[SOLVED] 10 year old computer, upgrading for deep learning.

[mordaren]

Hi,

I am thinking about equipping my 10 year old desktop computer with a 1080 Ti for deep learning, but I am worried that my current hardware won't be compatible with such a modern card.

Current hardware:

CPU: Intel R i7-920
Video card: Nvidia GeForce Gt 240
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
PSU: Corsair CX600 (this one is about two years old and have been used for less than an hour since purchased)
RAM: 6GB DDR2

My main concern is that I could damage the expensive 1080 Ti by trying to use it directly with my machine. I am quite the novice when it comes to hardware, so any insights would be useful.

 

[jay32267]

I'm putting a 1080 in that same motherboard Saturday.
You won't damage the card.

Although, that PSU needs an 8 pin plug and a 6 pin plug.

Also...the i7-920 wouldn't work real well with a 1080 Ti for games because the CPU would probably max out a lot...although I'm not sure regarding "deep learning".

 

[jaslion]

Hi,

I am thinking about equipping my 10 year old desktop computer with a 1080 Ti for deep learning, but I am worried that my current hardware won't be compatible with such a modern card.

Current hardware:

CPU: Intel R i7-920
Video card: Nvidia GeForce Gt 240
Motherboard: Asus P6T Deluxe V2
PSU: Corsair CX600 (this one is about two years old and have been used for less than an hour since purchased)
RAM: 6GB DDR2

My main concern is that I could damage the expensive 1080 Ti by trying to use it directly with my machine. I am quite the novice when it comes to hardware, so any insights would be useful.

Is that a green label CX600?
You should also look in to getting some more ram for your system as deep learning tends to often dump a lot of stuff into ram depending on what you are doing.

 

[jay32267]

Also....that should be DDR3 RAM you have.

....and as far as the CX series....I've heard less than stellar things about it....although I've no personal experience.

 

[dontlistentome]

I advise studying the hardware requirements for the software you intend to use. Saying 'deep learning' is like saying 'gaming', it means nothing as far as deciding what components you need.

 

[mordaren]

I'm putting a 1080 in that same motherboard Saturday.
You won't damage the card.

Although, that PSU needs an 8 pin plug and a 6 pin plug.

Also...the i7-920 wouldn't work real well with a 1080 Ti for games because the CPU would probably max out a lot...although I'm not sure regarding "deep learning".

That's cool, I was almost expecting to get laughed at for thinking that GPU would go with my old stuff.

I wont be playing games, I will only use the GPU to run computations. Not sure how important the CPU will be for that. Do you see any problems with upgrading the GPU first and then, if it becomes a problem, upgrading the CPU at a later point in time? What kind of CPU do you have for that same motherboard?

Also, the GPU will typically run at maximum capacity for many hours straight. I am not sure if that's the case with gaming. Do you think that could make any difference?

Is that a green label CX600?
You should also look in to getting some more ram for your system as deep learning tends to often dump a lot of stuff into ram depending on what you are doing.

Yes it has a green label. Thanks for the advise regarding the ram, I'll definitely look into it if it becomes an issue.

Also....that should be DDR3 RAM you have.

....and as far as the CX series....I've heard less than stellar things about it....although I've no personal experience.

Oh yes, I think you're right about that. About the PSU: that's the cheapest PSU I could find after the old one suddenly died and I needed to access some files on the computer. I guess I wouldn't mind replacing that. Any suggestions on minimum specs to be able to run the GPU?

 

[mordaren]

I advise studying the hardware requirements for the software you intend to use. Saying 'deep learning' is like saying 'gaming', it means nothing as far as deciding what components you need.

The requirements I have (for now) is to be able to train state-of-the-art convnets on a GPU without having to upgrade my entire system. I am currently using Google Cloud Services, but I'd prefer having my own hardware available. My current ventures revolve around computer vision.

 

[jay32267]

"Do you see any problems with upgrading the GPU first and then, if it becomes a problem, upgrading the CPU at a later point in time? What kind of CPU do you have for that same motherboard?"

It actually had an i7-920 in it. I upgraded it to an i7-980 that I got from EBay. It's still a pretty smokin machine and will play pretty much any game on 1080p max settings....that's with a GTX 1060.

Anyway....to answer your question.....no I don't see a problem with doing that.

"Also, the GPU will typically run at maximum capacity for many hours straight. I am not sure if that's the case with gaming. Do you think that could make any difference?"

That shouldn't make a difference. The GPU is designed to run at maximum continuously. Just make sure your case is ventilated well enough (enough fans)....or run with the side off. I do that a lot.

"Any suggestions on minimum specs to be able to run the GPU?"

NVidia recommends 600W.

I just picked up a Corsair RMx 750 on Amazon for $99 I'm going to use when I put that 1080 in on Saturday.

 

[Calvin7]

Core i7-920 looks very weak in Benchmarks and currently sells for $12 on eBay. You might want to spend a $100 on a used Core i7-980.

 

[jay32267]

^^^I agree with that...plus you get two more cores.

I originally put in a 990X......but it turned out to be bad....thus the 980....but there isn't a whole lot of difference....especially when you consider the huge jump from the 920.

 

[jaslion]

I'm putting a 1080 in that same motherboard Saturday.
You won't damage the card.

Although, that PSU needs an 8 pin plug and a 6 pin plug.

Also...the i7-920 wouldn't work real well with a 1080 Ti for games because the CPU would probably max out a lot...although I'm not sure regarding "deep learning".

That's cool, I was almost expecting to get laughed at for thinking that GPU would go with my old stuff.

I wont be playing games, I will only use the GPU to run computations. Not sure how important the CPU will be for that. Do you see any problems with upgrading the GPU first and then, if it becomes a problem, upgrading the CPU at a later point in time? What kind of CPU do you have for that same motherboard?

Also, the GPU will typically run at maximum capacity for many hours straight. I am not sure if that's the case with gaming. Do you think that could make any difference?

Is that a green label CX600?
You should also look in to getting some more ram for your system as deep learning tends to often dump a lot of stuff into ram depending on what you are doing.

Yes it has a green label. Thanks for the advise regarding the ram, I'll definitely look into it if it becomes an issue.

Also....that should be DDR3 RAM you have.

....and as far as the CX series....I've heard less than stellar things about it....although I've no personal experience.

Oh yes, I think you're right about that. About the PSU: that's the cheapest PSU I could find after the old one suddenly died and I needed to access some files on the computer. I guess I wouldn't mind replacing that. Any suggestions on minimum specs to be able to run the GPU?

The green label SHOULD NOT BE USED. It's a known low quality version of the cx series and should not be used with a 1080ti.

Also after doing some research most xeons including the popular cheaper alternatives to the 6 core I7's (the x5670, x5680 and x5690) seem to work as long as you are on bios version 1108 or higher.

100$ for a hexa core cpu of that age is just ridiculous when cheaper xeons (which are literally the same cpu but with a couple extra features) can be had for less and often are even better overclockers than the I7's.

 

[mordaren]

Thanks everybody! jay32267, how did it go with your 1080?

 

[jay32267]

Well....I took out a huge Newton 1000 watt PSU that was probably really crappy and put in a Corsair RM 750X.

Then put in the 1080....but one thing I think I'm learning is that when you swap NVidia cards.....they like the driver reinstalled because I had issues with both the 1080 and an RTX 2080 Ti last week when I didn't reinstall the driver.

....but yeah.....it went well. The 1080 might be a little strong for the i7-980.....but not by much.