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I built a rig a couple days ago; it works nicely both for deep learning and for RAM and CPU-heavy tasks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GvTGsY http://pcpartpicker.co

by kmike84 10y ago

I built a rig a couple days ago; it works nicely both for deep learning and for RAM and CPU-heavy tasks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GvTGsY http://pcpartpicker.com/p/GvTGsY - two 8 core xeons, 128GB RAM, slots for 2 GPUs for ~2000$. Currently it has gtx970; likely I'll add 1080 at some point in future. I've heard 6th gen i7 is not good for deep learning because its PCIe performance is crippled (16 PCIe lanes instead of 40 in previous generations, it should matter for dual GPU use case). Don't quote me on that ;) Used xeons 2670v1 are dirt cheap on ebay now, and they are modern enough. Single-core performance is worse than in modern desktop CPUs, but not too much, multi-core performance is great, and these xeons allow to install lots of RAM. If you don't want that much RAM then for the same price a single desktop CPU (i7 5th gen?) could work better because of a higher clock rate.

dweekly 10y ago
Neat, I hadn't heard of PCpartPicker before. The Xeon 2670 you listed for $90 goes for >$1500 on NewEgg; that is quite a retail / eBay price split! Any idea why there's such a gap?
- brynx97 10y ago
  I found there was a lack of supply at traditional online parts retailers for Xeon brands (consumer v enterprise processors). I picked up a Xeon 2620v3 last year at Microcenter for under $300 b/c of a sale. Also, the 2670 is older, I'd presume he picked it up second hand at that price.
- T-A 10y ago
  "late last year, the supply became huge when thousands of these processors hit the market as previous-gen servers from Facebook and other big Internet companies were decommissioned by used equipment recyclers" [1] [1] http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/ http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/
- mciancia 10y ago
  Amazon/google/facebook/something else replaced a lot of servers with those CPUs, so now ebay is flooded with them - hence price drop ;)
paperwork 10y ago
This is an awesome build. It has everything I was thinking of building, dual xeon, huge ram, a nice gpu. I may use this as a model for my first desktop in years. I will probably add a couple of spinning disks so I can easily move between linux server and a windows (oculus) desktop. Usually pcpartpicker builds have comments, did you not submit your build for review? (I don't actually know how the site works).
- kmike84 10y ago
  Thanks! Yeah, adding a spinning drive is a good idea. It seems part list should be saved to enable comments (http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kmike/saved/QnGp99 http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kmike/saved/QnGp99). I used pcpartspicker for the first time to well, pick pc parts (the UI is nice); haven't shared this list before.
  - rustymirror 10y ago
    @kmike84 Is ASRock EP2C602-2T/D16 okay? can you please recommend other motherboards that are compatible with the setup? Thanks for posting the rig :)
    - kmike84 10y ago
      Hey, ASRock EP2C602-2T/D16 has EEB 12" x 13" form factor, it may be a bit harder to find a case for it (but that's possible, at least form factor is standard). Also, it has 2 PCIe slots which means you can insert only a single GPU - each GPU usually takes 2 nearby slots. Nice thing is that you can put more RAM sticks; it means you can either get more RAM or save money by using e.g. 8GB sticks instead of 16GB sticks which are cheaper per GB. There are Supermicro motherboards similar to ASUS Z9PA-D8C, but AFAIK they have non-standard mounting points, and Supermicro branded cases are very pricely. There is also a few other ASUS motherboards (Z9PE-D8 WS, Z9PE-D16); they have nice features - D16 has more RAM slots and D8 WS has more PCIe slots, but D8 WS cost more and they both don't use ATX form factor (though their form factor is still standard). The motherboard I've chosen is not without gotchas - CPU slots are very close to each other, so you can't use a cooler which exceeds CPU slot size; most popular coolers don't fit. To install Ubuntu I had to first use integrated video to install nvidia drivers, and then I had to disable the integrated video using an on-board jumper (there were some Ubuntu configuration problems with both internal and nvidia gpus active), but likely this is not specific to this MB. There may be other motherboards; look for C602 chipset, check what's the form factor, how many RAM and PCIe 16x slots are there, how is PCIe speed adjusted when several slots are occupied (e.g. often 16x slot can become 8x slot when something is inserted in another slot), and check MB image to understand how are PCIe slots layed out: when two of them are next to each other a GPU covers them both. E.g. ASRock Rack EP2C602 looks fine (it is EEB, and no USB3, but CPU slots are layed out better than in ASUS Z9PA-D8C, you can use more cooler models, and it is a bit cheaper). No idea about which brands are better, I only built such computer once.

by kmike84 10y ago

dweekly 10y ago

Neat, I hadn't heard of PCpartPicker before. The Xeon 2670 you listed for $90 goes for >$1500 on NewEgg; that is quite a retail / eBay price split! Any idea why there's such a gap?

brynx97 10y ago
I found there was a lack of supply at traditional online parts retailers for Xeon brands (consumer v enterprise processors). I picked up a Xeon 2620v3 last year at Microcenter for under $300 b/c of a sale. Also, the 2670 is older, I'd presume he picked it up second hand at that price.
T-A 10y ago
"late last year, the supply became huge when thousands of these processors hit the market as previous-gen servers from Facebook and other big Internet companies were decommissioned by used equipment recyclers" [1] [1] http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/ http://www.techspot.com/review/1155-affordable-dual-xeon-pc/
mciancia 10y ago
Amazon/google/facebook/something else replaced a lot of servers with those CPUs, so now ebay is flooded with them - hence price drop ;)

paperwork 10y ago

This is an awesome build. It has everything I was thinking of building, dual xeon, huge ram, a nice gpu. I may use this as a model for my first desktop in years. I will probably add a couple of spinning disks so I can easily move between linux server and a windows (oculus) desktop. Usually pcpartpicker builds have comments, did you not submit your build for review? (I don't actually know how the site works).

kmike84 10y ago
Thanks! Yeah, adding a spinning drive is a good idea. It seems part list should be saved to enable comments (http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kmike/saved/QnGp99 http://pcpartpicker.com/user/kmike/saved/QnGp99). I used pcpartspicker for the first time to well, pick pc parts (the UI is nice); haven't shared this list before.
- rustymirror 10y ago
  @kmike84 Is ASRock EP2C602-2T/D16 okay? can you please recommend other motherboards that are compatible with the setup? Thanks for posting the rig :)
  - kmike84 10y ago
    Hey, ASRock EP2C602-2T/D16 has EEB 12" x 13" form factor, it may be a bit harder to find a case for it (but that's possible, at least form factor is standard). Also, it has 2 PCIe slots which means you can insert only a single GPU - each GPU usually takes 2 nearby slots. Nice thing is that you can put more RAM sticks; it means you can either get more RAM or save money by using e.g. 8GB sticks instead of 16GB sticks which are cheaper per GB. There are Supermicro motherboards similar to ASUS Z9PA-D8C, but AFAIK they have non-standard mounting points, and Supermicro branded cases are very pricely. There is also a few other ASUS motherboards (Z9PE-D8 WS, Z9PE-D16); they have nice features - D16 has more RAM slots and D8 WS has more PCIe slots, but D8 WS cost more and they both don't use ATX form factor (though their form factor is still standard). The motherboard I've chosen is not without gotchas - CPU slots are very close to each other, so you can't use a cooler which exceeds CPU slot size; most popular coolers don't fit. To install Ubuntu I had to first use integrated video to install nvidia drivers, and then I had to disable the integrated video using an on-board jumper (there were some Ubuntu configuration problems with both internal and nvidia gpus active), but likely this is not specific to this MB. There may be other motherboards; look for C602 chipset, check what's the form factor, how many RAM and PCIe 16x slots are there, how is PCIe speed adjusted when several slots are occupied (e.g. often 16x slot can become 8x slot when something is inserted in another slot), and check MB image to understand how are PCIe slots layed out: when two of them are next to each other a GPU covers them both. E.g. ASRock Rack EP2C602 looks fine (it is EEB, and no USB3, but CPU slots are layed out better than in ASUS Z9PA-D8C, you can use more cooler models, and it is a bit cheaper). No idea about which brands are better, I only built such computer once.