Question Thoughts on PC Build for Computer Scientist

[mr_andersonLE]

Hey all. Been 8 years since I built a PC, and laptops aren't cutting it anymore. I'm moving into work in highly CPU intensive ML research. I have access to a compute cluster but also want to be able to run independently.

Looking for thoughts from folks more up on the market than me on this first draft of parts I made for a high end build. https://pcpartpicker.com/list/wgmqcb

The algorithms I'm running are highly parallelized, memory intensive, CPU intensive, etc. I'd also like to do some 4k gaming outside of the PS5.

So, messing with a high end build here. Things I'm weighing in respect to the build:

1. Is it worth waiting on meteor lake coming out later this year?

2. If I'm spending to this extent, is this a good distribution of resources such that nothing's gonna be a bottleneck?

3. Is cooling going to be an issue for this rig? I'm going to be running under full load for extended periods and don't want to have thermal throttling. Would prefer not to do a custom water cooling loop if not necessary.

4. Is this PSU sufficient or should I bump up to 1200 watts?

Appreciate any insight. Thanks!

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Personally, the build looks fine, but I'd look into a 1.2KW or higher wattage PSU for the sake of headroom. Yu don't need to add more storage(i.e, more physical drives)?

If you're not in any hurry, then yes everything is worth waiting to see if what comes next is better or worse, courtesy of reviews, though.

 

[Why_Me]

If you're going with air cooling you want the locked version of that cpu along with a board with better VRM's.

Intel Core i9-13900KS Review: The World's First 6 GHz 320W CPU

The fastest and most power hungry PC chip ever.

www.tomshardware.com

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i9-13900 2 GHz 24-Core Processor ($549.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($119.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($259.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card ($1647.00 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($178.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $3105.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-05-14 16:19 EDT-0400

 

[CountMike]

That's pretty much top end right now and can't see any room for improving. As for waiting for new generation, you could wait forever with no guarantees.

 

[mr_andersonLE]

If you're going with air cooling you want the locked version of that cpu along with a board with better VRM's.

Intel Core i9-13900KS Review: The World's First 6 GHz 320W CPU

The fastest and most power hungry PC chip ever.

www.tomshardware.com

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i9-13900 2 GHz 24-Core Processor ($549.99 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($119.95 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: *MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($259.99 @ B&H)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card ($1647.00 @ B&H)
Case: Corsair 5000D AIRFLOW ATX Mid Tower Case ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($178.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $3105.90
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-05-14 16:19 EDT-0400

No air cooling solution can handle the 6 ghz model you think?

 

[Lafong]

Regarding Meteor Lake, I found the following within the last few days.

Make of it what you will:

Rumor that Meteor Lake chips will begin rolling out in October 2023, with a 14-core laptop CPU being the one to lead the charge.

To see a mobile chip being the first to be released is odd, to say the least.

Leakers claim that the Intel Meteor Lake desktop lineup might be in trouble. A cryptic tweet in late 2022 suggests that the range might be canceled for now.

Instead, it might release a refresh of Raptor Lake and push back Meteor Lake by another year, but many signs point to it being scrapped entirely.

If that happens, Intel might launch Meteor Lake for laptops alongside a Raptor Lake refresh for desktops and skip right to Arrow Lake for its next-gen desktop chips.

Rumors say Intel may limit the number of P-cores on the flagship i9-14900K, to six. That would make six P-cores and 16 E-cores, for a total of 22 cores.

Intel 14th-gen Meteor Lake: everything you need to know | Digital Trends Intel's 14-gen Meteor Lake processors are here and will soon start appearing in laptops. Here's everything you need to know about them. www.digitaltrends.com

 

[mr_andersonLE]

Regarding Meteor Lake, I found the following within the last few days.

Make of it what you will:

Rumor that Meteor Lake chips will begin rolling out in October 2023, with a 14-core laptop CPU being the one to lead the charge.

To see a mobile chip being the first to be released is odd, to say the least.

Leakers claim that the Intel Meteor Lake desktop lineup might be in trouble. A cryptic tweet in late 2022 suggests that the range might be canceled for now.

Instead, it might release a refresh of Raptor Lake and push back Meteor Lake by another year, but many signs point to it being scrapped entirely.

If that happens, Intel might launch Meteor Lake for laptops alongside a Raptor Lake refresh for desktops and skip right to Arrow Lake for its next-gen desktop chips.

Rumors say Intel may limit the number of P-cores on the flagship i9-14900K, to six. That would make six P-cores and 16 E-cores, for a total of 22 cores.

Intel 14th-gen Meteor Lake: everything you need to know | Digital Trends Intel's 14-gen Meteor Lake processors are here and will soon start appearing in laptops. Here's everything you need to know about them. www.digitaltrends.com

Good to know ty, sounds like waiting probably not worth it.

 

[Why_Me]

No air cooling solution can handle the 6 ghz model you think?

That cpu runs hot. The locked version of that cpu would at least allow you to get the most out of an i9.

 

[mr_andersonLE]

That cpu runs hot. The locked version of that cpu would at least allow you to get the most out of an i9.

Would an AIO water cooling unit make a difference or comparable to high end air cooling? When I built last in 2013, AIO units didn't offer much more

 

[Lafong]

Would an AIO water cooling unit make a difference or comparable to high end air cooling? When I built last in 2013, AIO units didn't offer much more

"Difference"?

Might run a bit cooler if you got a 360 mm AIO. Smaller than that is likely to be a wash.

Are lower temps better by definition?

Are you straining for the last 5% of performance? Occasionally? Constantly?

Are you indifferent to cooler maintenance issues over the medium and long term?

You can de-tune the i9 as you see fit if temps are keeping you up at night. Or let it throttle as it sees fit.

 

[Why_Me]

Would an AIO water cooling unit make a difference or comparable to high end air cooling? When I built last in 2013, AIO units didn't offer much more

If you go with the KS then I would look at something like this.

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KS 3 GHz 24-Core Processor ($1269.00 @ Amazon)
CPU Cooler: *Deepcool LT720 85.85 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($139.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: *MSI MAG Z790 TOMAHAWK WIFI ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($259.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6400 CL32 Memory ($254.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Samsung 990 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive ($189.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: MSI GAMING X TRIO GeForce RTX 4090 24 GB Video Card ($1647.00 @ B&H)
Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 216 ATX Mid Tower Case ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair RM1000x (2021) 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply ($178.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $4039.94
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-05-14 17:12 EDT-0400

https://lian-li.com/product/lancool-216/

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykbhuv6yLBc

 

[Lucky_SLS]

Few thoughts for the work you intent to do:

Confirm how much the work would be limited due to memory bandwidth. You might prefer to look into threadripper 5000 series with 8 channel memory if that helps. and you can go upto 32 cores. this would be a bit costly, but the performace would be worth it if you need that much raw processing power.

Confirm if you need a 4090 or a 7900XTX would do the job. The work might not be cuda core favoured. you can save up a lot by going AMD if it works out.

If you confirm on this, i can list a threadripper combo with 8 channel 256gb DDR5 ECC rams...

 

[Teddywills]

A computer built for a computer scientist should prioritize speed and efficiency, in my opinion. The three most important components of any computer system are the CPU, memory, and graphics card. Also, check that there is enough room to store your materials and that the air conditioning can handle the workload.

https://www.quora.com/Do-you-learn-how-to-build-computers-in-computer-science

 

[geofelt]

Your build is as good as it gets today.
1. If you wait for the next best thing, you will wait forever.
2. There will always be a limiting factor which some call "bottleneck" Your parts are the top of their category.
I particularly like the 13900KS which will have the very best single thread performance around. Many scientific apps like matlab have
single thread programming embedded.
3. NH-D15 is as good as it gets for an air cooler.
Plan on installing two 140mm front intake fans to supply the cpu cooler and the graphics cards with fresh air.
You can buy 3000 RPM fans, but I would think 1200- 1500 RPM would be more than you need.
Here is a useful article that tests a 13900K using less than top end coolers:

Core i9-13900K Cooling Guide: Testing Intel's Flagship With Budget Air and Big AIOs

The Core i9-13900K can push even the most capable liquid coolers to their limits, but you don’t lose that much performance if you go with budget-priced air cooling.

www.tomshardware.com

Cooler tests are usually done using apps that fully load all threads.
But, that is not your likely workload.
4. Recommended power for 4090 varies. 850w seems to be minimum. Some suggest 1200w.
That might be for factory overclocked versions.
Here is one list:

Some RTX 4090 Graphics Cards Recommend a 1200W Power Supply

That might be overkill, even for an RTX 4090

www.tomshardware.com

A psu will only use the power demanded of it, regardless of the max capability.
Other than cost, a 1200w unit is fine