The USA built a supercomputer in 2017 for between 20 and 30 million US dollars. Now it has been sold for just under 450,000 euros – because the computer is now broken.
Which supercomputer is it? The computer in question is Cheyenne
. It was only put into operation in 2017 and was active until the end of 2023. Its location is in the state of Wyoming in the United States of America.
The original price for Cheyenne is not officially known. However, due to its components, the price is estimated to be between 20 and 30 million US dollars. The supercomputer was used in research around weather, climate, wildfires, and earthquakes.
Supercomputer under the auction hammer – a real bargain
Why was it sold now? In fact, Cheyenne is one of the longest-operating supercomputers. However, it has developed quite a few quirks. Among other things, the computer leaks, and water flows out. Additionally, the PC has lost quite a bit of power.
Consequently, the supercomputer has now been auctioned. You can read more about the auction in our news:
For how much was Cheyenne sold? The supercomputer was ultimately sold for 446,000 €, which is approximately 480,085 US dollars. The name of the buyer is not known.
The auctioneers of the US General Services Administration also stated that the new owner must completely organize the transport of Cheyenne themselves. Proper handling must be ensured.
The fiber optic and CAT5/6 cables, which connect the various components of Cheyenne, were not included in the sale. The buyer will have to purchase these separately.
What makes Cheyenne so super
What makes the computer super
? The scope of Cheyenne makes the PC a real supercomputer. In total, the construction includes, among other things:
- 28 server cabinets
- 8,064 Intel CPUs with a total of 145,152 cores
- 313 terabytes of DDR-4 RAM (memory)
- 5,340 tera-flops at best performance (flops are used to measure a PC’s speed)
In total, the construction weighs more than 12,000 kilos. The configuration cost between 20 and 30 million US dollars. This, along with the truly top-notch specifications at launch, makes Cheyenne a real supercomputer.
Even at launch in 2017, Cheyenne was ranked 23rd in the list of the fastest supercomputers according to Top500.org. Shortly after its final installation in 2016, the PC even stood at 21st place. Meanwhile, Cheyenne is now far behind at 160th place.
Of course, a supercomputer is not comparable to a standard PC for everyday tasks, yet a look at the components of a 4K gaming PC demonstrates how impressive the interior of Cheyenne is.
A 4K gaming PC, as configured by the colleagues at GameStar Tech, has for example:
only
a caseonly
an Intel Core i9 14900KSonly
64 gigabytes of RAMonly
4 terabytes of storage via 2 SSDs
With the recommended graphics card, a GeForce RTX 4090 24 gigabytes, and some other components, you will be between 4,000 € and 4,500 € for the purchase price. But certainly not at nearly 30 million US dollars.
If you are actually considering a GeForce RTX 4090, or are already a proud owner of such a graphics card, you should take good care of the expensive piece. A warranty case could have cost a gamer almost 2,500 € – more than the graphics card initially cost: Gamer sends new RTX 4090 for repair – should pay more than it officially costs
