My rack is finished for now (because I'm out of money).
Last time I posted I had some jank cables going through the rack and now we're using patch panels with color coordinated cables!
But as is tradition, I'm thinking about upgrades and I'm looking at that 1U filler panel. A mini PC with a 5060ti 16gb or maybe a 5070 12gb would be pretty sick to move my AI slop generating into my tiny rack.
I'm also thinking about the PI cluster at the top. Currently that's running a Kubernetes cluster that I'm trying to learn on. They're all PI4 4GB, so I was going to start replacing them with PI5 8/16GB. Would those be better price/performance for mostly coding tasks? Or maybe a discord bot for shitposting.
Thoughts? MiniPC recs? Wanna bully me for using AI? Please do!
I'm actually right there with you, I have a 3060 12gb and tbh I think it's the absolute most cost effective GPU option for home use right now. You can run 14B models at a very reasonable pace.
Doubling or tripling the cost and power draw just to get 16-24gb doesn't seem worth it to me. If you really want an AI-optimized box I think something with the new Ryzen Max chips would be the way to go - like an ASUS ROG Z-Flow, Framework Desktop or the GMKtek option whatever it's called. Apple's new Mac Minis are also great options. Both Ryzen Max and Apple make use of shared CPU/GPU memory so you can go up 96GB+ at much much lower power draws.
A mac is a very funny and objectively correct option