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I was confounded by a big problem in building the supercomputer: getting a case.  I need something that’ll accomodate two mobos which requires a very big case.  The only ones I could find were these giant gaudy cases from the 90s with clear sides that’ll make the UV coolant even more obvious.  This is going to go in a lab so I tried to find something as toned down as possible.

Project Coordinator: That’s a pretty boring case.
Me: Isn’t that good it’s going to be in a lab.
Project Coordinator: If we’re going to spend x for a computer, we should get something that looks good.  How about something a little more… imposing.
Me: Imposing?
Project Coordinator: Yes, something with presence.
Me: Presence?
Project Coordinator:  Yeah, find something with a more striking case and maybe a sleek appearance.  Something nice.

Great… I wanted to build a Mercedes C Class he chose an Escalade.  I got the Escalade now he wants phat spinnin’ rims.  Maybe I can talk to the guys in rapid prototyping but I doubt AutoCAD or SolidWorks has a well developed bling plugin or a “pimp my parametrically defined subassembly” option.  One can hope.

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I was asked an odd question today at work, “Terry, can you help us buy a supercomputer”.  Not sure if they were looking at a high-end workstation or Beowulf cluster  I nodded my head yes knowing that even if I failed they probably wouldn’t notice and I started checking our preferred vendors for supercomputers which were somewhat pathetic for the budget range I was given so I offered to build one.  I was told I could if I asked the project coordinator.

I talked with the coordinator and did a needs inventory and found that a dual or quad CPU would do best and rounded out the interview with “anything else you want the box to do?”

His reply: Water cooling.
Me: Really?
Him:  Preferably something with tubes.  I can’t stand most computer fans and I need this sucker to be quiet or I’m going to go nuts with it in the lab.

I did some checking and the best multi-CPU system uses a UV reactive fluid, the lab that’ll house this unit uses full spectrum lighting with UV filters to stop mold.  This think is going to look like Paul Bunyon’s glow stick.   I found a way to get out of scanning… I just had to sacrifice my sense of tact.

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My boss asked me about modern graphics cards for a bit and we talked about how GPUs and CPUs had diverged and what way each is optimized for.  He asked me to look into nVidia’s entry-level supercomputers and I reported to him.  He said there’s a possibility we’d get one to speed up rendering drawings and asked if I could help set it up and test it.

Dear God, please make this happen before I leave.  If we get this, and I can test our supercomputer with a Folding@Home install, I will get soooo many F@H points I could finally cash them all in and get that Red Rider BB gun, and with 4 cards with 240 streaming cores each, I might finally get more than 24 FPS in Crysis.