I checked selling prices of those racks + top end SSDs, this 1Tb/s achievement runs on $4 million worth of hardware cluster. Or more I didn't check the networking interface costs.
But yeah could run on commodity hardware. Not sure those highly efficient arm packaged for a premium from Apple would beat the Dell racks though regarding throughput relative to hardware investment costs.
Dell’s list prices have essentially nothing to do with the prices that any competent buyer would actually pay, especially when storage is involved. Look at the prices of Dell disks, which are nothing special compared to name brand disks of equal or better spec and much lower list price.
I don’t know what discount large buyers get, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s around 75%.
But yeah could run on commodity hardware. Not sure those highly efficient arm packaged for a premium from Apple would beat the Dell racks though regarding throughput relative to hardware investment costs.