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I began building one a year and a half ago, starting with a 5930k, 1x980ti, 32GB. This put me in a position to incrementally upgrade it starting at ~$2.5k. That

I began building one a year and a half ago, starting with a 5930k, 1x980ti, 32GB. This put me in a position to incrementally upgrade it starting at ~$2.5k. That being said, at this point the smallest AWS p2 instances are equivalent to my current setup, and it would take 150 days worth of running my hardware to make it cost-effective vs. AWS.

visarga 10y ago
When you build your first DL box you also get a moral boost. If you think every second is counted and penalized against you, you might use it less (such as when you're using cloud servers). But if it is already yours bought and paid for, then you can afford to run any crazy idea. A good compromise would be a local DL box and extra virtual machines on demand, for when you need to run extensive hyperparameter searches. If you make the leap and invest, at least you commit your money into the direction of ML, strengthening your resolve.
- lloyd-christmas 10y ago
  On the flip side, dropping $2.5k for a hobby you haven't investigated yet and then looking back 6 months later on the computer collecting dust will likely dissuade you from investing any time into potential future hobbies. I play piano, and I'd never encourage anyone to go drop $2.5k on an electric keyboard just to provide a motivation. A decision to pick up a new hobby/skill should be based on desire, not a handcuff.