QuoteFor the individual, the less dependent you are on all these accessories to living, the freer you are.

In terms of AI my personal decision is Knowledge Will Set Me Free.  Diner central will soon be running on a new motherboard.  I built the bones which carry this flesh ten years ago, and now it is time for a new machine.

I have been dabbling with my own AI.

This motherboard is the perfect platform for more experiments.  Totally premium, and it is in a box behind me.

The days of the hobbyist computer is ending as component cost driven by AI demand is now out of range of the average consumer.  The memory needed for this motherboard is ECC server RAM (error correcting)  the price has quadrupled (x4) in recent months, and there is no way for prices to fall as long as the AI bubble exists.  The memory 128GB is in another box, and it cost so much that the motherboard was able to be had at a substantial discount because the data center memory needed for it to run costs so much.

A hard core nerd core of hobbyists will remain.  But the days of an average guy building their own computer are over.

The key thing about the new machine besides having several times the power the current machine has is that all four of the card slots have full capability.  This puppy can run four video cards at once.  The PCIe slots are all full width.  And if a billionaire joins the Diner and donates $18,000.00 for two RTX6000's, the Diner will use them.  The power supply is 1650 watts supplying ample room for 4GPU cards.

Whenever I build a computer I quickly become aware of prices and where they are going.  I find a good price for every item I buy.  Sales of components have fallen through the floor because the high prices for memory devices means that sales are now a fraction of what has supported the hobby market up to now.  Building your own computer has doubled in price and most people will happily get what big brother wants them to get when the price doubles.  The golden age of the custom computer is over.

This board has the reputation of being the most returned.  Nothing wrong with the board but it is not well understood.  It can host a few Threadripper processors and if you do not get a 'pro' you can't use all the memory slots.  Which is actually fine since the non-pro processor only has 4 memory channels anyway.  But not everybody checks things out and they can't live with dead slots.  Which are not really dead if you have a pro.  Which I do. 16GB x 8.

What I did not want to live without is the bottom slot running at GEN 4 speed.  I wanted them all GEN 5.  Selecting the right processor also takes care of that issue.  The board supports what you give it, and I got the minimum high end Threadripper that lets the motherboard go whole hog.