Well, I’ve just gotten started on a project that has been on the backburner for a long time.  I’ve wanted to make a Linux cluster for quite a while.  I attempted one a couple years ago, but due to the size and noise it wasn’t very feasable to keep up and running.  This time around I’m looking at something more permanent.  A couple months ago I ran accross a Dell Poweredge 1650 on an auction.  This had all the things I was looking for in a cluster node.  Low cost due to it’s age, dual processors (P3 in the 1.2-1.4ghz range), plenty of ram and dual Gigabit ethernet adapters onboard.  After watching a while on ebay, I’ve now filled out the remainder of my machines.  Each is configured a bit differently, but I’m up to 4 1u servers.  I loaded Ubuntu feisty on the first node, set up syslinux, dhcpd and nfs, and got the network booting rolling.  I’m currently testing build times of the linux kernel with distcc.  This gives the machines a good workout.  I’ll be posting later a series of howto articles for setting up the parts of this system.  For the time being, I’ve constructed a complicated space heater for my basement!