[SGVLUG] questions about linux clusters

[jmd]

i am building a linux cluster for fun/home use. not for any sort of  
production. has anyone worked with them?

ibm eseries servers are available quite cheap these days. PIII 1ghz  
512MB etc. along the way i fell into a really nice asus motherboard  
with dual 1.7ghz xeons (capable of 3.6ghz).

the book i am reading about clusters seems to suggest that the only  
problem i may encounter is when hardware varies and disk images must  
be created for various hardware in each node. i plan on using rocks  
for the OS which requires a disk image on each node.

so my question is, will the disparity of the systems speed become a  
problem if i use the faster dual xeons as a head node.  i realize  
this will depend in part on the given application. since this is a  
learning experience, obtaining another eseries that matches the other  
2 and skipping the faster board is ok with me.

at present my hardware is simple: 2 dual cpu ibm x330 servers and  
possibly the asus dual cpu xeon. hard disks are 160 scsi, and  
ethernet is 10/100.

jeff