb[/size]	[size=xx-small]Sound Card Onboard[/size]	[size=xx-small]Power Supply 850W Corsair TX[/size]	[size=xx-small]Case Pretty Well Modded CM 690[/size]
[size=xx-small]CPU cooling Scythe Mugen 2 Push/Pull (2x Slipstreams)[/size]	[size=xx-small]GPU cooling Stock[/size]	[size=xx-small]OS Windows 7/OS X[/size]	[size=xx-small]Monitor Samsung Syncmaster T260HD[/size]