[bschlinker]

Interesting that the author chose to use a Kill-a-Watt for power consumption monitoring.. seems like a better idea to use the planning applications available from the major vendors to determine usage depending on workload, etc. Dell and HP both have a calculator where you set the system (RAM, CPU, # HDs, etc.) and the load and it will provide you with an approximate power use, along with a peak load.

[ajdecon]

The calculator is useful for approximations, but I've been bitten a few times. The only real way to know, as always, is to measure it.

The Dell/HP salesmen are worse, if you try to talk about power, especially if you do HPC. They will often flat-out refuse to believe that you're going to take 100 servers, stuff GPUs and all the RAM you can find in them, and run them at 100% for years on end.

[ConstantineXVI]

The best way to know how much your system consumes under load would be to monitor it's usage under load, no? Seems foolish to take the chance their calculator is off vs. taking the time to measure it yourself.

[gilrain]

IIRC from earlier blog posts, Maciej built at least a few of his servers by hand. I imagine he got sucked into the "beautiful details" he mentions needing to resist in this one. (I think he's also mentioned he's having them built for him, now, but I believe they're still not from major vendors.)