I’m trying to put together a build for my Kaggle escapades. My “main” rig is a 9900k + 32GB ram + 2080 Ti.
Sounds good but doesn’t really cut it for a data science build.
A particular competition I’m working on at the moment has me pushing around ~30GB + dataframes during data prep stage and on crossvalidated training can eat up as much as 100GB of ram and more!
It’s hard to know what I need exactly because what I’m currently running is so far from what I need by ways of compute, but I’m running into major issues with the current setup where I am constantly hammering my NVME because I’ve run out of space and my training time for a single deep tree can range from 12 mins to 30 mins.
If you scale this to hypertuning we’re talking 3 weeks or so for converging to the best model.
Here’s what I’m looking to achieve and here’s what I’ve considered:
I’ll be training deeper more complicated models on as many threads as I can on the CPU, for the less complicated higher estimator count models I’ll be training on the GPU (max 2 gpus).
I’ll be using Clear Linux or Ubuntu
Build A:
3950X
Aorus Master X570
Sabrent 1TB rocket NVME 4.0
Meshify S2
Noctua NHD-15
Corsair vengence rgb pro 128gb (4x32GB PC4-2880 C18)
Build B:
3960X
Aorus Master TRX40
Sabrent 1TB rocket NVME 4.0
Meshify S2
Corsair vengence rgb pro 128gb (4x32GB PC4-2880 C18)
Be quiet cooler
Main concerns:
Will AM4 platform have a good upgrade path for CPUs beyond 16 cores ? After sparing a core per GPU that only leaves me 14 left over to be put to use.
Will TRX40 continue to be supported? Is it worth buying into the platform to later on down the line snag a 3990x upgrade for the extra cores?
Will either of the two platforms run 128gb well? I feel like AM4 “supporting up to 128gb” doesn’t really mean that it will run nice out of the box and I cant find anything about anyone getting 128GB to run on 3950X at listed speeds.
All of the tech tubers focus on video editing, and I understand why, but there’s little to no info out there for those of us into data science that may be training deep learning models on the gpu but also need to be able to train XGBoosted models on the CPU from time to time.
No. AM4 will probably be retired after Zen 3/3+. And I doubt it’ll go more than 16 cores or more. Even if it does, it will not go more than what current TR has to offer. TRX40 should hang on for atleast 2 more generations, as AMD just made the switch from X399 for future proofing.
hmm true. All of this will probably come down to how much upgrading right now is worth to you. If you build the pc right now, will it make enough money/satisfaction so that you don’t have any regrets when Zen 4 mainstream and TR come out in 2022?
Since the 3960x can handle up to 256gbs (quad channel) vs the 3950x is only up to 128gbs (dual channel), it should be less load on the memory controller.
I would recommend buying ram from the motherboard qvl. There are several threads on L1 about running 256gbs on the TRX40, some people have had issues buying ram not on the qvl, some get lucky. 128gbs at 3200 will be easier to attain, but I would err on the side of caution if it were me.
FYI: Wendel was able to get 256gbs to run at 3600 on some TRX40 motherboards.
Everyone above me is nailing it
AM4 is close to EOL. Even TRX40. While intel media is saying why PCI4.0 when PCI5.0 is coming and they still sell PCI3.0 intel dont even have a PCI4.0 track record until later this year on perhaps new MB’s again.
AMD have made the ripples in the pond come CPU’s on 5nm it a new MB perhaps new memory.
There is no long term buy guide ATM. Get what you need not what you want cause sometimes the next gen is what you want.
P.S It will still be PCi 4.0 because all intel marketing do it lie. Hello Shrout
3960/3970 + TRX40 would be my preference … you can go from 4 stick to 8 sticks (256G of ram) later on.
Ofcourse, RAM latency sucks on zen2 threadripper/zen2 epyc compared to intel skylake/cascadelake platinums, and loading the cpu too much might actually start to be counterproductive with stupid L3 organization – but it’s still ridiculous how much cheaper AMD is.
Have you seen the new Sabrent 8tb drives?
I so want!!
I like Build A considering a similar build but with the Crosshair VIII but after seeing the Aorus Master X570 might change.
Wendell I don’t know if you remember this build didn’t go with the Spaceco Arms lol
Future proof building is never really a thing,
because nobody really knows what happens in the future.
If you in need for a new system right now,
then just buy the best hardware your money can buy atm.
Haha, that’s always been the case when a total build would be maybe 5/6k and it made more sense to churn top hardware.
My historic approach has to been always to buy the best and sell my existing hardware for each generation. It results in a marginal cost of a few hundred dollars as opposed to a big purchase every X years.
But the whole issue with trx40 platform in my opinion,
are the actual motherboards.
And then i mainly mean the amount of features they offer at a certain price point.
Yes because you also would need to get one of the highend TRX40 boards like the,
Asus Zenith II extreme Alpha to properly power it.
The cheapest 3960x cpu is already like $1400,- or so?
That kinda makes those entry level $400 / $500,- trx40 boards pretty pointless.
If you already spend that amount of money on a cpu.
You also want a motherboard boat loaded with features,
to get the best out of the system.
The Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Master is a great choice by the way.
But yeah, for a €700,- + board not offering 10Gbit lan is kinda autsch.
But of course there has to be a reason why the Aorus Extreme exists.
But aside from that all.
I think you made the right choice for your particular workloads.
3200mhz should be doable with a decent memory kit.
What I don’t love about the platform is the fact that it’s close to server hardware in a consumer package.
It’s difficult to delineate the difference between the motherboards (frankly I didnt really have time).
It seemed like the higher end motherboards have a load of “gamer”/“extreme” extras that add to the bottom line price but won’t necessarily get a mem kit to run or a higher OC over a $500 board.
Added to this, support for the low volume extremely pricey boards tends to be garbage. I’ve been burned in the past dropping big money on a low volume board.
I have a similar rig: Aorus Master + 3960x in a Meshify S2. Be aware that while the main ATX power connector will clear the edge of the board when passed through the natural grommet, your routing is likely to be a little ugly. Alternatively you can unscrew part of the motherboard tray, but the resulting routing is just about equally ugly.
