Hello, All.

[DuchTir]

I have several OLD systems (The newest is an AMD K-6-2, 350 MHz processor) which I am trying to link together in a single case, as 3 or 4 independent motherboards conjoined into one to up the processing power & MAYBE get a GHz of speed out of them together. Wondering if it will work. I have heard about the Beowulf Cluster & wonder if anyone might have information on it. I'm trying to make a semi-dedicated server/gaming machine out of old scrap components. I have ample cooling fans & several motherboard (CPU) cooling fans. Most of the other processors I have range from a 75 MHz Pentium to a pair of Socket 3 AMD X-5 133 MHz processors. (We were given a bunch of old computers & decided to strip them.) I have between 8 or 9 old hard drives, about 8 GB. We also have an old Gateway board with a Celeron 500-some MHz processor, but the board's onboard video is blown & there are only 2 PCI slots. I could post a more descriptive list of components if it would help.
Does anyone know how to make old scrap technology work together & talk as ONE machine?
Give me a yell.
Blessings & peace, & Thank You!
-Jim.

 

[raybay]

Hi There, DuchTir. Welcome to TechSpot. We hope to learn a lot from you. Be sure to visit and post often.
Make time to visit our stickies and read all the information for new members. there is a lot to know, and reading up on what is already available will help you a lot as time moves on.
You will soon get a helpful message from one of the moderators or other guru's of this forum. But you can post or make queries in the meantime.

 

[DuchTir]

Thank you, Raybay. I was looking for some information & stumbled across your site. I'll reccomend it to some friends.
-Jim.

 

[Tedster]

There used to a forum on techspot just for this type of question. It was called the distributed computing forum, but few people used it other than BOINC users, seti-at-home, folding-at-home, etc. users.

I'm not an expert on this subject at all, but I am sure this probably could be done.

 

[Justin]

I have several OLD systems (The newest is an AMD K-6-2, 350 MHz processor) which I am trying to link together in a single case, as 3 or 4 independent motherboards conjoined into one to up the processing power & MAYBE get a GHz of speed out of them together. Wondering if it will work. I have heard about the Beowulf Cluster & wonder if anyone might have information on it. I'm trying to make a semi-dedicated server/gaming machine out of old scrap components. I have ample cooling fans & several motherboard (CPU) cooling fans. Most of the other processors I have range from a 75 MHz Pentium to a pair of Socket 3 AMD X-5 133 MHz processors. (We were given a bunch of old computers & decided to strip them.) I have between 8 or 9 old hard drives, about 8 GB. We also have an old Gateway board with a Celeron 500-some MHz processor, but the board's onboard video is blown & there are only 2 PCI slots. I could post a more descriptive list of components if it would help.
Does anyone know how to make old scrap technology work together & talk as ONE machine?
Give me a yell.
Blessings & peace, & Thank You!
-Jim.

Short answer is you can make them work as one machine

Long answer is it won't do what you want it to do, and here's why:


I understand what you are trying to accomplish, but what you are suggesting is not possible. While it is true you can put many machines together to accomplish certain tasks faster, you cannot "combine" multiple machines to create a more powerful gaming rig. It simply does not work that way.

Distributed computing is primarily used to help in the areas of CAD, software compiling, distributing load, creating redundancy or other types of processing that require vast amounts of CPU and memory (video processing, audio processing, intensive math applications, et cetera). However, each individual node is still limited to its own peak potential - games on a local machine cannot make use of hardware on remote machines for acceleration. The speed of a network connection is literally millions of times slower than the connection between your CPU and video card or your CPU and RAM.