The General Services Administration (GSA) is currently auctioning off a decommissioned supercomputer with 8064 Intel Xeon chips capable of 5.34 Petaflops. Despite an initial price of only $2500, bids have already exceeded $280k.
The Cheyenne supercomputer operated from January 2017 to December 2023 at the NCAR-Wyoming supercomputing center and was the 20th most powerful computer in the world at the time of its introduction. According to Wikipedia, it was still the 160th most powerful as of November of last year.
The computer features 8064 Intel Xeon E5-2697v4 processors with 18 cores each, running at speeds up to 3.6 GHz and TDP of 145W. In total, 145,152 computing cores are paired with 313,344 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM. However, GSA warns that over 7 years of operation "approximately 1% of nodes have failed ... mostly due to faulty ECC DIMM modules that remain unrepaired."
There are several other minor factors to consider as well. Firstly, it does not come with fiber optic or CAT5/6 cables, which could lead to additional costs. Auction organizers also caution about transportation safety:
"Moving this system requires professional transportation services. Due to the significant weight of the racks, experienced loaders equipped with proper professional protective equipment are required to ensure safe handling. The buyer is responsible for transferring the racks from the premises to trucks using their equipment."
The water cooling system has also been removed from the computer due to some issues "with faulty quick disconnects causing water splashes." However, it comes with some used PGW coolant. Therefore, repair is needed to get the supercomputer operational, as well as additional space for the cooling system due to its significant volumes.
Source: PC Gamer
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