ML Build

M

mmaj

Member
Took delivery last week! As you can see from the specs below I have been busy testing it out!

Changes made since delivery:
1. Added second RTX A5000 (with NV link)
2. Removed RAID 0 (slower for randonm IOPS on Samsung SSDs)

Planned changes:
1. Another 32GB of RAM
2. More storage for datasets (and games!)

Experience:
- The PC is a joy to use and it's my first build with clear panels and LEDs so it's exciting for me.
- Reinstalling Windows after removing RAID 0 was completed before I returned to my desk from making a fresh cup of tea
- Full system scan with Norton anti-virus took between 3-4 minutes
- Haven't tried it on games yet but I have no worries there
- For ML it is about 3-4 times faster than the speeds I got from Google Collab Pro training the same model (CNN) and I haven't completed refactoring the code to take full advantage of the parallelism


SPECS!!!
Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16 Core CPU (3.4GHz-4.9GHz/72MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB PRO DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO RTX A5000 24GB GDDR6, 8192 CUDA CORES - 4 x DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
RAID
RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
16x BLU-RAY WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW & SOFTWARE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
ASUS PCE-AX58BT Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) 2400Mbps/5GHz, 600Mbps/2.4GHz + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Firewire
2 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI-E Card (2 x 6 pin)
Operating System
Windows 10 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [MUP-00003]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Supplied on USB Drive
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 16 to 19 working days
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Logo Branding
PCSpecialist Logo
 

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M

mmaj

Member
Yes! Initiallly I planned for 1 x RTX A6000 but after a bit of research I concluded I’d save almost £500 and get an extra 6,000 cores by changing that to dual RTX A5000
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Monster build no doubt, just a shame you didn't get some advice from us on the forum before purchasing as it could have been even better :)
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
RichLan564 said:
A beast alright but ooooffff, that PSU is going to be working hard!
Click to expand...

Actually the PSU will be fine. The A5000 has same power requirement as 3070 and doesn't spike in power draw like the consumer cards seem to (yes EVGA, I'm looking at you).
 
M

mmaj

Member
Scott said:
Monster build no doubt, just a shame you didn't get some advice from us on the forum before purchasing as it could have been even better :)
Click to expand...
I did extensive research and this fits my particular needs for research in machine learning… I was also limited by what PCS were offering… The build is a continuous process so I’m all ears… How could I improve it further?
 
M

mmaj

Member
RichLan564 said:
A beast alright but ooooffff, that PSU is going to be working hard!
Click to expand...
The base build power requirement was under 500 watts (which includes the first RTX A5000), the only thing I’ve added was the extra GPU which uses 250 watts max. The system is not struggling at all and no hitches… I’ve already done some ML training with the two GPUs together, no issues noted whatsoever… I plan training larger transformer based models soon which obviously require more power and I’ll see how that goes… I’ll continue to monitor if I need to change anything… I look at this as a continuous build so anything can change… An advantage of the professional cards vs the gaming ones is better power efficiency and being able to work on heavy loads for a long time without over heating or being damaged like training a model for weeks on end
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
mmaj said:
I did extensive research and this fits my particular needs for research in machine learning… I was also limited by what PCS were offering… The build is a continuous process so I’m all ears… How could I improve it further?
Click to expand...

I have no doubt the main criteria of your software has been met, unfortunately where it falls down is the support/foundation of the system.

Be Quiet case - Not a good selection, especially for high end hardware running hard all the time. This case is actually never recommended on here for any use at all. I would strongly recommend removing the front panel so that the internals have a better chance of remaining cool.

ROG Strix - Great motherboard but with the 5950X and your uses in mind you would have gotten better performance from the Hero motherboard. It's worth the extra for your use case and the tighter voltages just pays dividends in multi-core performance.

Storage configuration - It's not the best use of your I/O lanes to have all your system running in RAID 0 with the OS & software on the same "drive". I understand you may have rectified this now, but it's just not a good way of working. A 500GB/1TB primary for the OS & software with a secondary cache/work drive would offer far more advantages.

RAID - Noone would ever have recommended this. As above, I know that you've removed it now but I'm unsure how your research led you to believe this was a good shout.

850w RMx - Not close IMO. You would want 1000W in there at least to have it running well. Taxi drivers have always favoured mid-range power cars so that they can do their job easily. They don't kick around in 1.0l cars because the fuel economy doesn't offer value for money long term when the engine is on its knees after 80k of street driving. PCs are very similar, you want a good headroom with the PSU. Using the online calculators to work out your power requirement is never a good idea. It's always best to thoroughly understand your power requirements or ask on forums and the like to get an actual person answering with knowledge. The calculators used to be fine for a guide but with the self overclocking ability of CPUs/GPUs and with efficiency being infinitely variable it's always best to get advice. 500W from your GPUs. The 5950X bone stock will hit 142w, if you overclocked it (which would see some tidy gains) you would be hitting around 230w at peak. Not taking efficiencies into account that doesn't leave much headroom to power everything confidently and without putting strain on the PSU components. If giving us your requirements we would have recommended a pre-overclocked power house with around a 1000w RMx PSU, I would possibly even have went one further with the 1200w option in order for it to be a cruiser even at full chat.

Cooler - H100x will do a reasonable job but the H115i Capellix or the H150i would be a far better choice here. The ML fans run silent, there's no point in paying the extra for the H100x with the quiet fans when they aren't as good as the stock options in the higher end coolers. Not to forget that the higher end coolers are just better to begin with. Seems a very strange option to go with an old standard cooler modded with quiet fans that's smaller than the standard offerings in the config, but again.... this is why asking it's always better to ask.

MX-4 paste isn't required with any corsair cooler. The stock paste is just as good and you won't need to worry about an over/under/uneven application (which I have had 100% of the time in my systems so far).

Wifi - Very strange choice. If you look at the actual output you will see you've spent loads of money on a lesser performing card than the AX200.

Firewire - Some people do need this so I can understand you possibly having it through necessity. It's a very redundant hardware though and often best to forego it and opt for a more current solution to your needs.

Win10 Pro - Another area that's often chosen due to the Pro naming suggesting better. There isn't a lot to offer here but the sandbox is good, as is the Bitlocker. There are a couple of other advantages but 99% of people won't use them so it's often best just to pocket the savings. Fair enough if you need it, but this would have been a discussion point had advice been sought.

Norton - From your initial comments you have installed Norton on your system. We would strongly advise removing this unless it has a specific engine that you require for your uses. There is no better straight up AV than is available with Windows as standard. The anti-malware and AV of defender is fantastic. The Firewall is very good when configured correctly and with additional advantages of the Pro version with Sandbox etc there's no need to opt for anything else. Even if absolutely set on something different, Norton would not be on the list of recommendations.

TL;DR There's a few areas I would personally look at.
 
D

DarTon

Well-known member
Steveyg said:
He's using two of them though
Click to expand...
The A5000 only uses a single 8 pin power connector. It really shouldn't draw more than the TDP of 230W. So two of them will be say 450W. With GPUDirect and RTX IO, you shouldn't be using the CPU or system memory for anything other than housekeeping tasks, so the 5950X should never exceed the PL2 of 142W. You'll probably never see more than 700W draw.

I have a A6000 and 3090 on my work system with a 1200W PSU. If it was 2 x A6000 then a 1000W would be ideal. It's just the EVGA 3090 with 3 x8 pin goes bonkers and draws 500W for small periods, despite it being technically limited at 450W!
 
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