considering this workstation build for Ubuntu Linux

[ndw]

Hi,
Considering the below build for a Ubuntu Linux workstation.
Few questions on the build
1. Is 14700K supported by the standard bios on the selected motherboard?
2. While the ASUS website specs say the the motherboard has DisplayPort the PCSpecialist website does not. It should have a DisplayPort I guess.
3. Any reviews of CORSAIR H100x RGB on Ubuntu Linux and any known issues will be helpful.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 20-Core Processor i7-14700K (Up to 5.6GHz) 33MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI (LGA1700, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE RGB DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CX SERIES™ CX-550 POWER SUPPLY
Get a discount code for 20% off select peripherals at Corsair.com
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
ONBOARD 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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

 

[SpyderTracks]

Is 14700K supported by the standard bios on the selected motherboard?

It’s done by socket, any gpu on the LGA1700 socket is compatible.

What are you actually using the pc for?

What’s your max budget?

Except in very niche circumstances, Intel are now the bad CPUs that you avoid at all costs.

 

[ndw]

This is a development PC and also hosts a production env. (a large mysql db and python code). Possibly some ML models in the future.
Max budget is £1200-£1400
Intel was just to keep compatibility simple since I have a similar setup on an old intel pc.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Intel was just to keep compatibility simple

Compatibility with what though? Are there certain instruction sets you require? We need as much info as poss.

Is your production environment virtualised or native?

 

[ndw]

Prod is currently native but parts of it will be containerized, probably on docker. The PC is used as a dev pc during the day and performs calculations overnight. Main requirements are to have
1. High compute speed for overnight calculations
2. Multimonitor support for dev tasks
3. Ability to build small ML models in the future supported by CPU. If models are successful, they can be scaled onto a GPU. Hence only integrated graphics considered for now.

I compared Intel 14700k to AMD Ryzen 9 7900X and found 14700X faster
https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-14700K-vs-AMD-Ryzen-9-7900X/4152vs4132

The PC price on 14700K is similar to Ryzen 9 7900X £1250 - £1290 everything else being similar. Suggested AMD config below


Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 7900 12 Core CPU (4.0GHz-5.4GHz/76MB CACHE/AM5)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X670E-A GAMING WIFI (AM5, DDR5, PCIe 5.0, Wi-Fi 6E)
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR5 5600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB SOLIDIGM P44 PRO GEN 4 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 7000MB/sR, 4700MB/sW)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 990 PRO M.2, PCIe 4.0 NVMe (up to 7450MB/R, 6900MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Get a discount code for 20% off select peripherals at Corsair.com
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead, 1.0mm Core)
Processor Cooling
CORSAIR H100x RGB ELITE HIGH PERFORMANCE CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
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
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

 

[SpyderTracks]

Userbenchmark is a garbage website, it has no relevance to performance, it’s just outright lies. It’s been banned on most of the internet including this site. It’s just a paid arm of Intel marketing.

AMD Vs Intel

So some of you aren't aware of the reasons why so many people are heading away from Intel to AMD, so thought it would be important to lay that out for people to refer back to. A lot of you will go to cpubenchmark or userbenchmark to find performance metrics for CPU's. These sites are complete...

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

Userbenchmark is rated "Bad" with 1.4 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with Userbenchmark's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 446 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

I’m having a difficult time being able to recommend anything at all as you’re not giving any specifics, so we have no idea if your software benefits from AMD or Intel.

The PC is used as a dev pc during the day and performs calculations overnight. Main requirements are to have

This doesn't actually say anything.

When you say "dev PC" what do you mean by this, what compiler platforms are you using?

And for "calculations", calculations taken how? What software?

 

[ndw]

the software is written completely in python 3 - I honestly don't know if Intel suits it better or AMD.
All calculations are primarily Python 3 and Pandas.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I honestly don't know if Intel suits it better or AMD.

Is it single threaded or does it benefit from multi threaded?

 

[ndw]

There are some modules that are multithreaded.

 

[SpyderTracks]

There are some modules that are multithreaded.

Cool, sorry for all the questions, but there are 3 major areas here that require different things.

Docker virtualisation: Benefits from full fat cores rather than the big / little configuration on Intel. So essentially when it comes to virtualisation, once you're allocating efficiency cores, you need two cores per vcpu, so essentially a 20 core intel 14700k is actually 8p +12e = 14 vcpus, likewise a 14900k is actually 8p + 16e = 16 vcpus

Software Multithreaded: again, gains from highest frequency multicore full fat cores. These are the kinds of processes that benefit from full fat cores.

Machine Language modelling: Generally expected for 4 cores per GPU accelerator, then you have to factor in PCIe lanes available and what generation. AMD are on 28 PCIe 5 lanes on AM5, whereas Intel are on 20 PCIe 5 lanes on LGA1700. But most of the work here will eventually be offloaded onto the GPU so it's down to how many GPU cards you intend to run.

Also, as this is a 24/7 system, you need to factor in power consumption (resulting in running cost) also, AMD are streets ahead in this area.

And lastly, with Intel, you're stuck on the 14900k being the strongest processor available without swapping the motherboard, but with AMD, you have the option of dropping in a later 9750x model for increased IPC and very likely frequency also.

It varies entirely depending on what kinds of instruction sets your python coding is running, have a look through here and see if anything leaps out

AMD Ryzen 9 7900X / Ryzen 9 7950X Benchmarks Show Impressive Zen 4 Linux Performance Review - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

But in general, assuming you've correctly provisioned for MKL on AMD, then performance depends on what kinds of workloads your doing

Python on AMD CPUs - NERSC Documentation

Perlmutter compute and login nodes have AMD CPUs. Previous NERSC systems such as Cori had Intel CPUs. For the most part, Python users do not have to worry about this difference.

docs.nersc.gov

 

[ndw]

Thank you so much for your help. I'll read through these.
I am also trying to find out if I do need a AIO or can a fan cooler do the job.
In case I choose an RGB AIO from Corsair, does LiquidCTK (https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl) work to control it. I don't have an AIO currently hence dont have direct experience.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Thank you so much for your help. I'll read through these.
I am also trying to find out if I do need a AIO or can a fan cooler do the job.
In case I choose an RGB AIO from Corsair, does LiquidCTK (https://github.com/liquidctl/liquidctl) work to control it. I don't have an AIO currently hence dont have direct experience.

On modern high end desktop processors, you absolutely need an AIO, but AMD processors are far more efficient so require a lesser cooler.

On a 14700k, you'd need a 360mm radiator, so the H150i. On a 14900k, not even a 360mm radiator would cool it, it would still thermal throttle. Intel are really poor processors in general, and best avoided except for very niche circumstances.

You can see the list of supported coolers on that listing.