The Japanese government estimates the Earth Simulator cost $400,000,000, making it the most expensive computer ever built. The budget for the Earth Simulator project was authorized for the National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA) and the Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corporation (PNC) in 1997, and NEC Corporation made the winning bid for the Japanese project.

Earth_Simulator

By May 2002, the 640 processor node supercomputer was benchmarked with Linpack as having 35.86 TFlop/s performance. This gave it the top spot on the TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list until 2004 when IBM’s BlueGene/L supercomputer took its place using an architecture that cost less than half as much to implement.

Each processor node in the Earth Simulator contains 8 vector processors running at 500MHz with 16GB of shared memory, and the total main memory in the machine is 10 terabytes. The operating system running on the supercomputer is NEC’s UNIX-based OS called “SUPER-UX” which is used on NEC’s SX Series of supercomputers.

This expensive computer is used for a wide variety of international projects, most of which are related to atmospheric, climate, and oceanographic simulation.

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{ 137 comments… read them below or add one }

Church and Tucker February 1, 2007 at 12:48 pm

you could create the Matrix

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vinny February 27, 2007 at 1:20 pm

you can take the green pill and go back to fairy land or take the red and devl deeper into the rabbit hole

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wrong February 27, 2007 at 9:55 pm

actually the pills were blue and red, not green and red.

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Ajith March 7, 2007 at 3:06 pm

I could buy that.

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Yearight March 9, 2007 at 2:31 pm

Yeah right, you wish you could buy it… -.^

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XSkildpaddenX March 13, 2007 at 2:09 pm

“-the total main memory in the machine is 10 terabytes.” No loading time in games… COOOL!!! must own:P

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bob March 13, 2007 at 8:49 pm

u wish u could buy that u poor person hahaha matrix nerd.

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WoW! March 14, 2007 at 9:42 am

ZOMG! Spend less money!

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Haris March 20, 2007 at 1:29 am

I wish I had one of those :)

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dippydo March 22, 2007 at 11:03 am

umm….will it run WOW?

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EssRocks April 16, 2007 at 7:17 am

im sure it would. my computer at home runs it lol.

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mikey April 26, 2007 at 4:57 am

thats pocket money

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John Daly April 26, 2007 at 5:14 am

does it come with a taylor made r7 425

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Catman May 6, 2007 at 8:40 pm

and like… then we decided to give it all like, you know wicked flames and stuff… cept we wanted it to look all cools an barneywell he was keepin it real i `spose :P lol.

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Dakes May 9, 2007 at 3:54 pm

Still doesn’t run STALKER with full AA though…

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steve chen May 10, 2007 at 1:08 pm

that is pocket money i have that in my pocket right now so i went an got them so does anybody want one for 1000 dallers

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Computer Knowitall May 14, 2007 at 7:06 am

Overall, one has summarized that your personal computer system includes above mediocre system performance, very impressive dear chaps

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Pentium 1 May 14, 2007 at 7:13 am

I have used the same computer system for years, (Amstrad 92)and it still has state of the art performance that could be a serious rival of the Earth simulator, I would maybe consider swapping my Amstrad 92 for the Earth simulator!

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stefan June 5, 2007 at 4:35 am

I need to ask someone who knows: does this computer run win95 normally? ;)

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Jack June 21, 2007 at 11:15 pm

10 terabytes isnt that amazaing when Aleinware is offering a 4 tetrabyte fully loaded gaming pc for 5 grand.

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Crysis June 22, 2007 at 3:01 am

Hmmm.. It might even be able to play Crysis without lagging

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stevo June 25, 2007 at 7:57 am

i wonder if that thing has the internet on it?

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brat July 7, 2007 at 6:22 am

Think It’ll run Doom?

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deniz July 15, 2007 at 10:05 pm

lol lets hack it =D!

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Name (required) August 9, 2007 at 11:35 pm

I can afford it, but I shall only purchase it if it will run on AAA batteries.

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~BaDd_BoY~ August 11, 2007 at 12:56 am

it will destroy doom!!! not just run it

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Oscar Zuleta August 11, 2007 at 1:01 am

Its too much of a computer. all you need is a nvidia sli,2gb ramn,maibe 2 terrabytes hardrive, core 2 extreme, 3 ghz and its costs $5000….Much less than that. by the way, its an

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Eurybia August 25, 2007 at 11:40 am

@Jack

Dude, that’s 10 terabytes of RAM, not HDD space…if Alienware is indeed offering 4 Tera’s of RAM for $5,000 then I think someone made a wee bit of a mistake!

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Henry Ovansa September 12, 2007 at 8:54 am

Under what classification can this 10 terabyte computer be?

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Woody September 13, 2007 at 5:34 pm

dude 10 tb of ram total with each node having 16gb of ram thats over 600 nodes thats one hell of a electric bill.

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Dan2002sk8er October 16, 2007 at 12:08 am

The specs on this computer might be impressive they could have saved a lot of money and bought 17 PS3s that would be 34 tera-flops processing power. I don’t think they would miss the 1.86tf. and it would only cost $8,483 that is a far way away from $400,000,000. so this doesn’t impress me.

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albert December 24, 2007 at 6:45 am

Finally, a machine that can actually run Crysis with full sliders and highest resolution. lolz.

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JowMa'ammy May 6, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Wow. Lol. Thats useless! Go get a few Xbox360s and Ps3s for god sake!

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JMD June 6, 2008 at 12:05 pm

Wow…..great system…. i sure hope its not operating with microsoft vista…hahaha

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ragain June 23, 2008 at 12:27 pm

To people like Jack,

they are talking about 10terabytes of proccessing speed of information at one time.

the alienware is how much it can hold on the harddrive at one time.

Two complete different things.

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ragain June 23, 2008 at 12:28 pm

Crap, also I forgot this was made back in 2004, we have made quite a few jumps in computer speeds since then.

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matt July 26, 2008 at 6:54 pm

How much do you bet that this computer cant even play crisis lol.

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joe August 18, 2008 at 10:54 am

of corse it cant pley games its not what its made for !)(:

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Jack Schitt November 20, 2008 at 11:01 pm

I’ll bet Bejeweled 2 would run without any lag between levels

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nastyben December 1, 2008 at 2:25 pm

too bad it cant play crysis at full speed though.

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except December 7, 2008 at 10:59 am

It may not be able to play games but it could memorize every game ever made with that much memory. A terabyte is 1000 gigs

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Lolz December 10, 2008 at 12:00 am

LOLZ im reading some of your posts like”I can get something almost as good as that from best buy” or “alienware is selling something like that” and i just have to laugh…do you realy think the people who are making such a powerful machine would really over look the fact that a computer from alienware or whatever is3000000000000000000 dollars cheaper? Its just a thought but i think thiers might be a bit better for that kind of price.

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deepak December 13, 2008 at 1:36 am

keep prepared for most expensive computer i am comming

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connor January 7, 2009 at 3:22 pm

now way back when… a computer was as large as a house, that would run a calculator. now a computer that big will run EVERYTHING!!!

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tomtom January 15, 2009 at 6:09 am

will it play solitare with no lag?

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Dr. Jones January 19, 2009 at 6:38 pm

Im getting my Bathtub ready as we speak, 15 gallons of Liquid Nitrogen should cover the heating aspect of owning one of these suckers!

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John January 25, 2009 at 9:00 pm

hmmmmmnnnn. THis might be a better choice of computer if you would like to recreate the earth…… 3d printer required

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jake January 29, 2009 at 4:23 pm

it would suck if it got a virus

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lol February 2, 2009 at 6:25 am

oh it was made in 2004 … thats y 10 terabytes doesnt seem much for a computer the size of canary wharf … i mean u can get a 1 terrabyte harddrive now for about a hundred quid

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coolkid February 11, 2009 at 9:37 am

idiots…..it doesnt even have a monitor

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Waz February 15, 2009 at 1:05 am

my sick new microbee would smash that

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Zach February 26, 2009 at 9:28 am

wow that’s something, that’s a lot of money. It would suck if it broke though.

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Brandon Alward March 19, 2009 at 9:09 am

will it play halo

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Jay March 28, 2009 at 3:14 pm

Umm, it does not have video card, atleast nobody says it here…

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Bob April 4, 2009 at 1:27 pm

Yeah… Well… I bet it can’t make coffie…

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Ronnie April 12, 2009 at 5:35 pm

Naw it wont play halo it just cost 400,000,000.Brandon,
dude i really hope your joking.

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SJBOSS May 1, 2009 at 8:23 pm

This Computer will make any Alienware Computers look Ancient :D

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Eric May 19, 2009 at 5:06 pm

will it play starcraft?

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helo June 7, 2009 at 9:00 pm

well, all i can say is HOLY @$#1. lol

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Foster June 7, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Can it run Chuck Norris without lagging?

…No. No it can’t.

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Mike June 24, 2009 at 1:23 am

this thing is horrible, 500 mgz!!! are you all retarded? processors today have at least a 1333 mgz fsb and thats just the front side bus. The real speed is like 2-3 ghz and motherboards today can hold up to 32 gigs of ram also the 400,000,000 million dollors does not say anything, it was built in 1997 so its really old and probably really big to. So ya it sucks compared to even the lowest priced alienware comp.

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Mike June 24, 2009 at 1:26 am

my bad it was made in 2004

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Person June 27, 2009 at 8:51 pm

So I was comparing this computer to the Mac Pro…

Mac Pro (as high-tech as it can get) costs $21,810.95. 32 g memory as opposed to 16 (shocker), 4 terrobyte hard drive, Two 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon along with all the software you would ever need and two 30″ displays! Intense. Huh? But seriously, that computer is overpriced even with how good it is.

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donna July 13, 2009 at 7:33 pm

If that PC would make me rich, i would but it:D

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jose July 20, 2009 at 10:17 am

it still cant run crysis lol

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Boogity July 20, 2009 at 7:05 pm

WOW….it would suck if someone plugged this computer into the wall without a surge protector…..lightning storm and: sizzle, sizzle, fry, fry……It would make you want to cry, cry!!!

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joemamabioch July 31, 2009 at 7:18 pm

$400,000,000, only? ill take 3 :)

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streetlordz.tk August 4, 2009 at 10:28 am

ma rig is running slow fro games… and i am lookin for a system in which i can play ma fav game…DAVE ……..

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^^ August 9, 2009 at 2:32 am

will it run super mario?

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NAAB MOSES August 13, 2009 at 3:29 pm

i think it will be good to have them many produced

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Jon August 15, 2009 at 1:53 pm

A terabyte is actually 1024 Gigabytes, not one thousand. That’s a Terabit.

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Muhammad August 20, 2009 at 6:04 am

what the hell…i prefer to buy 300 cars of bugatti veyron.

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braha August 24, 2009 at 2:32 pm

is very chif for eliene , because is primitive for they

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even richer boy August 29, 2009 at 1:44 pm

i could buy 3 dose cheap comps and im going for the record of getting 25 buggatis got 17 already!

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ankur September 1, 2009 at 4:08 am

yar would it run spider

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Jeffrey September 6, 2009 at 7:30 am

Ummmm … I wish I had one of those….

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Ryan September 8, 2009 at 5:25 am

get out more

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kile September 12, 2009 at 4:40 am

I would like to let all those nooblets know, that Crysis is not hard to run at all, back in 2007 when we had 8800′s and 8600′s, thats when it was hard to run, but these days, with the excessivly overpowered 295′s, its shit easy to run.
This Computer looks pretty powerfull, i would like to know what operating system it is running under, a Server Hybrid?
@ John, a Terabit is actually 128 Gigabytes, a bit, is one eight of a byet, so if you have any number with Byte in it, divide it by 8, and you will have the Bit value.

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Nerd September 13, 2009 at 12:44 pm

No it wont run crysis because it has no graphics card.

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NerD September 14, 2009 at 4:34 am

Hmm… who would buy this computer? It probably wouldn’t get sold because so many rich people would want it…

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Kejung Kimsing September 14, 2009 at 7:26 am

Just I guess that the more expensive computer they built, they more virus would attack them. Let them not try to it.

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Super Jesus September 14, 2009 at 8:34 am

YOU CULD TAKE BATH WIT IT!

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Marcel Diallo September 19, 2009 at 2:09 pm

for $400,000,000 it better make coffee

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Marcel Diallo September 19, 2009 at 2:10 pm

man it cud run 1000 crisis without slowing down yep n i cud watch naruto whenever i wanted
haha jk

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alex September 22, 2009 at 10:54 am

hah. what if it broke :o . that would be a shit load of money gone to waste. also, nice comment, matrix nerd.

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john hargett September 22, 2009 at 12:06 pm

that was so cool i want one

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this guy aaron September 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm

The real question is if this thing can eat bacon..

If it cant its not worth it..

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11daviso October 15, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Wow thats the same price as a Starbucks Coffee !!

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Aaron October 23, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Wow if it can eat bacon it is better then my dog hahahah

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Vishal October 29, 2009 at 4:05 am

how expensive it is WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Robert Pattinson October 29, 2009 at 4:08 am

what will hapen if it blasts’s how many years warenty do you give !!!!!!!!!!! ############# %%%%%%%%%%%

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justin November 11, 2009 at 9:43 pm

yall r nerds

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Shadows Fall November 23, 2009 at 5:51 am

do think it could handle the 2D amazingness of Elder Scrolls 1

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matthew November 25, 2009 at 4:12 am

i had one of these but i dropped water on it and it broke.

shame
so i bought 2 more just incase another one breaks
thats 12000000000 i spent.

and no it doesnt play halo i feel cheated. but it does play explore disneyland.

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someone December 1, 2009 at 10:23 am

i tihnk this computer sucks but i can buy it tho

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Jordan December 12, 2009 at 1:49 am

hat computer is useless
to use it you need a program made to use all of the processors
that is why they cost so much
64 bit progrmas amr made to use 2 cpu’s
but if you run a 32 bit progam on a 64 bit computer it will only use one cpu
so it wont go any faster

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moc December 13, 2009 at 12:54 pm

I will stay with my pentium4 i bet that pc is good at the things it is mention but cant be used in counter strike. ^^

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Richie Zola December 25, 2009 at 12:24 am

Only 10 TeraBytes? I was expecting at least 10 PetaBytes, or 1 HetroByte. They sell things for like $150 that give you 1TB of memory. With the money they bought on that, they could of just gotten 1 HB (Hetrobyte, 1000 Petabytes)

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Cocoy December 25, 2009 at 9:48 am

I bet it will run atari..

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niki December 28, 2009 at 8:05 am

I can buy thi becuse 400.000.000 $ are my pocket money for the week ;)

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Luffy January 5, 2010 at 1:41 am

hmmmm……….your just buying that stuff it can ruin ur life guys

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Julian January 7, 2010 at 8:25 pm

wow 400,000,000$ this shows you why you dont buy pre-built computers from Alien Ware haha te hee

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chrisblunt13 January 12, 2010 at 4:06 pm

it sounds awesome!!!!!!!

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chrisblunt13 January 12, 2010 at 4:08 pm

i could at least get 10 easily

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Mark January 14, 2010 at 1:07 am

I just was on dell.com and you can customize a dell server sooooo much that one unit that is 3u form can cost you $500,000 no joke!!!

ok, so, one insane dell server is $500k,… times that by about 800!!! and you get the price of this setup!!
800 dell servers each with 4 intel 6core xeon processors!! that’s 19,200 processors all clocked at 2.66ghz!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pure insanity. ;xb
The electric bill is gona be a big one tho…

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BLA IF F'ed u all January 17, 2010 at 10:35 am

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL MY GRANDPA HAS THAT HE PLAYED WOW WITH -100000k latency

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Tibz February 6, 2010 at 8:54 pm

well i built my comp it has an i5 and a video card that just came out in total it was 1000 and it runs amazing

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Fullmetal99012 February 10, 2010 at 2:37 pm

Wow… not to be rude, but this thing probably can not even run windows. It runs a custom Unix OS. and the 500MHz processors aren’t the same as a main computers processor. It probably has a terminal with a low end graphics card so that the machine can be accessed. It cant run windows, so therefore no games.

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Terrance February 22, 2010 at 5:11 am

Tibz , if your computer is running amazing you better go and catch it then

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darwin February 22, 2010 at 7:16 am

only… very chp… lol…

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darwin February 22, 2010 at 7:18 am

4 me that computer not really expensive…

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sundaychip February 25, 2010 at 8:36 am

wow………..what expensive

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happiness March 5, 2010 at 4:38 am

Question?
Is it posble to build that kind of computer but a smaller one like a system unit prehaps and are there gonna be any Personal computers that can have a Processor that can maybe be 500GHZ ??

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veron March 8, 2010 at 1:47 pm

i would take it to play starcraft 2
i think i could play it with all graphics on ultra!

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Your comment March 9, 2010 at 9:04 am

Meh~… If — ever in my life I could afford that, and I didn’t have anything better to spend it on, I would put the best video card in that I could.

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Kivi March 11, 2010 at 2:58 pm

… but it’s not a mac :(

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James Ashford March 14, 2010 at 5:25 pm

Will this run space invaders? LOL

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lion March 23, 2010 at 1:20 pm

realy ,realy osoam

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most interesting facts March 23, 2010 at 5:47 pm

What this computer can do. Really expensive

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face March 29, 2010 at 1:33 pm

you are all homeless

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navu April 1, 2010 at 12:05 pm

who will buy this???????????????????????????????????????????????

atleast i m not buying it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Japz April 6, 2010 at 4:48 am

LOL! i want to play super mario on it…xD

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carlos April 6, 2010 at 9:32 am

for all you idiots who wrote “it doesnt have a graphics card” or “it has no monitor” it clearly says its a graphics symulator so it would have to have both of those things for you to see it work without them its just a bunch of giant frying pans.

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dylan April 8, 2010 at 2:01 pm

even this won’t play crysis on max settings

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belarifon April 19, 2010 at 7:40 am

think that you connect only one monitor to this giant computer :P sounds like a joke :D

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pratik April 20, 2010 at 3:30 am

woow nice imagine that in your house xD hahaha loolz

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Oscar April 27, 2010 at 10:57 am

imagine minesweeper… just without lag

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Name (required) April 29, 2010 at 12:30 am

Well my commodore still owns :)

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Bill GATES May 12, 2010 at 7:08 am

I’ll have 5 please

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bobbs May 15, 2010 at 5:11 pm

you can buy 10 terabites WITH wifi for a fraction of that. aprox 3990. awesome. apple ftw

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bose May 26, 2010 at 5:56 pm

you could probley divide by zero on that

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Dental Jobs June 1, 2010 at 3:49 am

My laptop cost me £300..wooo.. nothing compared to $400,000,000

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jimi June 16, 2010 at 8:19 pm

thats a hell of a game of minesweeper

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abbey June 22, 2010 at 9:23 pm

thats to cheap!

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michael June 23, 2010 at 7:22 pm

HOLY CRAP this might even be able to run Crysis on medium performance!!!!

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Evan June 29, 2010 at 8:53 pm

I would buy it if it was a Mac :)

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Roland July 9, 2010 at 5:59 am

Hahahahaha, best comment ever coolkid, so agreeeeed! ahhahahahahaahaha omg

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