Off-the-shelf PC spec, engine development

[chrisw]

I've been looking at PC possibilities, off the shelf, purchased online (Europe, which means basically UK, DE, NL suppliers) for some more development kit, something with lots of cores.

So far, and not searched too much just yet, came up with this one, partly because I bought from Sedatech in the past without problem.

https://www.sedatech.net/en/detail/inde ... Key/FrjQkL

For another 2000 euros it can become Threadripper 3990X rather than 3970X.

not sure how OTT it is, do I need so many cores and that much RAM, for example, and so on.

[Raphexon]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

[chrisw]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

Seriously so?

What is happening faster in the 3990X to double speed? Is this an across the board doubling, or only in some specific type of test?

if a general chess engine NPS doubler, then that would be interesting, I guess

[smatovic]

Workstations from Delta Computer in DE:

https://www.deltacomputer.com/workstation.html

From to, with and wo GP/GPU and so on.

***edit***

Ah, sorry, just realized shop is in German only, asusme then they operate only in DE.

--
Srdja

[chrisw]

Workstations from Delta Computer in DE:

https://www.deltacomputer.com/workstation.html

From to, with and wo GP/GPU and so on.

***edit***

Ah, sorry, just realized shop is in German only, asusme then they operate only in DE.

--
Srdja

English translation of their terms of sale:

Our offer is aimed exclusively at commercial customers and corporations under public law. All prices are exclusive of VAT and ex warehouse in Reinbek or free delivery to research and teaching customers in Germany.


Probably they would ship to EU, but those terms seem to imply 'business customers only', or?
The prices look generally similar to Sedatech, I think.

[smatovic]

Workstations from Delta Computer in DE:

https://www.deltacomputer.com/workstation.html

From to, with and wo GP/GPU and so on.

***edit***

Ah, sorry, just realized shop is in German only, asusme then they operate only in DE.

--
Srdja

English translation of their terms of sale:

Our offer is aimed exclusively at commercial customers and corporations under public law. All prices are exclusive of VAT and ex warehouse in Reinbek or free delivery to research and teaching customers in Germany.


Probably they would ship to EU, but those terms seem to imply 'business customers only', or?
The prices look generally similar to Sedatech, I think.

Yes, only business customers. In Germany some free-lancers and alike are also counted as business customers...

prices might be similar, the nice thing about Delta is that they scale up to HPC and so on.

--
Srdja

[MikeB]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

Seriously so?

What is happening faster in the 3990X to double speed? Is this an across the board doubling, or only in some specific type of test?

if a general chess engine NPS doubler, then that would be interesting, I guess

Doubling of cores - testing is twice as fast ( twice as many games are completed in a given time period )- with 64 cores (3990x ), I strongly recommend 256 GB RAM - nothing less than 128 GB for sure. $2000 upgrade to 3990x is a good deal - some builders in the US will charge you $2500 more for the 3990x. Don't expect a huge Elo Jump, going from 32 to 64 core is at most 30 Elo , most likely less. It's really for those that want to cut their testing time in half.

[chrisw]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

Seriously so?

What is happening faster in the 3990X to double speed? Is this an across the board doubling, or only in some specific type of test?

if a general chess engine NPS doubler, then that would be interesting, I guess

Doubling of cores - testing is twice as fast ( twice as many games are completed in a given time period )- with 64 cores (3990x ), I strongly recommend 256 GB RAM - nothing less than 128 GB for sure. $2000 upgrade to 3990x is a good deal - some builders in the US will charge you $2500 more for the 3990x. Don't expect a huge Elo Jump, going from 32 to 64 core is at most 30 Elo , most likely less. It's really for those that want to cut their testing time in half.

Ah! Mike, thanks for that, I didn't spot the small print from 32x to 64x
okay, now I understand the 2000 euros extra

and whoosh, now with 256 Gb RAM it's at 7650 euros

[MikeB]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

Seriously so?

What is happening faster in the 3990X to double speed? Is this an across the board doubling, or only in some specific type of test?

if a general chess engine NPS doubler, then that would be interesting, I guess

Doubling of cores - testing is twice as fast ( twice as many games are completed in a given time period )- with 64 cores (3990x ), I strongly recommend 256 GB RAM - nothing less than 128 GB for sure. $2000 upgrade to 3990x is a good deal - some builders in the US will charge you $2500 more for the 3990x. Don't expect a huge Elo Jump, going from 32 to 64 core is at most 30 Elo , most likely less. It's really for those that want to cut their testing time in half.

Ah! Mike, thanks for that, I didn't spot the small print from 32x to 64x
okay, now I understand the 2000 euros extra

and whoosh, now with 256 Gb RAM it's at 7650 euros

With the 3970x , which I have , the 128 GB is fine - a large hash , say 65536M hash is generally full in under 10 minutes, so a 64 core unit would definitely benefit with a larger hash. I if you get 128 GB, get the bigger sticks so your builder will leave half the RAMS slots opens so you can always upgrade RAM later without incurring additional costs- i'e. that is replacing 8x16GB sticks with 8x32GB sticks . Just get 4x32 GB sticks up front, then you only need 4x32 Gb sticks to complete the upgrade to 256 GB.

[chrisw]

Money now vs time later.
The 3990x will let you test twice as fast.

Seriously so?

What is happening faster in the 3990X to double speed? Is this an across the board doubling, or only in some specific type of test?

if a general chess engine NPS doubler, then that would be interesting, I guess

Doubling of cores - testing is twice as fast ( twice as many games are completed in a given time period )- with 64 cores (3990x ), I strongly recommend 256 GB RAM - nothing less than 128 GB for sure. $2000 upgrade to 3990x is a good deal - some builders in the US will charge you $2500 more for the 3990x. Don't expect a huge Elo Jump, going from 32 to 64 core is at most 30 Elo , most likely less. It's really for those that want to cut their testing time in half.

Ah! Mike, thanks for that, I didn't spot the small print from 32x to 64x
okay, now I understand the 2000 euros extra

and whoosh, now with 256 Gb RAM it's at 7650 euros

With the 3970x , which I have , the 128 GB is fine - a large hash , say 65536M hash is generally full in under 10 minutes, so a 64 core unit would definitely benefit with a larger hash. I if you get 128 GB, get the bigger sticks so your builder will leave half the RAMS slots opens so you can always upgrade RAM later without incurring additional costs- i'e. that is replacing 8x16GB sticks with 8x32GB sticks . Just get 4x32 GB sticks up front, then you only need 4x32 Gb sticks to complete the upgrade to 256 GB.

Probably going CoronaVirus crazy, I figured the 5000 euros was “expensive”, and even considering paying the price of a small car seems nuts. Will restore sanity shortly.