System Specifications for OpenMC and Cloud Computing Options

User Support
1

Dear OpenMC users,

I am a new user of OpenMC and am currently looking to purchase a more powerful system to improve computational efficiency. My primary focus with OpenMC is performing 3D neutron/gamma shielding and dose calculation simulations.

With a budget ranging from $2,500 to $7,000 USD, I would appreciate your advice on the optimal system specifications (e.g., number of cores, type of processors, etc.) for running OpenMC efficiently. Additionally, would you recommend upgrading to a new physical system, or would it be more cost-effective to use cloud computing resources for these types of simulations?

Please let me know if you need more specific details about the types of problems I plan to work on, and I’d be happy to provide further information.

Thank you in advance for your help and guidance! Much appreciated!

2

I have been using AWS c5.24xlarge EC2 instaces for a while. It cost $4.080/hr on demand. It is cost effective if you want to scale up and down. You can create a Amazon Machine Image (AMI) with openmc and cross sections if your workload requires lot of parallel runs. You can launch multiple EC2 instances with AWS CLI to run cases. Make sure to automate your case so that you shutdown the EC2 instance after they are complete.

If you want to get hardware look into used processors with high core counts like Xeon Platinum 8168. Also consider problems like noise.