AI Help - New Gear Or Work WIth What I Have?

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I’m torn between buying new tech (which I probably don’t need) or optimizing what I already own—maybe even having leftover funds for something small. Here’s my dilemma:

The Laptop Temptation

Initially, I was set on the Flow 13 (128GB RAM—yes, please!), but it’s nearly impossible to get in the UK. Next up: the HP G14a. I’ve hovered over the buy button multiple times.

Why? The idea of that much ram for LLMs in such a small package blew my mind, and I figured it could double as a work machine. (Currently on a Ryzen Asus G14/4060, which I’d sell if I upgraded—though part of me wonders if I should keep it for video editing but I also have a 4080 strix laptop as well, not sure if I should just make this my new work machine.)

But… Without a dGPU, the HP might struggle with ComfyUI, SD, etc. So then I thought: What if I skip the laptop and build a dedicated 5090 AI server? Pricey, but powerful.

What I Already Have

  • Main rig: 5090 + 96GB RAM (used for ComfyUI/gaming—though gaming doesn’t need that power).
  • Second home:
    • Unraid server (4070 Super) running Ollama + Plex transcoding plus a few other things (could swap back to the old 1660).
    • Desktop with a 3080 (gaming rig there).
  • Another laptop: Strix 4080.

The Real Question

Should I:

  1. Forget the Strix Halo laptop and repurpose my 5090 into an AI server, using the 4070 Super as my new gaming GPU?
  2. **Say F it and buy the laptop
    3.**Build the AI server, buy another 13/14 inch laptop with good battery and sell the other laptops?

If I go the AI server route, what else would I need? Ideally, I’d like it to be compact—but is that even feasible with an MSI 5090? Intel or AMD CPU, thinking Intel to max out the RAM slots? Windows or Linux?

Would love advice on how to streamline this or recommendations on the best path forward.

Edit with some more info:

Unraid Specs:

i9-12900
48 gigs of RAM
4070 Super

Desktop Pc at same home as Unraid Server:

i7-11700
RAM: 32.0 GB
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080

Main PC at other home:

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X
96.0GB RAM
RTX 5090

Asus G14 Laptop:

7735HS
32GB RAM
RTX 4060

Asus ROG Strix G16:

13650HX
32GB RAM
RTX 4080

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As ever, I think this comes down to what you want to do and how seriously you are taking it. What are you using the LLMs for? Are you just tinkering, or are you trying to get some work done?

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I could maybe give you a little insight into the laptop question and the normal computer LLM question but first the important question will you be using Windows or do you plan to use Linux?

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Tinkering mostly for now, I do a lot of image/video generation in comfy as well.

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If I repurpose my 5090 into a usable remote computer for this kind of thing, I want to do it correctly, so Linux.

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I’d say this is the most sensible option. Add some extra memory into your 12900 setup alongside the 5090 and it should be great for all of your stuff.

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Thanks for the response, would you say keep the 12900 system as an unraid server but add the 5090 to it? or strip out the 12900 and replace it with a lesser CPU in that system and build another system solely for AI?

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Yeah, this. Maybe just add more RAM to it.

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I could pass through the 5090 and run an ubuntu VM on it. Need to find a bigger case currently running a Fractal R5 with about 10 hdds in it just now.

Food for thought thank you!

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Yup, forget about the strix halo… Yes, it can fit bigger models but the inference speed will be abysmal (at least compared to the 5090). Taking memory bandwidth as a proxy for performance (which is not too far off for LLMs – not sure about image gen but should not be unreasonable either) it’s ~1800 GB/s vs. 212 GB/s or about 8x slower.

If you had a small budget and were in the market for a laptop anyway, I’d say yes, but given that you’re coming from a 5090, no way.

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Loving all the input so far.

The thread has got me looking at up sizing to a define r7 XL, DDR5 board for the 12900k and a 1200w PSU, have 8 drives to power as well as the card, wondering if I should switch to proxmo to have Ubuntu and Unraid totally seperate.

Still pondering the idea though of just going SFF with the 5090 and having it as a dedicated AI server.

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Why? If your current one is DDR4, just slap 128GB on it and you should be good to go. Achieving high frequencies when using 128GB+ on DDR5 may not be worth the hassle IMO, and it’ll be more expensive.

Again, why? Your main 7600x desktop should have a GPU that’s good enough for the 5090, right? Just swap it with the one in the 12900 setup and you should be good to go.

Honestly it’s kinda sounding that you’re just trying to find an excuse to spend money on new pieces just for the sake of it.

If you’re under the itch of upgrading just because yes, that’s fine, but I guess you should make it clear so that we don’t try to waste time helping you using what you already have.

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I thought upgrading the board and making the jump now would make more sense than doing this all now just to need to upgrade the board again in the future, then again I dont know how far 128gb of DDR4 will be good for so guess I should have asked, whats your thoughts?

On the PSU side of your question - its simply laziness, I am not rerouting that PSU out of my 7600x system again unless its absolutley needed.

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I’d agree on the board; getting a new LGA1700 board doesn’t make much sense. DDR4 vs. DDR5 won’t matter for AI workloads (maybe if you’re running out of VRAM; but in that case performance sucks either way).

The only reason to upgrade the board would be to go dual GPU if your current board doesn’t support it.

Would not matter much, in either case you have a GPU VM for AI tasks. Having unraid as a VM might be a bit easier to manage and would make it easier to migrate unraid to another machine if you want to later on.

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Yeah I have saw the light on that now, I am to quick to buy things :upside_down_face:

For easyness I will likely leave Unraid in place for now, might experiment with Proxmox later though.

Will report back on how I get on with everything.

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At this point you’d be better off with an entirely new setup.

Depends on what you’re doing. For comfyUI and the likes it should be more than enough.
Well, you are using 96GB in your current desktop, has it been lacking in any way?

Wouldn’t the existing PSU on the 12900 setup be enough for a 5090 then?
At this point I feel it’d be better if you could give us even more details on your setups, such as the PSUs you have around, cases, what each setup is actually being used for, etc etc. You even have 2 laptops, but it’s not clear what the purpose of those are.

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OK to save £ I am happy sticking with my current board

No its been fine, great actually.

No its only 800w - would not trust it with my data + my 5090.

G14 - Simply a work machine, small, portable and done everything I needed, its now up for sale.

G16 - This was my gaming machine at my current home until I built my 7600x, it mostly gathers dust now hence why above is now for sale and this will become my new main work laptop

7600x Machine - This was built roughly September time as my PC at my main current new home, its the reason the G16 has not been getting much lately, initially it was just a gaming / browsing machine until I started playing with Ollama and ComfyUI, thats when I opted for a 5090 when they released, previously it had a 4070 Super in it which is now in my unraid machine.

12900k machine (Unraid Server) - Exactly as it sounds, its my self hosted server housing 8 3.5 inch HDD’s for Plex, Linux ISO’s, Home photo & video, ROMS, Game installers, Documents, I have basically everything upload to that and backup the important stuff to another offsite machine (its nothing fancy so not worth talking about) I do use Ollama already on this through docker, so putting the 5090 in this does sound like the best option, it does mean though I need to upgrade the PSU, Dump some more RAM in it as you have suggested and buy a slightly bigger case to house the GPU (the added benefit to this is I can actaully add more HDD’s trouble free in the future to since the Define 7 XL can take more drvies) This isnt in my current home, its at my parents.

i7-11700 machine - This was my main gaming machine at my parents, its still in my room and gets use when I am home.

I just seem to have acrewed a lot of gear over the last 3-4 years.

As far as spare parts go I dont have many my other PSU’s are all in the 650-800w range. I honestly didnt mind spending the £130 for an Amazon return 1200w PSU for piece of mind on the 5090 in another system, it also saves me needing to heavily dismantle my 7900x build yet again. The one I got is also the same one I have in my 7600x rig so at least I know it works with the card.

I dont want to spend money for the sake of it, thats why I created the thread, I am not afraid to spend a little though if its needed or works best for what I am trying to do which is get the most out of my 5090 to mess around or get serious with LLM’s and ComfyUI from any other machine I choose to access it from remotely.

Hope the above helps.

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Sweet, then I think a memory upgrade could be postponed until you actually feel the need to.

Ok, fair enough. You could power limit the 5090 to ~400W, which would leave enough room to other stuff on that 800W PSU, but that’d be up to you.

Got it, cool.

I guess moving the 4070S back to it would make sense then. Or just turning your G16 back into your main gaming/browsing machine, and using this one purely as an ollama/comfyUI server.

Yeah, this one could either get the 5090 and become an all-in-one server for data + AI, or you could strip it of any GPU (more power savings!) and leave it only for data.

Seems like this one could be retired or find a new purpose given that your G16 should be able to take its function.

7900x? Not sure if you meant 12900k or 7600x in here.

Honestly you could just your current machine as is, as long as you don’t mind switching it to linux, and making it be a AI-only machine. Maybe using the G16 as your terminal to it, doubling up as your new main gaming station.