Building a new Desktop PC for Data Science and Machine Learning

[arnuld]

My old AMD Athlon II X3 440 is showing off its age after 8 years of non-stop use. Just started a course on Data-Science and ML (Machine Learning) and this current desktop kinda performs OK but I something a bit better. Bit of Google search tells me graphics and multi-threading is more important to ML. So here is what I am looking at:

Budget -- 35-40,000 Indian Rupees
OS -- Arch Linux -- anything related to AMD is very well supported by Open Source drivers, hence Intel is a no no.
Gaming -- Never
Upgrade -- after 2-3 years

Other tasks (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) --

• 
  ■ write computer programs
  ■ process datasets
  ■ Play FHD videos
  ■ Encode audio video sometimes using ffmpeg. Not heavy encoding, just small files sometimes.

I already have my old Antec 300 Mid-Tower Cabinet, SONY DVD-RW, TP-Link router and hardly 3 months old APC UPS. Rest of the stuff is this:

AMD Rayzen 3 (https://amzn.to/2mVvaKR) -- 6200/- approximately.
MSI Mobo ProSeries AMD Ryzen A320 (https://amzn.to/2OwfaM3) -- 5500/-
HyperX Fury 8 GB RAM (https://amzn.to/2mVPDix) -- 7200/-
Corsair VS450 PSU (https://amzn.to/2LR62TI) -- 2800/-
Samsung 21.5" LED (https://amzn.to/2K93taE) -- 7400/-
Seagate 1TB (https://amzn.to/2OsUh49) -- 3200/-


Am I missing anything ?
Any advice to make it better or DO I really need Rayzen 3 or AMD A10 https://amzn.to/2M8ihb6 would be fie for my work ?

Can buy anything from these 2 sites: https://www.flipkart.com , http://amazon.in/


UPDATE: Cabinet Spec

 

[Lucky_SLS]

I would suggest primeagbg.com and theitdepot.com along with Amazon and local stores.

The best cpu for you I think is the 2400G. 4 cores 8 threads with built in gpu.

Go for a B350 4 ram slot mobo with 2x4gb of rams.

Try the corsair cx 450 or cxm 450 psu.

Update the mobo bios in the local shop.

 

[arnuld]

2400G is way damn expensive. How about adding instead a graphics card like Sapphire Radeon R5 230 Graphic card 1GB DDR3 or Open-Source supported NVIDIA GeForce GT 710

 

[Lucky_SLS]

The 1300X is 7.5k, the gpu is 2.5k which totals 11k. The 2400G is 12.5k which offers double the cpu performance and better gpu performance compared to the r5 230

 

[arnuld]

Just came across this. Since 2400G is pretty latest stuff, there is not stable Linux support for it:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ryzen5-2400g-vega11&num=1

Not only 2400G, 2200G also got messy support in Linux:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ryzen5-2400g-vega11&num=1

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Driver support has come a long way

Updated article from the same web page : https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ryzen-2400g-may&num=1

 

[arnuld]

I read that too and this is the most recent, a month ago:

https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux-graphics-x-org-drivers/amd-linux/1032693-ryzen-2200g-still-not-reliable-in-4-18rc2-when-will-it-work/page3

They all based oof Linux 4.18.x kernel, which is in testing phase. Latest bleeding edge kernel is 4.17.11 which I am using, you cant get further than this version number. 4.18 will be major upgrade to Linux, it will happen in few months.

Leaving all these aside, I have been using Linux for more than a decade. Generally, if a chip/hardware got support and running issues in Feb 2018, then from my experience, I need to wait till Feb 2019 before it becomes "not problematic anymore". But since AMD is very keen on getting their products working on Linux ASAP, I guess everything will be working fine in, may be, another 3-4 months. In last 12 years, I have been with lot of hardware issues with Linux, not primarily because of Linux but because manufacturers were not only not willing to support but willing to put obstacles so that their hardware does not work on Linux, I aint dreaming, it is a fact. You can name hardware and I have dealt with tough compatibility issues with it , LAN cards (internal or external), Audio cars, Video cards, you name it. You wont believe that my current setup of AMD Athlon II X3 440 with Gigabyte MOBO, still has no Open-Source video/graphics drivers and I bult it 10 years ago. But times have changed and AMD has been very open about their hardware working with Linux. Either I can wait 2-3 months or get non Vega based Ryzen with a GPU, lets see for a month. Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it