I believe a diskless BrickOven would perform better if files reside on a fast NFS server. Also it saves about 10 watt per node peak power need. Say you have 30 watt per node peak, with moving disk this would be 40 watt. If you use 7 nodes (wich is a perfect number for network switching reasons, i'll use it as an example) per BrickOven that would be the difference between transporting away 210 watts or 280 watts of heat.

Now, the numbers are just pulled out of my still incredibly good looking butt, but you probably get the way i think. The less hardware, the more dense the package can be packed without heat problems. Also it would be the difference between 35 kw/h and 47 kw/h for a week of serious work.

You might think that heat and energy isn't a problem. It becomes a problem when all nodes do serious work. How much energy does a floppy waste when idle?

If you want to use disks, why not, do it. But i want to research the floppy option regardless.