We want to put together a few computers to make a little "farm" for doing 
our statistical analyses.  It would be good to have 50-100 cores.  What is 
the cheapest way to go?  About 4GB RAM per core should be more than 
enough.  I'm thinking quad-core chips are going to be cheaper.  How many 
sockets per mobo? I guess 1-, 2- and 4-socket mobos are available.  We 
don't need SMP, but we'll take it if it is cheap (which I doubt).  We'll 
use cloned HDDs in these boxes. My first thought is "blade" but maybe 
blades are more expensive than somewhat less convenient ways of housing 
the mobos.

We have people here to house it and manage it and to pay for 
electricity(!). They also will have ideas about what we should buy.

Any ideas?

Which CPU gives the most flops/dollar these days?

Mike