Last years Machine is no longer Meeting My Needs! Suggestions?

[SmearODeer]

So last year's Machine is no longer Meeting My Needs! I got a bit of a verbal 'German' scolding from @citay , but its ok it's a German thing . This year I have a clearer vision for what I want to build for. But I have less money than last year, so I need to be gentler on the wallet. I want to build more AI specific; the last machine does anything I need it to do, but I found the LLM runs slower that I would like it to. Plus, my physical storage is not stellar. I Can not pull a Dave Plummer and get $20,000.00 USD workstation with all the cores, disk and memory that his beast has. So, I ask. what's a good MSI board that can go to the most reasonable high AMD core count but. start with a smaller core count. What graphics to start out with (Liquid Cooling?)? Memory to start with. This Machine will have no other functions other than to server Development needs related to this and host the pesky work VM I will run on it. The other machine, well that Gona get sold or given away to a poor friend who still game but is 6 years behind. I would like to know the why not just boards throw out to me. I looking to liquid cool this, so keep that in mind. Not looking for fancy LEDS as this will be put out of site in my office.

 

[citay]

Personally, i would go for a B650-based board with AM5. So i would recommend something like an MSI PRO B650-A WIFI or B650 Tomahawk WIFI at the moment. The PRO B650-A WIFI is a newer, slightly upgraded B650 Tomahawk WIFI, same PCB and components, just a third M.2 heatsink. Costs about 10 EUR/USD more here too, so arguably, you can choose either one and get an aftermarket M.2 heatsink if you need a third one (the aftermarket ones are often better too). From the current boards both would be a good choice. They both have the same, solid VRM which can handle all the AM5 CPUs (after a BIOS update). The latest 800-series-chipset AM5 boards seem to be at a very immature BIOS development level, people report bugs left and right, you don't wanna be an early adopter there right now.

GPU and RAM, difficult to recommend something specific without knowing a concrete budget and required RAM amount for your workloads. If you need the maximum reasonable amount of RAM, get 2x 48 GB DDR5-5600 with an EXPO profile, examples: Crucial CP2K48G56C46U5, G.Skill F5-5600J4040D48GX2-FX5. Of course only if you need this much.

 

[SmearODeer]

Thank you for that fast reply. What processor were you thinking? I don't need the rendering of the 7800X3D was considering the 7900x but might consider another option. Was considering biting the bullet and getting a RTX 4090 since this build is centered around a trading Local AI off of established model. Which means there is a good chance I'm gona max out the memory again. Great advice on the Motherboards as I did not want have early adapter issues!

 

[citay]

The X3D CPU models are mostly meant for gaming PCs, since games really like the extra cache. Other workloads don't profit as much from it. If you want raw multiprocessing power, you could look at a Ryzen 9 9900X, which is only 10% slower than a 7950X, or maybe even the flagship 9950X, which is 10% faster. For a start, even the 9700X is pretty mighty, it's a good allrounder. I don't know how much that AI stuff really depends on the CPU, maybe you can get away with less CPU and more GPU power.

For GPU models you're probably gonna have to ask in forums where AI people are, or check reviews relating to AI. Note that in January, for the CES, NVIDIA will most likely reveal the RTX 5080 and 5090.