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How to Build a Cheap Super Computer

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How to Build a Cheap Super Computer

Here’s how to build a cheap super computer using Raspberry Pi’s – When you think about building your own rig, you probably think of setting up a crazy ass gaming computer or creating a computer on a budget to get the best possible components for the least amount of money. You’re almost certainly not considering putting together a supercomputer. Maybe you should. making a cluster large enough to be classed as a super computer using Raspberry Pi’s (RPi) can be done for less than $1,000.

Raspberry Pi is a single-board Linux-powered computer. They’re powered by 700MHz ARM11-processors and include a Videocore IV GPU. The Model B+ comes with 512MBs of RAM, four USB ports and a 10/100 BaseT Ethernet port. The processors can be overclocked to 1GHz.

Here is the first video showing you how to put together a small cluster of raspberry pi’s

The second video shows you how to load the software required for the Pi

This final video demonstrates how awesome it can be when 32 Pi’s are connected together

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16 comments

Doug Penhall March 23, 2015 - 8:46 am

It may not be fast, but it’s an awesome platform for algorithm development. You can develop, debug, and test your algorithm on this at home, then after it works, it should run unmodified on a similar Beowolf cluster made of faster/more powerful computers in a data center.

Landon March 22, 2015 - 11:32 am

This is just awesome why is everyone comparing this a game machine etc. it has no graphics card but it has other capabilities that are just awesome.

proxy March 21, 2015 - 7:37 pm

How can they call this a super computer when it cant even enhance or run even a little bit power-full than your average looking phone please.

Robson Silva March 21, 2015 - 6:31 pm

That is beautiful I will build a cluster for me also soon…
thanks for all this wonderful videos and info

Anonymous January 25, 2015 - 4:59 pm

What about any benchmark results? How does this perform compared to a rack mount server?

Rack January 22, 2015 - 3:40 pm

Why do you call this a supercomputer?

Danny January 22, 2015 - 6:44 am

Could something like this be used a little render farm? How do you think it’d perform?

Matthew Lynn December 31, 2014 - 2:34 pm

I really love the design and idea of the work! I’m curious how this setup would perform on video games and design scenarios. Can windows be loaded onto Linux to complete these tasks?

Angel Perez December 31, 2014 - 4:47 am

Hi there! What kind of simmulations are you doing? I’m guessing that you are solving systems of equations. If so, how many equations are you solving. Also how much money did you expend?

Marco December 30, 2014 - 3:18 pm

How would you compare this low cost solution with a computer builded with the same characteristics? Would this be more powerful because of its scalability, or less powerful because of the latency of switch and ethernet communications? What would the Flops/price ratio?

connor December 29, 2014 - 11:10 pm

if its so cheap and powerful, why isnt this what your standard alienware looks like and why doesnt everyone have one

Alex December 30, 2014 - 12:41 am

Because the purpose of a super computer is not the same purpose of your high-end consumer model.

Anonymous January 21, 2015 - 1:14 pm

Its not for gaming or hosting games etc. This probably doesn’t even have a graphics card as it’s irrelevant. Its not something you’d use for a daily or even weekly driver. Realistically it’d be used for mining, storing, and solving. 512mb of ram is less then any phone on the market

Daem0n December 29, 2014 - 8:10 pm

What os can run on this machine? Is Windows good with this?

7h3 Wh173 R4bb17 December 29, 2014 - 11:01 pm

Something like Arch Linux is the best

Anonymous January 21, 2015 - 1:15 pm

No, there’s no graphics card. Putty terminals all day. Any knock of Linux really. Kali, Ubuntu, redhat etc.

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