If I had $5,000 and wanted EPYC setup...
16 Aug 2022 15:37:47 UTC
Topic 227978
(moderation:
Hi. Im new. Lets say I had $5,000 and wanted to buy a EPYC based crunching machine. What would be best (where would my money go the furthest?
-Caveats-
Do not need PSU.
Do not need case.
At least 4 GPU slots supported.
Must be watercooled (include Compatible CPU water-block) .
I assume you would run linux? I have never done before. Just throwing this question on there and see if anyone was bored and could help.
Thanks again.
Weber462 wrote: I assume
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First I would get a basic machine and start downloading several Linux distros, you find a list and some basic reviews here https://distrowatch.com/
I like Linux Mint(LM) but it's an offshoot of Ubuntu which means that all the command line stuff, LM is more point and click to me, so you have to look for the LM way of doing it. MOST things work but not all of them. But there are all kinds of Linux distros from Server based ones to regular ones and then alot of them have different desktop looks, which is the difference in choosing which download but often you can switch after it's loaded if you don't like the one you chose. One thing I would do if you choose LM is to NOT choose the latest version, ver 21, as I've loaded it on 2 different pc's and both times Boinc refused to work but Boinc works just fine on version 20.2. It says there's an invalid path but since the Synaptic package manger loaded it it SHOULD work, that's the same way I do it on ver 20.2.
Supermicro H11DSi
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Supermicro H11DSi motherboard, or H12DSi if you can handle the extra cost, and intend to update to Milan chips in the future. The H11 has five PCIe slots. The H12 has six.
2x 64-core EPYC Rome processors, these are getting pretty affordable these days. Either something like the 7742 or 7V12 or 7B12 are good options. If you don’t plan to run all memory channels, there are very cheap models with a bad memory channel available. And/or QS/ES models. Just make sure you don’t get anything that says it is Dell/Lenovo/HP vendor locked. Make sure it explicitly states that it is NOT vendor locked.
8x 3200MHz 16GB RDIMMs. must be ECC RDIMM, EPYC does not support Unbuffered dimms. You could populate less, but I would recommend at least a quad channel memory config with 8x dimms. EPYC theoretically performs best with full 8-channel and all DIMMs populated, but I haven’t found that BOINC projects actually benefit from this. No problem with more though.
you should be able to get something very strong in the 5k budget these days
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Why ECC RAM? Again, I'm
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Why ECC RAM? Again, I'm learning/new.
Weber462 wrote: Why ECC
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Because using a server motherboard along with server cpu which requires ECC RAM.
Weber462 wrote: Why ECC
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As I said in my reply. Because EPYC doesn’t support anything but ECC RDIMMs. If you want to use non-ECC UDIMMs, you should look at Threadripper instead.
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mikey wrote: Weber462
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Starting cheap with a basic machine to get a minimum of Linux experience would be a very good idea! I am an example of someone who still uses windows for his daily driver but uses Ubuntu for BOINC projects.
There is lots of experience here with the Ubuntu 20 desktop. There are at least two ways you can install a Linux Boinc Manager. There is an all-in-one version by Tbar/petri and the "repository" version.
One of the major advantages of the "all in one" version is everything is right there in one folder/sub-directory.
The repository version from each distro is less handy to make changes to files in the project directories but has been very robust when I have experimented with it. And it can be used with the optimized versions of gpu/cpu applications that use the app_info.xml file.
Tom M
A Proud member of the O.F.A. (Old Farts Association). Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.® (Garrison Keillor)