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1. a 4gb drive as a mimimum spec for compute nodes ? (we do it with 300 mb )

2. loading x-win onto compute nodes. why?

3. what he recommends as minimum spec exceeds donated equip ( for example I have over 300 pentium class machines none of which have a 4gb hdd. The avg is 1.6 gb) now these machines according to your book all need new hd's.)
we have been running these machines for 6 months.

4. The author states " some people recommend a minimalist approach to building hardware in a cluster." For the next version of this book please hire them.

As such I must state that this one is off target for your average cluster builder and way off for home hobby use.

To make it simple This book does not tell people how beowulfs are made in the real world only in large budget enviroments