[SOLVED] Need Server Workstation Advice

[chrisbgd]

I need a workstation for my lab that can perform heavy computing task, Monte Carlo simulation mostly and heavy data analysis. I'll not perform heavy 3D rendering work like CAD or so.
My budget is around $10k and I got following specificatins from a seller. I don't know how worth are the components. Has seller overpriced? Could I get more high performing components than what seller is offering at this budget? Please help!

Please see the offered specifications here (sorry for the inconvenience )

https://imgur.com/a/GPbg6HN

View: https://imgur.com/a/GPbg6HN


Thank you.
Chris

 

[USAFRet]

I need a workstation for my lab that can perform heavy computing task

You need to define your actual requirements.
"heavy computing" does not really specify.

What does your software require?

That quoted system may be too much, not enough, or both at the same time.

 

[chrisbgd]

You need to define your actual requirements.
"heavy computing" does not really specify.

What does your software require?

That quoted system may be too much, not enough, or both at the same time.

I modified the post. Please let me know if I need to include any other info.

 

[kanewolf]

I need a workstation for my lab that can perform heavy computing task. My budget is around $10k and I got following specificatins from a seller. I don't know how worth are the components. Has seller overpriced? Could I get more high performing componenets than what seller is offering at this budget? Please help!

Please see the offered specifications here (sorry for the inconvenience )

https://imgur.com/a/GPbg6HN

View: https://imgur.com/a/GPbg6HN


Thank you.
Chris

With two 6238R CPUs, you want 12 DIMMs. Why? Because each CPU has 6 channel memory controller. That will maximize performance. Quoting 4x32GB shows that seller doesn't know how to optimize performance. You want a quote with 12x8GB or 12x16GB.
Do you know how well your software scales? You will have 56 cores and 112 threads. It is VERY difficult to write software that scales to those levels.
Most software that is that parallel has been ported to GPUs. You have a minimum GPU.

 

[USAFRet]

Just some questions (no need to answer here, but to consider in your overall spec sheet):
Do you need more GPU power? Probably. Why or why not?
Do you really need 64TB HDD space? If you do, great. If you do not...that is just wasted money.
What OS? Linux, Win 10 Pro, Windows Server?

Every part needs a justification of why.

 

[chrisbgd]

With two 6238R CPUs, you want 12 DIMMs. Why? Because each CPU has 6 channel memory controller. That will maximize performance. Quoting 4x32GB shows that seller doesn't know how to optimize performance. You want a quote with 12x8GB or 12x16GB.
Do you know how well your software scales? You will have 56 cores and 112 threads. It is VERY difficult to write software that scales to those levels.
Most software that is that parallel has been ported to GPUs. You have a minimum GPU.

@kanewolf Sorry but may I know what do you mean by : "Do you know how well your software scales? It is VERY difficult to write software that scales to those levels. "

 

[kanewolf]

@kanewolf Sorry but may I know what do you mean by : "Do you know how well your software scales? It is VERY difficult to write software that scales to those levels. "

I am asking if you have tested whatever software you are using with a large number of threads. Many times, renting time on an AWS server as a test bed can tell you if you will benefit from that many CPU cores/threads. If you rent a 64 core AWS host and you can see that all the CPUs are utilized, you can feel comfortable that buying 56 cores won't be a waste of money. If you rent a 64 core AWS host and your software only uses 16 cores, then you know you need to reevaluate your CPU choice. You will have 40 CPUs doing nothing.

 

[chrisbgd]

@kanewolf One such simulation package I use is CORSIKA which says:

The PARALLEL option enables the CORSIKA program to run a single shower on several cores in parallel to reduce the time to complete the shower. This enables the simulation at highest energies (> 10^17eV) without the THIN option. Therefore the LPM-effect is activated automatically.
There exist two modes of parallelization:
a) by shell scripts or
b) by Message Passing Interface (MPI) system.

I don't know if it helps to decide.

 

[kanewolf]

@kanewolf One such simulation package I use is CORSIKA which says:

The PARALLEL option enables the CORSIKA program to run a single shower on several cores in parallel to reduce the time to complete the shower. This enables the simulation at highest energies (> 10^17eV) without the THIN option. Therefore the LPM-effect is activated automatically.
There exist two modes of parallelization:
a) by shell scripts or
b) by Message Passing Interface (MPI) system.

I don't know if it helps to decide.

Not familiar with that software. Again, I am just recommending you do some benchmarking on different sized AWS hosts before you spend a lot of $$$ for a purchase.