We are always looking for a hardware deal with pc Gamer, but this may be a bit more than even our standard. The U.S. General Service Bureau is currently auctioning off the decommissioned 5.34 Petaflop supercomputer, with a starting price of just 2 2,500, while the top bid is now 2 280,085. Bargain, we think you agree, but it comes with a strange problem.

The Cheyenne Supercomputer was initially operated at the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center from 2017/1 to 2023/12 and was ranked as the 20th most powerful computer in the world (via Ars Technica) at the time of installation.

Many satellites may have passed since then, but according to Wikipedia, it is still counted as the 11th most powerful as of May 160 last year, so the specs by modern standards are just 8,064 Intel Xeon E5-2697v4cpus, with 18 cores, 3.6GHz turbo frequency and 145W TDP, respectively. This is combined with a total of 313,344 GB of DDR4-2400RAM with a total of 145,152 cores. However, in this list, in 7 years of operation, "about 1% of nodes experienced failures.".."

There are also some other small factors to consider. For start-up, it doesn't come with fiber optic or CAT5/6 cabling, which may significantly add up to an additional cost if you decide to pull the trigger. The list also warns:

"Moving this system requires the involvement of a professional moving company. Due to its considerable weight, the rack requires an experienced mover equipped with proper professional protector (PPE) to ensure safe handling. The buyer is responsible for transferring the rack from the facility to the truck using the equipment."

It seems a bit overkill when you ask me, but once it's all over, I'm sure your buddies will help with the beer and pizza promise. The water cooling system also appears to have been dismantled and had some problems, the listing states, "The system is now due to a faulty quick disconnect that causes water sprays that are included in the sale but will add up to about 10 gallons per E-cell, along with the PGW coolant being used." 

Given that there are 14 of them—weighing 1,500 pounds each—that's 140 gallons of coolant you're expected to shift over the supercomputer unit itself, so if you're planning to give your professional moving team a helping hand, I'd recommend moving. It is recommended to eat a hearty breakfast on the day. Not only that, it will require a considerable power connection. It is estimated that in its original role crunching data for advanced atmospheric and earth science studies, it used about 1.7 megawatts of power. This is true, I'm still interested in your electricity provider

in advance just to make sure you don't plunge the surrounding area into darkness on the first launch."Well, the auction closes today at 6:11 p.m. Central Time, so if you're thinking of making an offer, check out your schedule." You need to get the latest version of the app. I threw it to the PC Gamer hardware team as a potential equipment purchase, but the consensus is that it might fit in our office, but we boo