£4.5k AMD-based intermediate ML Workstation - Help Appreciated

[Chimern]

I have been reading through all of your threads and engaged on Discord - what an awesome community and very informative threads.

Max budget £5.5k.

Working on an ML project involving computer vision model training and nlp. I'm looking for a versatile rig to serve as a middle-ground workstation for rapid proof-of-concept development before cloud deployment. I've been relying on rented GPUs so far - would like to build something that can handle small to medium scale ML tasks. I will also be using this as personal computer for day to day and gaming when I have time off. I have a 240Hz AOC 27G2ZNE and will likely upgrade to a 1440P 240Hz monitor. Any recommendations here?

I have some specific questions about component choices and configuration - any insights on these would be greatly appreciated! Here is the build I have gone for:

• Case: CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
  • Previosly looking at LIAN LI O11DYNAMIC EVO and FRACTAL NORTH TG XL but 5000D seems to have great reviews and frequently mentioned in threads. Is there any material difference here?
• Processor (CPU): AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
  • 9950X instead of 14900KS given your feedback throughout the various threads. I have not seen any indication that this will be fixed any time soon.
• Motherboard: ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
  • No Idea on mobo - any advice hear greatly appreciated
• Memory (RAM): 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
  • Thought about 192GB @5200 but pretty low clock speeds. 96GB @5600 was pretty happy medium on the 14900KS but doesn't seem configurable possible w. AMD on PCS.
• Graphics Card: 24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
  • Changed from 4090 OC to regular 4090 given feedback on previous posts. Definitely not worthwhile?
• 1st M.2 SSD Drive: 1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
• 2nd M.2 SSD Drive: 4TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
  • Can potentially add another storage drive
• Power Supply: CORSAIR 1200W RMx SHIFT SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
  • PCS recommends 850W, chose 1200W due to similar recommendations for like-builds. Overkill?
• Processor Cooling: CORSAIR ICUE LINK H150i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
  • just picked one of the H150s. All look the same to me on their website - had LCD but changed to link to be compatible with extra fans. Is this just aesthetics? Would like to see temps on LCD
• Extra Case Fans: 5 x Corsair ICUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit
• Sound Card: ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
• Network Card: ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
• USB/Thunderbolt Options: MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
• Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
  • W11 pro for remote desktop but could use Meshnet on Nord VPN instead
• Warranty: 3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
  • Paid for additional 2 year warranty on parts (initially for i9 - perhaps not required anymore?)

Price: £4,536.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/UtWQXvhr6S/

I am also considering dual-booting so I can manage CUDA, PyTorch, TensorFlow etc. on Linux system. I was hoping PCS might do this for me but they do not provide this service. Any advice on storage configuration for this? I have no experience dual booting so may just stick with WSL integration with Docker.

Thanks

 

[ThyThy]

Do you know what is the main bottleneck of performance for your ML project? (e.g., rather VRAM bandwidth, TF32, FP64, FP32, ...?) That should probably be the focal point if you want to maximize performance.
Can it benefit from multi-GPU ? (unfortunately even Pro equivalent of 4000 series do not support NVLink anymore, but depending on the algorithm it might be possible to completely parallelize your task. Or launch 2 different jobs.)

Is the power of the CPU of any use for your ML project? As far as I know, most of the workload for ML is GPU-based, i.e. low chance to be a bottleneck. Same questions for other high-end components that you chose (SSD, amount of RAM, Mobo). Of course you have a large budget, but if they just sit there doing the same work as lower-grade... you might as well spend more where it matters more.

 

[Scott]

As above. How CPU based do you see your processes and uses in the software? The 9950X is the best powerhouse AMD have on the AM5 platform, but if you need to unlock some proper processing grunt then you'll want to look at Threadripper. It will make AM5 look silly, never mind Intel. Unfortunately the price and value scales at this level like you can possibly imagine.

To your queries...

The 5000X is a great case for most users, gaming and a bit of hard effort it goes without question. At this level you may want to look a bit more towards airflow. I don't know that this would be the best case for this use in honesty. It would most likely be fine, but not optimal.

Motherboard is going to be key in the RAM & GPU aspirations. If you want the best out of the RAM it's likely you will need to be comfortable tweaking on AM5, if the GPU is going to be the main player.... you may want to consider 2 of them at some point.

4090 OC is pretty much pointless. There are benefits of it, but I would be far more sterile in your thinking. If you want dual GPUs at some point, you need to be mindful of their size/layout. Keeping it simple tends to work better for professional.

PSU - You may want to aim higher. The 1500W PSU may even need to be on the radar. For the build as it stands the 1200w offering is absolutely perfect, don't go lower as the calculator is flat wrong. The 1500w (I believe it's ATX3.x) would cover dual 4090s (or potentially 5090s, upgrading the main player is important to get the value throughout the system life). It depends on your aspirations of what you intend to do with the system and whether you look to increase performance or longevity.

W11 Pro... At this level I would, purely to have the option of remote as a fall back. I use Moonlight/Sunshine, but I am unsure of the security requirements that you need in play. The other offerings may be more in line with your requirements. Remote desktop in Pro isn't very secure though so suggests that Moonlight/Sunshine would be fine. It's worth having remote and pro as a backup regardless.

Cooling - Throw everything at it. You won't go wrong on the CPU cooler. A high end AIO will help the GPU airflow and thus temps. You can't go wrong with moar. The key is balancing the case fans to the system. That can be nailed down once a final spec is chosen though.

For dual boot I would strongly recommend a second drive. I would avoid the Samsung secondary and opt for the Corsair brand instead (high end). In your shoes I would look to the high end primary as you have selected, a decent 500GB drive such as the Solid P44 and a high end 4TB Corsair M2 drive for the main storage/use drive.

 

[Scoped Badger]

This is way above my knowledge level, so I’ll let the others take this one, but just wanted to say how good it is to see someone actually doing some research, and looking around the forum, before posting. It doesn’t happen too often so was quite refreshing to see! I’m sure I’m not the only one who appreciated it either.

 

[Chimern]

Do you know what is the main bottleneck of performance for your ML project? (e.g., rather VRAM bandwidth, TF32, FP64, FP32, ...?) That should probably be the focal point if you want to maximize performance.
Can it benefit from multi-GPU ? (unfortunately even Pro equivalent of 4000 series do not support NVLink anymore, but depending on the algorithm it might be possible to completely parallelize your task. Or launch 2 different jobs.)

Is the power of the CPU of any use for your ML project? As far as I know, most of the workload for ML is GPU-based, i.e. low chance to be a bottleneck. Same questions for other high-end components that you chose (SSD, amount of RAM, Mobo). Of course you have a large budget, but if they just sit there doing the same work as lower-grade... you might as well spend more where it matters more.

I'm currently bottlenecked by FP32 precision, and VRAM bandwidth could become an issue if this rig is used for production. I plan to scale by adding another GPU in the future but haven't looked into NVLink compatibility—assumed it would easily integrate with a second GPU. For CPU/SSD/MOBO, I prioritise top-tier components as I handle a lot of data preprocessing, management, and model orchestration for NLP and quant tasks.

As above. How CPU based do you see your processes and uses in the software? The 9950X is the best powerhouse AMD have on the AM5 platform, but if you need to unlock some proper processing grunt then you'll want to look at Threadripper. It will make AM5 look silly, never mind Intel. Unfortunately the price and value scales at this level like you can possibly imagine.

To your queries...

The 5000X is a great case for most users, gaming and a bit of hard effort it goes without question. At this level you may want to look a bit more towards airflow. I don't know that this would be the best case for this use in honesty. It would most likely be fine, but not optimal.

Motherboard is going to be key in the RAM & GPU aspirations. If you want the best out of the RAM it's likely you will need to be comfortable tweaking on AM5, if the GPU is going to be the main player.... you may want to consider 2 of them at some point.

4090 OC is pretty much pointless. There are benefits of it, but I would be far more sterile in your thinking. If you want dual GPUs at some point, you need to be mindful of their size/layout. Keeping it simple tends to work better for professional.

PSU - You may want to aim higher. The 1500W PSU may even need to be on the radar. For the build as it stands the 1200w offering is absolutely perfect, don't go lower as the calculator is flat wrong. The 1500w (I believe it's ATX3.x) would cover dual 4090s (or potentially 5090s, upgrading the main player is important to get the value throughout the system life). It depends on your aspirations of what you intend to do with the system and whether you look to increase performance or longevity.

W11 Pro... At this level I would, purely to have the option of remote as a fall back. I use Moonlight/Sunshine, but I am unsure of the security requirements that you need in play. The other offerings may be more in line with your requirements. Remote desktop in Pro isn't very secure though so suggests that Moonlight/Sunshine would be fine. It's worth having remote and pro as a backup regardless.

Cooling - Throw everything at it. You won't go wrong on the CPU cooler. A high end AIO will help the GPU airflow and thus temps. You can't go wrong with moar. The key is balancing the case fans to the system. That can be nailed down once a final spec is chosen though.

For dual boot I would strongly recommend a second drive. I would avoid the Samsung secondary and opt for the Corsair brand instead (high end). In your shoes I would look to the high end primary as you have selected, a decent 500GB drive such as the Solid P44 and a high end 4TB Corsair M2 drive for the main storage/use drive.

This build is primarily for quick prototyping and a dev machine. Once I finalise workflows, I'll scale to the cloud or invest in a production-level machine when budget allows. For now, the 9950X should hopefully be sufficient.
Thanks, I will try revisit the case and potentially send one in. On motherboard, I was hoping I could get away with enabling XMP... there is a lot of resource out there so should hopefully be able to figure it out. Will XMP get me most of the way there?
Makes sense re. GPU and PSU I agree but relatively inexpensive to buy a 1500W down the line when I look to upgrade.
Brilliant I will update the storage on here. Looks like I just need to find myself a better case...

This is way above my knowledge level, so I’ll let the others take this one, but just wanted to say how good it is to see someone actually doing some research, and looking around the forum, before posting. It doesn’t happen too often so was quite refreshing to see! I’m sure I’m not the only one who appreciated it either.

This is all very new to me and its awesome to find a group of people so enthusiastic about something... it is a shame you guys don't have a way to monetise, or perhaps that is the secret to an engaging community.

 

[Chimern]

Also one further thing worth mentioning - I called up PCS and they said I should hopefully have no issues with 14900KS after bios update and that everything should be fine now. I have still opted for AMD given that the 9095X seems to outperform on most processing tasks, and it sounds like people have to work very hard to tweak their CPUs just to keep them working rather than getting anything extra out of them, and that microcode update is not going to fix structural issues with those chips.

That being said, it is hard to get a sense of how wide-spread this is. Has it been a few isolated instances that tech youtubers have run away with? To be honest the deciding factor for me was the guy from a couple of days ago who had to return is CPU for the second time.

9095X seems like a bit of a beast anyway where main downside is price and gaming performance. I have seem some OC videos where they push it close to the older x3D versions

 

[Scott]

The RAM will be pre-set with the XMP etc on in this configuration. Below is the changes I would suggest. As much as it's relatively inexpensive to replace the PSU, it's better just to cover all the bases in one shot and let the configurator handle it. The larger power supply won't use more power, it'll actually use less as it will be more efficient over the range.

Case
CORSAIR 6500X TEMPERED GLASS MID TOWER DUAL CHAMBER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB CORSAIR MP600 PRO NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6850 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1500W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre IEC C19 UK Power Cable
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK H150i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
5 x Corsair ICUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Professional 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Price: £4,626.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/wQrbaXZrkh/

 

[Chimern]

That's awesome thanks, makes sense re. the power supply and great looking case. What is the difference between the corsair and samsung SSD? Also is it worth adding a third SSD or are these easy enough to install if I find I need more? Thank again for help here

 

[Scott]

That's awesome thanks, makes sense re. the power supply and great looking case. What is the difference between the corsair and samsung SSD? Also is it worth adding a third SSD or are these easy enough to install if I find I need more? Thank again for help here

Samsung fell of the pedestal a while back. The Corsair is the best for quality & longevity, it's what I would want for reliance and speed.

If you think you'll use a cache drive for your processes then it's definitely worthwhile. Don't need to go for anything crazy though. Always keep the primary drive minimal, Windows & main programs only. Try not to use it for anything else to keep it trim.

I've added another corsair below, always good to spread the eggs throughout the baskets:

Case
CORSAIR 6500X TEMPERED GLASS MID TOWER DUAL CHAMBER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 9950X 16 Core CPU (4.3GHz-5.7GHz/80MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 6000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
24GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 4090 - HDMI, DP
Graphics Card Support Bracket
NONE (BRACKET INCLUDED AS STANDARD ON 4070 Ti / RX 7700 XT AND ABOVE)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB CRUCIAL T705 GEN 5 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 14,500MB/sR, 12,700MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
4TB CORSAIR MP600 PRO NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 7000 MB/R, 6850 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
2TB CORSAIR CORE XT MP600 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (up to 5000 MB/R, 4400 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 1500W HXi SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® PLATINUM, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre IEC C19 UK Power Cable
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR ICUE LINK H150i RGB HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
5 x Corsair ICUE LINK QX120 RGB PWM Fan + Controller Kit
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 2.5Gbe LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Google Chrome™
Warranty
3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
FAST TRACK 3 WORKING DAY DISPATCH
Price: £4,715.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am5-pc/VH7FRMB8re/

 

[Chimern]

That is great thanks. Any reason going for the Corsair 6500X over the Lian Li 011Dynamic? That is the only change that I might make along with windows pro.

 

[Chimern]

Ah one less fan. Is that a deal breaker for the hardware I am running...?

 

[Scott]

Lian Li is excellent too, it's a little less conventional in the airflow as it comes from the side rather than the front. As long as the location of the case suits then should be fine.

You won't need to worry about overkill on the fans.