Nah, you'd want Pascal Tesla cards. They're specifically optimized for machine learning, with things like much better FP16 performance. Also you can put 8 on one server motherboard. Nvidia's Consumer GPU's are really hampered at Neural Networking compared to their workstation/server cards.
While this is true, it's not cost effective. Most deep toolboxes will let you run everything at fp32 (which will be way faster on consumer hardware than using fp16). Obviously it's not as good as a tesla... but you can build an entire machine learning PC that will be good for moderate size datasets for less than the cost of a single tesla.
FL16 is good enough for machine learning applications, in case you didn't know. All major companies are now using Titan X for ML setup (baidu, facebook for two examples)
Your school should have a compute cluster, see if you can get access. Otherwise, you can grab a 1070, 64gb of ram, and a quad core CPU and do quite well.
There've been a few other >1500W ones over the years. Not being compatible with a standard US 120v 15A socket has limited them a lot more than the 1500W versions.
1500W is pretty much the max a 15A, 120V circuit in the US can provide. It's a tad pricey, but you can have a 20A, 240v circuit installed in most homes. I have one in my garage. So theoretically, I could have some pretty heavy duty server hardware out there. A quick Google search found some 3000W monsters.
I'd know because I am qualified to issue those. I won't give you any, cuz then there won't be any left for anyone else ;)
The BOM is what, like half of the price? Even with the custom stuff. Even if you sneeze money you'd have to be an idiot to pay 15k for the assembly of two systems.
More of a marketing exercise than a product. I wouldn't be surprised if they only ever built one of these, but they set the price high enough that they won't care if someone actually orders one.
That would explain the minimum 42-day lead time...no assembly line, no parts hanging around, they'd have to order everything and start building and testing from scratch.
Buuuuut... Last time I checked 42 days is not 'over two months'. It's 6 weeks, definitely 'under two months' which really isn't bad considering what you're getting here - a complete custom built system, fined tuned and overclocked.
1) The second pc is pitched as the "gaming" pc because of slightly higher CPU frequency. Nevertheless, it maxes out at 16gb of memory and a single GPU. These two factors are more important than a little more cpu frequency... This really begs the question, what is the second PC even for (other than bragging rights)?
2) In the US, goodluck powering a 2000 watt PSU (obviously in the UK it's different)
3) Spinning magnetic storage in a 30k system? Lol...
4) The build quality does look gorgeous
I really don't understand the idea behind this system...
Well, not a US resident here but if your house has a 3-phase power delivery system, even being at 115V, you could modify a socket using two phases for 230V output. Use large diameter wiring, etc.
It's a very common scenario around here, for sockets where people will connect air conditioners, freezers, etc.
3-phase power is used only in industrial settings, I have never heard of it being in a residential application (nothing to use it with anyways). You mean single phase, which is what virtually all residential wiring is, even more so in the US. Since most houses have 2 110V lines from the pole, you can run 2 hot legs and a neutral to get 220V, though that generally means running new (larger) wires and putting in a new plug (not optional!) like you would for a dryer or water heater. Alternatively, you could run larger wires and stick to 110V, and put in a 20 or 30A service.
In Germany, 3-phase is very common and available in most households (though usually only one special socket for it is on the premise). At our 230V this is about 400V. I personally use it often for a large (non-industrial) circular saw.
Most residential and commercial systems in the US are single phase 240/120V, and typically only industry uses 3-phase power. Also, you wouldn't need larger gauge wire if you did modify an existing installation. You'd need a new receptacle and a new breaker, but the wiring could be reused.
This 2000W power supply is a monster, but it would be fine on a normal receptacle powered from a standard 20A breaker in the US. I wouldn't want much of anything else on that breaker though.
In the US, window shaker a/c units, ovens, and clothes dryers are your typical appliances that require 240V, NEMA 6/14 receptacles. Most others take a hard connection from a local disconnect, like water heaters or central a/c units, but are still 240V from the panel.
It seems imprudent and rather pointless to have the secondary system in the box. I doubt there are any applications or games that will suffer from single threaded performance problems on the primary CPU. Branding it with some washed out ex-gamer's screen name simply won't add appeal for the people that have the income necessary to purchase such a system. I'm certain that was an unwise decision. People with 30k of disposable income available to spend on a single computer are highly unlikely to recognize or approve of has-been gamer's pretend name and endorsement. This is an obvious example of a smaller company's inability to perform even the most basic market research.
This sort of crazyness is about generating a PR buzz, only a half step beyond various equally improbably concept devices that never hit the market. Actually selling 2 or 4 of them to cover the R&D cost is a bonus if it happens.
Yes true. Most of these sorts of product annoucements aren't serious attempts to generate sales, but instead serve to get a company noticed in a competitive industry where Overclockers UK must be opposed to larger and more well-known businesses like Dell's Alienware or any other large corporate entity's gaming hardware department.
Ah, my mistake. The difference is minor though, akin to a red versus a gray squirrel's relevance to a photocopier. He's a person that won something in a niche field that very few people, even those that overclock, probably are aware of or care about.
The extreme overclocking community is small. Everyone who bothers to follow any OC content in the last 5 years would know who 8Pack is. He has held over a couple dozen world records, sometimes for seasons on end, and usually when he plans a big session he takes the lot. It's not like a gamer who plays one or two games and wins a few tournaments.
Extreme overclockers aren't purchasing a $30K pre-built, closed system for overclocking competitions. That's a bit of a mismatch that speaks to the deficient market research happening behind closed doors. As for following overclocking of any sort, I'd argue to the contrary in that there are a majority of people that diddle a bit in pushing hardware out of spec that couldn't give more than a passing glace at competitive overclocking because of how little relevance it has to practical overclocking. Methods used in competitions that seek out the highest possible CPU speed to set a record are of little use for sustained daily operation so the outcomes of such events get a bit of a gawking and then the average person promptly forgets and finds their way back to their likely air-cooled, possibly liquid cooled desktop to go on about their lives with narry a further thought about it.
"For cooling, the 8Pack OrionX uses a custom-built triple-loop cooling system with EK Supremacy Evo CPU water blocks, insane tubing and pass-through plates made of polished acryl."
I will admit I"m getting old, but is it worth it to take of the ic? Do the kids have an abbreviated slang for acrylic? Or was this just a miss by the editor? Come on Mr. Smith, put me on the payroll!
I remember the ECS PF88 being talked about...seemed like a really cool idea and SIS chipsets weren't all that bad. The SIS 735(?) was a solid Athlon chipset. The SIS 630 for the Intel platform was pretty weak though, mostly because of the buggy USB and SATA controller.
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42 Comments
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lazarpandar - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
As someone studying machine learning... this would be cool to have.It's pretty much a year's tuition though.
Freakie - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Nah, you'd want Pascal Tesla cards. They're specifically optimized for machine learning, with things like much better FP16 performance. Also you can put 8 on one server motherboard. Nvidia's Consumer GPU's are really hampered at Neural Networking compared to their workstation/server cards.Varjo - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
While this is true, it's not cost effective. Most deep toolboxes will let you run everything at fp32 (which will be way faster on consumer hardware than using fp16). Obviously it's not as good as a tesla... but you can build an entire machine learning PC that will be good for moderate size datasets for less than the cost of a single tesla.nerd1 - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
FL16 is good enough for machine learning applications, in case you didn't know. All major companies are now using Titan X for ML setup (baidu, facebook for two examples)JlHADJOE - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
> Pascal Tesla cardsOr: How to make an already expensive system even more expensive. I believe the Nvidia P100s are £5000 or $6000 a piece.
Varjo - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Your school should have a compute cluster, see if you can get access. Otherwise, you can grab a 1070, 64gb of ram, and a quad core CPU and do quite well.RaichuPls - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
A 2000W PSU? Isn't that higher than anything else on market?DanNeely - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
There've been a few other >1500W ones over the years. Not being compatible with a standard US 120v 15A socket has limited them a lot more than the 1500W versions.Pix2Go - Wednesday, February 1, 2017 - link
1500W is pretty much the max a 15A, 120V circuit in the US can provide. It's a tad pricey, but you can have a 20A, 240v circuit installed in most homes. I have one in my garage. So theoretically, I could have some pretty heavy duty server hardware out there. A quick Google search found some 3000W monsters.ingwe - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
This is kinda cool feat of engineering...and not much else besides a waste of money...ddriver - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
It comes with a certificate for idiocy.Michael Bay - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Oh, you`d know, buying two.ddriver - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
I'd know because I am qualified to issue those. I won't give you any, cuz then there won't be any left for anyone else ;)The BOM is what, like half of the price? Even with the custom stuff. Even if you sneeze money you'd have to be an idiot to pay 15k for the assembly of two systems.
Flunk - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
More of a marketing exercise than a product. I wouldn't be surprised if they only ever built one of these, but they set the price high enough that they won't care if someone actually orders one.eldakka - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
That would explain the minimum 42-day lead time...no assembly line, no parts hanging around, they'd have to order everything and start building and testing from scratch.bill.rookard - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Neat stuff... and it looks sweet.Buuuuut... Last time I checked 42 days is not 'over two months'. It's 6 weeks, definitely 'under two months' which really isn't bad considering what you're getting here - a complete custom built system, fined tuned and overclocked.
Death666Angel - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
"42 working days"There are 5 working days in a 7 day week, so this is (42 / 5 =) 8.4 weeks, which is about 2 months, give or take. :)
Dustin Sklavos - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
All that trouble and expense...and then just 8GB DIMMs?A system with an overclocked 10-core CPU and three (or FOUR) Titan X cards is going to be used for tasks that will be bottlenecked at 64GB.
Just spend up, man, max out the RAM.
DanNeely - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Bigger DIMMs don't clock as high...Varjo - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Some questions:1) The second pc is pitched as the "gaming" pc because of slightly higher CPU frequency. Nevertheless, it maxes out at 16gb of memory and a single GPU. These two factors are more important than a little more cpu frequency... This really begs the question, what is the second PC even for (other than bragging rights)?
2) In the US, goodluck powering a 2000 watt PSU (obviously in the UK it's different)
3) Spinning magnetic storage in a 30k system? Lol...
4) The build quality does look gorgeous
I really don't understand the idea behind this system...
LordanSS - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Well, not a US resident here but if your house has a 3-phase power delivery system, even being at 115V, you could modify a socket using two phases for 230V output. Use large diameter wiring, etc.It's a very common scenario around here, for sockets where people will connect air conditioners, freezers, etc.
GalaxyWide - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
3-phase power is used only in industrial settings, I have never heard of it being in a residential application (nothing to use it with anyways). You mean single phase, which is what virtually all residential wiring is, even more so in the US. Since most houses have 2 110V lines from the pole, you can run 2 hot legs and a neutral to get 220V, though that generally means running new (larger) wires and putting in a new plug (not optional!) like you would for a dryer or water heater. Alternatively, you could run larger wires and stick to 110V, and put in a 20 or 30A service.thomasg - Saturday, February 4, 2017 - link
In Germany, 3-phase is very common and available in most households (though usually only one special socket for it is on the premise). At our 230V this is about 400V.I personally use it often for a large (non-industrial) circular saw.
Senpuu - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
Most residential and commercial systems in the US are single phase 240/120V, and typically only industry uses 3-phase power. Also, you wouldn't need larger gauge wire if you did modify an existing installation. You'd need a new receptacle and a new breaker, but the wiring could be reused.This 2000W power supply is a monster, but it would be fine on a normal receptacle powered from a standard 20A breaker in the US. I wouldn't want much of anything else on that breaker though.
In the US, window shaker a/c units, ovens, and clothes dryers are your typical appliances that require 240V, NEMA 6/14 receptacles. Most others take a hard connection from a local disconnect, like water heaters or central a/c units, but are still 240V from the panel.
DanNeely - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Fools and their money...BrokenCrayons - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
It seems imprudent and rather pointless to have the secondary system in the box. I doubt there are any applications or games that will suffer from single threaded performance problems on the primary CPU. Branding it with some washed out ex-gamer's screen name simply won't add appeal for the people that have the income necessary to purchase such a system. I'm certain that was an unwise decision. People with 30k of disposable income available to spend on a single computer are highly unlikely to recognize or approve of has-been gamer's pretend name and endorsement. This is an obvious example of a smaller company's inability to perform even the most basic market research.DanNeely - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
This sort of crazyness is about generating a PR buzz, only a half step beyond various equally improbably concept devices that never hit the market. Actually selling 2 or 4 of them to cover the R&D cost is a bonus if it happens.BrokenCrayons - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Yes true. Most of these sorts of product annoucements aren't serious attempts to generate sales, but instead serve to get a company noticed in a competitive industry where Overclockers UK must be opposed to larger and more well-known businesses like Dell's Alienware or any other large corporate entity's gaming hardware department.fanofanand - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Mr 8Pack was a champion overclocker, not a gamer. The rest of your rant is valid, but not that part.BrokenCrayons - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Ah, my mistake. The difference is minor though, akin to a red versus a gray squirrel's relevance to a photocopier. He's a person that won something in a niche field that very few people, even those that overclock, probably are aware of or care about.Ian Cutress - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
The extreme overclocking community is small. Everyone who bothers to follow any OC content in the last 5 years would know who 8Pack is. He has held over a couple dozen world records, sometimes for seasons on end, and usually when he plans a big session he takes the lot. It's not like a gamer who plays one or two games and wins a few tournaments.BrokenCrayons - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
Extreme overclockers aren't purchasing a $30K pre-built, closed system for overclocking competitions. That's a bit of a mismatch that speaks to the deficient market research happening behind closed doors. As for following overclocking of any sort, I'd argue to the contrary in that there are a majority of people that diddle a bit in pushing hardware out of spec that couldn't give more than a passing glace at competitive overclocking because of how little relevance it has to practical overclocking. Methods used in competitions that seek out the highest possible CPU speed to set a record are of little use for sustained daily operation so the outcomes of such events get a bit of a gawking and then the average person promptly forgets and finds their way back to their likely air-cooled, possibly liquid cooled desktop to go on about their lives with narry a further thought about it.fanofanand - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
"For cooling, the 8Pack OrionX uses a custom-built triple-loop cooling system with EK Supremacy Evo CPU water blocks, insane tubing and pass-through plates made of polished acryl."I will admit I"m getting old, but is it worth it to take of the ic? Do the kids have an abbreviated slang for acrylic? Or was this just a miss by the editor? Come on Mr. Smith, put me on the payroll!
willis936 - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
muh ricebrucek2 - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
Where are the benchmarks? ;-)I could not come close to justifying this build out for anything I do, but if you can talk them in to letting you raffle it away, count me in!
:nudge> - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
I'm pretty sure you'd get a superior system from Australia's Singularity Computers for this kind of money.notjamie - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
How many bags of Haribo's do you get with this?Samus - Monday, January 30, 2017 - link
I remember the ECS PF88 being talked about...seemed like a really cool idea and SIS chipsets weren't all that bad. The SIS 735(?) was a solid Athlon chipset. The SIS 630 for the Intel platform was pretty weak though, mostly because of the buggy USB and SATA controller.helvete - Tuesday, February 21, 2017 - link
SiS630 with SATA? Surely you meant IDESystab - Tuesday, January 31, 2017 - link
How is this 8-pack different from 2 computers using the same parts?I like the pretty tubes, but otherwise I do not see what advantages this offers over a X99 in a full size case + Z270 in ITX.
Ro_Ja - Sunday, February 5, 2017 - link
I kind of understand the price and it looks cool!yeetmaster69 - Monday, February 18, 2019 - link
But can it run Fortnite on medium settings?