got a dream desktop pc build or one you have mapped out for the future? do you think your planned rig could be improved but don’t know what to improvise?

here is my desktop rig if you want to check out the specs. i call it the fish tank.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CnsVqR

I'd have a hard time upgrading from my current build. Motherboards and GPUs have become ridiculously expensive for what they offer.
That said, If I had to build a PC right now, I'd go straight into the high end with a Ryzen 9 7950X, 128 GiB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD and some kind of Radeon.

My current system is probably as good as it will get. The CPU and RAM are maxed out, an SSD is installed and my expansion cards strike a solid balance of performance and compatibility. I've thought of getting a newer video card to drive my 4K television set, but I really don't use it that much. 55" is a bit excessive for desktop use.

SuperSonicmario wrote:

128 GiB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD

You do not need that much RAM. Storage, maybe, but it's probably still overkill.
16 GiB is really good already, and I'd argue that anything above is kind of useless, unless you really need it (eg, video editing, Blender, those kinds of workloads). Above that, you won't see a noticeable increase in performance. RAM really just affects how much can be loaded at once, and while some programs can take advantage of extra RAM, you really won't see much of an improvement above 16GiB, which is still definitely more than enough for most use-cases today. 12GiB is still pretty reasonable, in my opinion.

As for the CPU: The 7950X3D is an even better CPU if you need what AMD calls “3D V-cache.” It works best in gaming scenarios if you really want/need that level of performance, but I think it's pretty overkill for most people.

Finally, going AMD (who manufactures the Radeon cards) for the GPU is a good choice, but machine learning workloads may suffer, because they don't support CUDA (which is an Nvidia thing). However, AMD cards are especially good on Linux where Nvidia's lack of good driver support loses them their edge.

SuperSonicmario wrote:

I'd have a hard time upgrading from my current build. Motherboards and GPUs have become ridiculously expensive for what they offer.
That said, If I had to build a PC right now, I'd go straight into the high end with a Ryzen 9 7950X, 128 GiB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD and some kind of Radeon.

My current system is probably as good as it will get. The CPU and RAM are maxed out, an SSD is installed and my expansion cards strike a solid balance of performance and compatibility. I've thought of getting a newer video card to drive my 4K television set, but I really don't use it that much. 55" is a bit excessive for desktop use.

if you don’t end up utilizing more than 64gb of your ram then having 128gb can actually slow your cpu down as it tries to access empty ram space. the radeon cards are good value if you don’t care about losing out on raytracing support (especially on linux)

Redstone1080 wrote:

SuperSonicmario wrote:

128 GiB of RAM, a 4 TB SSD

You do not need that much RAM.

I occasionally fire up zfind, a cellular automaton search program that eats RAM like candy. 8 GiB is nothing for it; usage increases exponentially with the search space, so bumping up the RAM by a factor of 16 would let me search two more levels, maybe three.

Finally, going AMD (who manufactures the Radeon cards) for the GPU is a good choice, but machine learning workloads may suffer, because they don't support CUDA (which is an Nvidia thing). However, AMD cards are especially good on Linux where Nvidia's lack of good driver support loses them their edge.

Linux and the BSDs are undoubtedly in my future.

LaughabIe wrote:

if you don’t end up utilizing more than 64gb of your ram then having 128gb can actually slow your cpu down as it tries to access empty ram space.

Simply having more RAM hasn't slowed down a system since the Super Socket 7 days.

LaughabIe wrote:

got a dream desktop pc build or one you have mapped out for the future? do you think your planned rig could be improved but don’t know what to improvise?

here is my desktop rig if you want to check out the specs. i call it the fish tank.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/CnsVqR

i really want to do an all amd am5 build but am5 in general is super expensive

I have a super realistic server in mind that's barely more expensive than my current desktop

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/nRyjYN

I chose a practically minimum viable GPU for CUDA pipelines and three 500GB harddisks simply for the raid setup because I think I could use that stuff right now. And yeah no case I'll probably use a vented cardboard box

ajskateboarder wrote:

I chose a practically minimum viable GPU for CUDA pipelines and three 500GB harddisks simply for the raid setup because I think I could use that stuff right now.

Get an SSD as well or you'll hate yourself.

SuperSonicmario wrote:

ajskateboarder wrote:

I chose a practically minimum viable GPU for CUDA pipelines and three 500GB harddisks simply for the raid setup because I think I could use that stuff right now.

Get an SSD as well or you'll hate yourself.

^^^

Seriously. Do this.

My school just replaced the 500GB hard (disk) drives in a bunch of (albeit older, but they were running a fairly new version of Windows 10) Windows computers with (actually, I don't know how large they are yet- didn't get a chance to check earlier today) SSDs, and copied over the OS and everything (apparently the school doesn't want to upgrade to Windows 11? Idk). That alone reduced the booting time from 5-10 minutes to about 1 minute (in some cases less). They can now load Google Chrome in a few seconds, as opposed to about 15 minutes.

At the very least get a 32GB or 64GB one you can boot from.

BigNate469 wrote:

SuperSonicmario wrote:

ajskateboarder wrote:

I chose a practically minimum viable GPU for CUDA pipelines and three 500GB harddisks simply for the raid setup because I think I could use that stuff right now.

Get an SSD as well or you'll hate yourself.

^^^

Seriously. Do this.

My school just replaced the 500GB hard (disk) drives in a bunch of (albeit older, but they were running a fairly new version of Windows 10) Windows computers with (actually, I don't know how large they are yet- didn't get a chance to check earlier today) SSDs, and copied over the OS and everything (apparently the school doesn't want to upgrade to Windows 11? Idk). That alone reduced the booting time from 5-10 minutes to about 1 minute (in some cases less). They can now load Google Chrome in a few seconds, as opposed to about 15 minutes.

At the very least get a 32GB or 64GB one you can boot from.

Yeah I know. I just forgot to add it to the list after remembering to add disks - I'll aim for a 1TB SSD so I can put proxmox and lxc containers on it lol

(bump)

it’s almost time to get to putting everything together!!

some of the proprietary parts (power supply, ram) have not yet arrived, so i cannot begin building yet. but at least i can get a sleek look at the case.

LaughabIe wrote:

some of the proprietary parts (power supply, ram) have not yet arrived

Since when is the power supply and RAM proprietary?

SuperSonicmario wrote:

Since when is the power supply and RAM proprietary?

“proprietary” as in “i need these parts for the system to run”