Question Build ideas: Max RAM build for desktop

[buggaby]

Looking for build ideas. This is for a research machine. Running CPU intensive processes, to be run in headless mode (i.e., no GPU needed except for installation or maybe some debugging).

Also, processes use a ton of RAM, like 60GB per core. This is the reason that a server-type machine would be financially less ideal - you pay a lot for those many cores and they are all a bit slower. These processes can't be parallelized across multiple cores.

Looking to buy the equivalent of about 10 cores' worth of runs, or about 600GB of RAM. Obviously, in a desktop setting, this means buying multiple machines, which is fine by me.

I like Ryzen, but I haven't kept up. Still price advantage over Intel? Given that onboard video is more than enough for me, and Ryzen 7 and 9 chips top out at 128GB, I'm open to go Intel as well. But are 256GB motherboards starting to get into niche (read: pricey) territory?

I'm actually thinking that 5 128GB machines would be faster because, essentially, I assume you'd have more cache/process (only 2 cores per machine instead of 4). Correct me if wrong, here.

Budget is about 10k USD. And I'm in the US.

If there's anything else I'm missing, I'd be grateful for questions and other input.

 

[CountMike]

Looking for build ideas. This is for a research machine. Running CPU intensive processes, to be run in headless mode (i.e., no GPU needed except for installation or maybe some debugging).

Also, processes use a ton of RAM, like 60GB per core. This is the reason that a server-type machine would be financially less ideal - you pay a lot for those many cores and they are all a bit slower. These processes can't be parallelized across multiple cores.

Looking to buy the equivalent of about 10 cores' worth of runs, or about 600GB of RAM. Obviously, in a desktop setting, this means buying multiple machines, which is fine by me.

I like Ryzen, but I haven't kept up. Still price advantage over Intel? Given that onboard video is more than enough for me, and Ryzen 7 and 9 chips top out at 128GB, I'm open to go Intel as well. But are 256GB motherboards starting to get into niche (read: pricey) territory?

I'm actually thinking that 5 128GB machines would be faster because, essentially, I assume you'd have more cache/process (only 2 cores per machine instead of 4). Correct me if wrong, here.

Budget is about 10k USD. And I'm in the US.

If there's anything else I'm missing, I'd be grateful for questions and other input.

For so much of multichannel RAM you need to look at AMD Threadripper platform. Only HEDT processors and platforms have enough cache and 4 channel memory capability to efficiently handle so much RAM

 

[buggaby]

For so much of multichannel RAM you need to look at AMD Threadripper platform. Only HEDT processors and platforms have enough cache and 4 channel memory capability to efficiently handle so much RAM

Thanks for the reply. I'm a little confused, though. Are you saying that there would be noticeable difference between 2 cores each running a 60 GB process on a thread ripper vs a ryzen chip? I would have thought the cash and four channel memory would be good for much more parallelized processes.