Question 1

What does this system actually include? Do we have to buy processors and memory separately?

Accepted Answer

Yes you do.  However, it is actually 8 servers.  See my newegg review.  (perfect infrastructure server).  You will have to acquire memory, processors and disk.  I do performance testing so I max out these items when I build servers.  This will support the Xeon E3 V2 (I like the 1230V2 myself as a good price/performance break or an I3 (Socket LGA1155).  I think the 1230V2 is a better choice for this platform.  Don't get the V3 processors as they have an integrated Video processor which A) eats up more power and b) is more expensive for the same processing power.  I used Kingston 8GB ECC server ram (you might be able to get away with the desktop memory since the board doesn't appear to support ECC for UDIMM, which will cut your memory cost by $100/node, however I can't verify that this option will work), and 2 SSD drives (1, around 80GB and 1 a TB) at a cost of about $1300 to populate the 2 nodes I am currently using.  So for 8 nodes, this comes to $10400 to populate the entire server.  Which is about the cost of 2 or 3 similarly equipped Dell or HP servers.  Which will eat more power.

Question 2

Do all 8 nodes have to be populated for operation?

Accepted Answer

No, you can have just 1 blade running and the rest turned off.

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