First PC Build for machine learning/AI and general programming

[3ryan]

Budget (including currency): €1500 (euro)

Country: Ireland

Workloads that it will be used for: Machine Learning/AI and general programming/software development

 

I'm a 4th year comp-sci student doing my final year project on Deep Reinforcement Learning/AI but I've been having some issues because my only computer is a laptop with 8GB RAM and an insufficient GPU. I considered getting an eGPU but decided my best option would be to put some time into doing my own build as I think it'll stand to me going forward. The problem I'm having is there's so many options and I don't know where to start/if what I'm choosing is advisable. Any feedback from anyone who's done something similar would be greatly appreciated. My budget is 1500 euro, plus or minus 100 euro. 

 

What I'm thinking is:

- 10 core CPU, i9 possibly but don't know if Intel or AMD is preferable.

- For GPU, I'm not sure so would appreciate some help. Ideally one with tensor cores

- 32 GB DDR4 RAM, but open to alternatives

- For storage, possibly, Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red

- For Motherboard, again I'm not too sure.

- Water cooling would be nice but only if there's room in the budget.

 

 

[Gokul_P]

16 minutes ago, 3ryan said:

Budget (including currency): €1500 (euro)

Country: Ireland

Workloads that it will be used for: Machine Learning/AI and general programming/software development

 

I'm a 4th year comp-sci student doing my final year project on Deep Reinforcement Learning/AI but I've been having some issues because my only computer is a laptop with 8GB RAM and an insufficient GPU. I considered getting an eGPU but decided my best option would be to put some time into doing my own build as I think it'll stand to me going forward. The problem I'm having is there's so many options and I don't know where to start/if what I'm choosing is advisable. Any feedback from anyone who's done something similar would be greatly appreciated. My budget is 1500 euro, plus or minus 100 euro. 

 

What I'm thinking is:

- 10 core CPU, i9 possibly but don't know if Intel or AMD is preferable.

- For GPU, I'm not sure so would appreciate some help. Ideally one with tensor cores

- 32 GB DDR4 RAM, but open to alternatives

- For storage, possibly, Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red

- For Motherboard, again I'm not too sure.

- Water cooling would be nice but only if there's room in the budget.

 

 

For Gpu. For best Compute (Raw) perfomanca its Amd . For Ai and machine learing its nvidia a1000 sadly i cant find any retailers selling it dell has some workstations with it for 2K. Idk how much power you need but i think you will be fine with a 6750xt that Is the one fit in that budget with a 10 core cpu.

 

You can add a cpu coolee and case your self.

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TnyrBj

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($340.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($209.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6750 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($379.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1209.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-12-27 12:05 EST-0500

[jamie.three]

42 minutes ago, 3ryan said:

What I'm thinking is:

- 10 core CPU, i9 possibly but don't know if Intel or AMD is preferable.

- For GPU, I'm not sure so would appreciate some help. Ideally one with tensor cores

- 32 GB DDR4 RAM, but open to alternatives

- For storage, possibly, Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red

- For Motherboard, again I'm not too sure.

- Water cooling would be nice but only if there's room in the budget.

Ive put together this parts list as a good starting point for you https://ie.pcpartpicker.com/list/rFKQ2m

Im assuming that you arent including the cost of a monitor in the budget.

Intel is generally offering better performance for the price at the moment and the 12600k in this buiild is no exception with great single core performance (about 20% better than ryzen 5000) and plenty of cores.

Ive gone for a 3060ti for the GPU since ive seen that Nvidia is better for AI/ machine learning

 

[jamie.three]

10 minutes ago, Gokul_P said:

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/TnyrBj

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  ($340.00 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING X570-PLUS (WI-FI) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($209.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR4-3600 CL18 Memory  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($89.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Gigabyte GAMING OC Radeon RX 6750 XT 12 GB Video Card  ($379.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair RM750x (2021) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1209.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-12-27 12:05 EST-0500

Just to point out that the OPs budget is in € not in $ and this build does go significantly over budget when switching to PC part picker Ireland

[igormp]

8 hours ago, 3ryan said:

- 10 core CPU, i9 possibly but don't know if Intel or AMD is preferable.

 

Doesn't matter. I personally have a 5950x, but any 8-core CPU from either vendor would do you just fine.

8 hours ago, 3ryan said:

- For GPU, I'm not sure so would appreciate some help. Ideally one with tensor cores

Nvidia with a good amount of vram. Is an used 3090 a possibility? Otherwise, I'd go for a 3060 instead of a 3060ti due to the extra amount of vram. It may be slower, yes, but getting out of ram errors is really annoying and harder to solve than just having your training sessions run for 10~20 min more.

8 hours ago, 3ryan said:

- 32 GB DDR4 RAM, but open to alternatives

I'd go for 2x32gb to start with, so you can later upgrade to 128gb if needed.

8 hours ago, 3ryan said:

- For storage, possibly, Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red

Yeah, sounds good.

8 hours ago, 3ryan said:

- Water cooling would be nice but only if there's room in the budget.

 

Waste of money IMO.

7 hours ago, Gokul_P said:

For Gpu. For best Compute (Raw) perfomanca its Amd . For Ai and machine learing its nvidia a1000 sadly i cant find any retailers selling it dell has some workstations with it for 2K. Idk how much power you need but i think you will be fine with a 6750xt that Is the one fit in that budget with a 10 core cpu.

 

AMD is useless for ML, and I do mean it, nothing will work properly with it, most stuff is locked to CUDA.

 

 

This goes a bit over your budget, but IMO the GPU prices are a bit higher than they should:

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor  (€402.95 @ Paradigit) 
CPU Cooler: Scythe Mugen 5 66.47 CFM CPU Cooler  (€84.85 @ Paradigit) 
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€179.90 @ Paradigit) 
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  (€219.99 @ Corsair) 
Storage: Kingston NV2 1 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  (€80.53 @ CustomPCPARTS) 
Video Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X 12G GeForce RTX 3060 12GB 12 GB Video Card  (€442.95 @ Paradigit) 
Case: Phanteks Eclipse P300A Mesh ATX Mid Tower Case  (€96.68 @ CustomPCPARTS) 
Power Supply: Corsair HX750 Platinum 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€174.90 @ Corsair) 
Total: €1682.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2022-12-28 01:00 GMT+0000

[3ryan]

Budget (including currency):  1500 (euro)

Country: Ireland

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: General programming/software development and AI/Machine Learning 

 

Hi,
I'm doing my first PC Build and would love if you could critique/give feedback on what I've currently got. The PC will be used for general programming tasks/software development and machine learning/AI tasks. Because of the AI component I'll need a solid GPU and enough RAM. My budget is approx 1500 euro. The main components are as follows:

 

Case: NZXT H7 Flow
Fans: Two F120Q Fans
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7700x
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (Black)
RAM: Kingston FURY Beast 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 System Memory
Storage: NVME M.2 - ZADAK TWSG3 1TB
Power Supply: NZXT C650
Cooler: NZXT Kraken Z73 360mm (NO RGB)

Motherboard: ?

 

The main issue I'm currentlty facing is what motherboard to get. Advice regarding that would be greatly appreciated. If I needed to get an additional GPU in the future to increase compute power I'd like the motherboard to cater for that. Similarily with RAM.

Edited January 1, 2023 by 3ryan
Clarify what I mean by another GPU

[Needfuldoer]

Ryzen 7000 and AM5 are exclusively DDR5.

 

https://www.amd.com/en/products/cpu/amd-ryzen-7-7700x

[Bismut]

12 minutes ago, 3ryan said:

If I needed to get another GPU in the future I'd like the motherboard to cater for that

A second GPU or a GPU to replace the 3060?

12 minutes ago, 3ryan said:

Similarily with RAM.

Again, expand RAM or switch your current modules?

[3ryan]

1 minute ago, Bismut said:

A second GPU or a GPU to replace the 3060?

Again, expand RAM or switch your current modules?

Additional GPU and RAM to expand on what I would already have and increase compute power

[Forleb]

Ryzen 7000 CPUs & motherboards are only compatible with DDR5; If you do want to save money by going with a DDR4 platform (Ryzen 5000 or Intel), 2666 is an unnecessary hinderance when 3200 CL16 kits are cheaper than ever. Though the 7700X does get fairly warm under full load, a 360mm AIO is a bit overkill; Larger air coolers would be fine for it unless you have an aesthetic preference for AIOs. I have never heard of that brand of SSD... if you chose it because it was dirt cheap, please realize there can be very impactful sacrifices to get the price down as low as I've seen some go. Multi-GPU support is effectively gone for modern desktop computers if you ignore the RTX 3090 Ti, so I would think a bit longer on what GPU you want to get right now.

[Bismut]

7 minutes ago, 3ryan said:

Additional GPU and RAM to expand on what I would already have and increase compute power

Get a board with at least four RAM slots and buy a two-stick only kit; it might not be that important though, getting a better kit and selling your old RAM can be less expensive than simply doubling what you have, new kits will likely have better performance as well.

 

Multi-GPU is a though one, @Forlebcorrectly pointed out that multi-GPUs are pretty dead. It might be worth it if you need a dedicated GPU for something or want to use a newer card for it's features, like AV1 encoding? That's an edge case though, so I would expect to just replace it as well.

[Bismut]

11 minutes ago, Forleb said:

a 360mm AIO is a bit overkill; Larger air coolers would be fine for it

Air coolers also tend to be more reliable due to less points of (critical) failiures. An Noctua NH-D15 should be more than adequate for your CPU, a Be Quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 or Scythe Fuma 2 would be cheaper options but should work as well.

 

11 minutes ago, Forleb said:

I have never heard of that brand of SSD

Neither have I, I'd go with a name brand part as well, especially if it's in a work computer.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Bismut
More Coolers, added brands

[Needfuldoer]

15 minutes ago, Bismut said:

Multi-GPU is a though one, @Forlebcorrectly pointed out that multi-GPUs are pretty dead.

My solution was to build up a dual 2011-3 workstation (Dell 7910).  The tower will take three dual-slot cards, but two of them are right against each other. IPC isn't great since they're just Broadwell parts, but they support quad channel memory and the CPUs are just feeding the GPUs anyway. EPYC or Threadripper would've been an alternative, but I bought the entire barebones workstation for less than those motherboards cost.

[igormp]

4 hours ago, Forleb said:

Multi-GPU support is effectively gone for modern desktop computers if you ignore the RTX 3090 Ti, so I would think a bit longer on what GPU you want to get right now.

That's only for games, 2x 3060s could be used for ML without problems.

 

 

Also, didn't OP do another thread like this before?

 

 

 

Anyhow, my previous recommendation still applies, go for a cheaper AM4 CPU, even something like the 5600x, more ram and get a better GPU if possible.

[WkdPaul]

* threads merged *

 

Please do not repost