Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

rosmine.ai

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 480 posts

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#91

Post by kristopolous »

freediddy wrote: post #66
nickthegreek wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The cost is obviously not that big of factor for OP as it might be for others. It's actually refreshing to hear the candid viewpoint that he expresses here.

25k is definitely a lot but I did the risk analysis and I figured worst case I would lose a 1000-2000 after a year of playing around with it, so I look at it more like renting (I'm going to keep the Macbook Pro no matter what since I needed a new one).

I mean whatever. It's workstation/server class hardware, that's how much it's been for a long time

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#92

Post by fortyseven »

dekhn wrote: post #59
throwatdem12311 wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not even a single mention of gaming. No wonder gamers hate AI bros.

I have a second computer with an RTX 4090 for gaming (running Windows). I also used the new RTX 5090 running Linux to evaluate whether Proton/Wine allow me to run Windows games on linux (yes, it works, but the compatibility and frame rate issues make me stick to native Windows for now).

I wonder what's going wrong there? Personally I found compatibility and performance on Linux to be extremely good. And just keeps getting better. And that's not even just me, that's all kinds of benchmarks out there. Sorry to hear that. : ' (

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#93

Post by mschuster91 »

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #27
gosub100 wrote: post #6

It doesn't cover risk. If one or more gpus dies, who pays for it? If you rent, you are guaranteed to be insulated from this risk. But owning, you might not have the best return policy from the vendor. And if you are actually at fault for breaking it, they have every right to deny a return. Or if your apartment is burglarized or catches fire (possibly from overloading the circuit) you are out the entire investment.

Also a lightning strike or surge from the electric utility could fry the whole rig. Proper protection costs thousands, and even then it's not guaranteed to protect everything

> Proper protection costs thousands

Frankly that's something a landlord should provide. And there's insurance against losses from electrical issues.

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#96

Post by m463 »

throwatdem12311 wrote: post #51
dekhn wrote: post #50

I can't imagine spending $48K on a home GPU server, but I did just splurge and buy a PC with an RTX 5090, specifically to hold the largest models you can fit in 32GB. It's a top of the line PC with water cooled high end CPUs, 64GB RAM, RTX 5090 for $5K. To me the jury is still out whether this was a worthwhile investment, but I do expect to use this machine for a decade. I don't run it at 100% power (it's mostly idle…

Not even a single mention of gaming. No wonder gamers hate AI bros.

or crypto... what's old is new again.

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#97

Post by rosmine »

dekhn wrote: post #50

I can't imagine spending $48K on a home GPU server, but I did just splurge and buy a PC with an RTX 5090, specifically to hold the largest models you can fit in 32GB. It's a top of the line PC with water cooled high end CPUs, 64GB RAM, RTX 5090 for $5K. To me the jury is still out whether this was a worthwhile investment, but I do expect to use this machine for a decade. I don't run it at 100% power (it's mostly idle…

Yes! It scared me too. I tried to insure it under my renter's insurance policy, but they not surprisingly refused. I had to get business insurance to cover it

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#98

Post by 4chandaily »

LandoCalrissian wrote: post #95

'If you google “plugging a PC into multiple outlets”, you get lots of warnings that if you even consider such a setup you will instantly burst into flames. So I hired a professional PC builder make sure it was safe.' Not really sure how that makes it safe but OK!

I read this as; the "professional PC builder" would carry some sort of insurance. So it isn't really "safer", but if something goes wrong, the investment is (potentially) still safe.

Just an assumption, though!

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#99

Post by echelon »

throwatdem12311 wrote: post #51
dekhn wrote: post #50

I can't imagine spending $48K on a home GPU server, but I did just splurge and buy a PC with an RTX 5090, specifically to hold the largest models you can fit in 32GB. It's a top of the line PC with water cooled high end CPUs, 64GB RAM, RTX 5090 for $5K. To me the jury is still out whether this was a worthwhile investment, but I do expect to use this machine for a decade. I don't run it at 100% power (it's mostly idle…

Not even a single mention of gaming. No wonder gamers hate AI bros.

> No wonder gamers hate AI bros.

Personally, playing with AI models is way more fun than getting sucked into a game loop. Game loops feel like busy work hooked to an engineered dopamine drip. AI models are new frontiers and are exciting to build with, modify, lobotomize, and hack around with.

Re: Was my $48K GPU server worth it?

#100

Post by m463 »

Other things people spend "too much money" on:

- muscle cars, with all the stuff, driven occasionally.

- boats, that don't get taken out much

- gamer x, where x=system or laptop or keyboard or mouse or desk or glasses or mousepad or speakers or ... usually with "> too much RGB"

- children

$48k for something constructive even if ai related? no problem, refreshing even.

Post reply on HN