Need workstations for 50 people

[wizzann]

Hey there,

I need servers or workstations for a team of 50 people. Each person will be using atleast single 1080ti or titanxp for deep learning. I am thinking forbuying a single system that can hold 8-10gpus for now and then I will scale things up. Kindly recommend me some systems. Thank you.

[Electronics Wizardy]

You should probably call up dell, hp or lenovo.

 

Are you running AD for all of these? This won't be cheap.

[wizzann]

Linus showed a server in this video 

Can I go for this for now and add these types of servers later?

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, wizzann said:

Linus showed a server in this video 

Can I go for this for now and add these types of servers later?

You can get these, they will work fine here, just saying not cheap and you better have a good amount of power for them and cooling. There also extremely loud(like hearing protection loud).

 

How do you want to share gpu power? 

[Windows7ge]

6 minutes ago, wizzann said:

Can I go for this for now and add these types of servers later?

I'm still not entirely sure what your goal is but I wouldn't go this route unless you bought GPUs designed for server chassis (which I don't know where you can buy them). Those cards were suffocating.

[Hiitchy]

You may want to get in contact with Puget systems and see if they can help design something that will fit your needs.

[Mikensan]

I feel like the cost of the motherboard, CPU, and powersupply capable of handling 8+ simultaneous "deep learning" exercises may not have much of a cost difference than outright buying premade rigs from a vendor and throwing a 1080 at it.

 

Most games don't peg the CPU as much as having independent virtual machines throwing a bunch of interrupts at the CPU for time. If deep learning benefits from more than 2 cores you'll definitely want to just buy independent desktops. 

 

What linus did is more of a gimmick than a real world solution. They do offer enterprise solutions for what he did, using nvidia GRID gpus - but to support 50 end users you're talking some serious cash.

 

If this isn't going to be a long term project, maybe consult with AWS or Azure to see how much that would cost.

[leadeater]

Rule #1, never copy Linus. Entertainment usually doesn't co-exist with practical and best for purpose solutions, that's what LTT videos mostly are and it's even more the case for the server stuff they show.

 

Just buy mid teir desktops with GPUs, it'll cost out not much more if at all.

[Salv8 (sam)]

On 5/5/2018 at 1:00 AM, wizzann said:

-snip-

mate this is advanced stuff...

you are best off contracting someone who knows what they are doing for this type of project

hiring an IT team would be you best bet, i don't know where you live but your area probably has a IT team who does this stuff on a daily basis and they would be the best for this job

but before contracting them, tell about what you want them to do and see if their services cover that, always ask, it might take some time as deep learning is new tech but it will be worth it in the end

[Nicnac]

you should probably get a professional solution from nvidia directly if you plan on using a centralized server. That way you can bundle all that gpu power.

 

[jde3]

On 5/4/2018 at 11:26 PM, leadeater said:

Rule #1, never copy Linus. Entertainment usually doesn't co-exist with practical and best for purpose solutions, that's what LTT videos mostly are and it's even more the case for the server stuff they show.

 

Just buy mid teir desktops with GPUs, it'll cost out not much more if at all.

I joined this forum because Linus was so wrong on server stuff. they are great guys and are terrific at making videos but they are not systems engineers and sysadmins.

 

For workstations I've always liked HP, their business laptops are top notch imo.

[leadeater]

6 hours ago, jde3 said:

For workstations I've always liked HP, their business laptops are top notch imo.

Big fan of the HP Elite, now EliteDesk, and Lenovo T series laptops myself. I find sometimes the HP EliteBooks are just slightly lacking in the minor areas where the Lenovo's don't, only a thing in the newer EliteBooks though. I've had issues with my current HP laptop and docking stations, my other HP laptop also had different issues but also with docking stations. Older HP laptops and Lenovo laptops just never had those types of issues.

[jde3]

The think tanks? (old nick name from when they were IBM and big and heavy) sure. I just get sad when I get to some place and they have a dell contract.

[AshleyAshes]

12 hours ago, jde3 said:

I joined this forum because Linus was so wrong on server stuff. they are great guys and are terrific at making videos but they are not systems engineers and sysadmins.

 

For workstations I've always liked HP, their business laptops are top notch imo.

I think for stuff of that class, it's best to compare LTT to Mythbusters; They built it, it works after a bunch of effort, and it's COOL to see running, but you'd never use anything like that as a production model.

 

A lot of these X things on X CPU videos are very complicated, likely to have issues and would require a LOT of support hours to keep up and running.  And most people talking about emulating them want to go in as an all or nothing approach where a single hardware failure means ALL clients are offline and they are dead in the water.  It's like like say, a true enterprise grade VM system where the rack your VM is on in some AWS datacenter could literally CATCH FIRE and Amazon would just load up your VM in a different rack and just be like 'Oops, we had to reboot you, our bad.  All good and your down time was only 120 seconds! :D' while the fire department is hosing down the old rack.

[dalekphalm]

On 5/4/2018 at 11:00 AM, wizzann said:

Hey there,

I need servers or workstations for a team of 50 people. Each person will be using atleast single 1080ti or titanxp for deep learning. I am thinking forbuying a single system that can hold 8-10gpus for now and then I will scale things up. Kindly recommend me some systems. Thank you.

I'm going to echo the others here.

 

By doing a "combined station" for 8-10 users, you're creating a massive headache if something goes wrong. If a system component goes down, now you have 8 or 10 people unable to work, instead of one person.

 

Furthermore, if you need to RMA a dead part, your entire system (and all 8-10 staff) are also down, potentially for weeks, until a replacement arrives.

 

Go Dell or HPE. Their warranties are top notch. Next day parts w/ an on-site tech to install them. A single source for all warranty issues.

 

I would contact a local IT Contracting company and get 2 quotes:

 

1. For 50x workstations w/ the GPU included (You can ask them to source the cheaper between Titan XP vs 1080 Ti)

2. For 50x workstations w/ no GPU.

 

Then, look online for the price for 50x GPU's, and see if they are cheaper to source yourself.

 

Additionally, I would contact both Dell and HPE directly, get yourself an account manager, and get quotes directly from each company.

 

Frankly, for a business, doing it the way you want is a terrible idea.