this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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19
Planning build: Power efficient headless steam machine, and later upgrade for AI tasks (lemm.ee)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
11 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Background

I'm planning on building a secondary server that can process more intense tasks than my current basic home server. Tasks such as light gaming (think "remote Steam Deck"), and later allowed to be upgraded with a Nvidia graphics card to handle AI tasks, such as LLM and SD.

The problem

While I have no problem picking parts to build this as a "desktop computer", I'm completely lost when trying to make it power efficient for idle load (if it's even possible with a power-hungry Nvidia card). I'd appreciate some guidance even if it's not a full parts list suggestion!

Watching Wolfgang's videos has unfortunately not translated knowledge into practice for me yet. At least I know TDP isn't an absolute determining factor anymore.

Planning the build

Due to a limited budget, the idea is split the build in 2 phases.

Phase 1 (gaming):

  • Budget: $1000 (ideally below ~$800):
  • Use for local headless gaming (with bazzite?)
  • At least as powerful as a Steam Deck
  • Parts:
    • APU:
      • Perhaps: "AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D ($400)"
      • or "AMD Ryzen 5 7600X ($300)"?
    • Motherboard:
      • No specific requirement, will mainly just use the PCIe x16 slot for a single GPU when upgrading in "phase 2".
      • Okay with gigabit ethernet and basic I/O.
    • Power supply:
      • Power efficient power supply that can handle a class 4080/4090 card.
    • Cooling:
      • Air-cooled preferred
    • Storage:
      • Samsung 990 PRO NVMe M.2 SSD 1TB (~$100)
    • RAM:
      • Corsair Vengeance LPX Black DDR4 3200MHz 2x16GB (~$70)
    • Case:
      • As long as it fits a large graphics card

Phase 2 (AI: LLM/SD):

  • Budget: ~$2000
  • After 1-2 years, upgrade with Nvidia graphics card.
    • Ideally something with 24GB VRAM, like the 4090.
    • Prefer Nvidia due to compatibility with SD.
  • Open for suggestion, since wanting a low power draw with a 4090 might sound contradictory.

In case I missed any crucial information, let me know!

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

You can probably ignore the idle power consomuption and enable Wake On LAN and turn it on and of over the network. Is that a solution for you?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

one of those pi kvms or the like could turn on any system even if it doesn't support wake on lan

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Might be the case but is this really a problem to solve? To my knowledge, all modern boards support wol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

With all the helpful comments shared in this thread, I'm starting to realize that this approach is likely the only viable solution.

Previously when doing my research, I was naive enough that when people said "...30W at idle", it was specifically for their GPU, and not for their whole system. So now things makes a lot more sense.