Rasberry pi vs old computers as supercomputer

[winther_83]

I have been thinking about building a supercomputer for some machine learning.

the question is I have several older computers ranging from amd 64 to intel core-duo about 4-5 of them. and maybe 2-3 older graphics cards. especially if I add SSD disks to reduce the bottleneck between cpu and drive.

would they be better as a supercomputer than a stack of rasberry pi computers? or what would you recommend?

 

[CountMike]

A "supercomputer" from those systems ????

 

[winther_83]

Well the more Correct term would be Cluster computer, but combining several older computers would increase the core count and probably be better at mathematical computation than a normal stationary computer.

I'm not making a gaming computer here.

 

[yeti_yeti]

Well the more Correct term would be Cluster computer, but combining several older computers would increase the core count and probably be better at mathematical computation than a normal stationary computer.

I'm not making a gaming computer here.

I think any ordinary desktop computer from 2018 will be better at mathematical computation than stacks of raspberry pi's or combined computers from 2002.

 

[winther_83]

Well the more Correct term would be Cluster computer, but combining several older computers would increase the core count and probably be better at mathematical computation than a normal stationary computer.

I'm not making a gaming computer here.

I think any ordinary desktop computer from 2018 will be better at mathematical computation than stacks of raspberry pi's or combined computers from 2002.

Well the oldest is from 2005. the others are probably from around 2010- 2013 so 4 of them should be a bit closer to modern desktop.

 

[USAFRet]

Well the more Correct term would be Cluster computer, but combining several older computers would increase the core count and probably be better at mathematical computation than a normal stationary computer.

I'm not making a gaming computer here.

You'd need specific software to properly utilize multiple Pi's. Or a cluster of PC's.

 

[winther_83]

Well the oldest is from 2005. the others are probably from around 2010- 2013 so 4 of them should be a bit closer to modern desktop.

 

[winther_83]

Well the more Correct term would be Cluster computer, but combining several older computers would increase the core count and probably be better at mathematical computation than a normal stationary computer.

I'm not making a gaming computer here.

You'd need specific software to properly utilize multiple Pi's. Or a cluster of PC's.

I'm fully aware that I need software using the a Linux distro as a base (probably arch) is my plan then just build it up from there since I have no real need for a GUI so the command prompt is sufficient and saves processing. and is i want to SSH I will pretty much only see the command prompt anyway. haven't looked op the specifiks of the software yet but that is a minor detail atm.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm fully aware that I need software using the a Linux distro as a base (probably arch) is my plan then just build it up from there since I have no real need for a GUI so the command prompt is sufficient and saves processing. and is i want to SSH I will pretty much only see the command prompt anyway. haven't looked op the specifiks of the software yet but that is a minor detail atm.

Well then...if you've already got the hardware, build it!

I'd actually be interested to see the results, and how the performance is.