Ask HN: Worth it to buy 4x Nvidia Tesla K40 for AI?
by speedylight on Hacker News.
I saw a post on a local market place that’s selling a complete system with 4 Tesla K40s 12 GBs VRAM w/ passive cooling for $400. The post description said that the system was intended to be used for training AI models, which is what I want to use it for… nothing too serious I am mostly still learning here. The cards themselves were released on 2013 and would have a combined cuda cores of 12,928 if I’m counting the 5th video card for a monitor (GTX 1660) Here are the complete specs from the post description… from a dollar value of all these parts, I’m not really losing any money… I just don’t have good enough intuition to see if this system is worth it to learn practice modern day AI. Specs: Motherboard: MSI MAG Z390
Tomahawk gaming 9th generation with
dual Ethernet ports for wiring with
other servers, and max speed 4400
MHz in overclock mode.
CPU: Intel Core i5-9400f @4.10 GHz x 6
cores (overclock mode).
RAM: 64 GB (4×16) DDR4 max speed
3600 MHz.
Storage: One m.2 NVMe SSD 256 GB
(for operating system) + Two 3 TB
Hard Disk Drive (for data storage)
Gaming Display Support: 1 GTX 1660
Super graphic card with 6 GB memory
and 1,408 cuda cores, supporting max
3 monitors at the same time. Bus max
transfer speed 8.0 GB/s (gen3 mode).
AI Deep Learning: 4 Tesla K40 AI
accelerators each with 12 GB memory
and 2,880 cuda cores, dedicating to
machine or deep learning, Bus max
transfer speed 8.0 GB/s (gen3 mode)
each.
Power supply safety: One 700 W PSU
dedicated to the motherboard and the
GTX 1660 monitor GPU. Another 1,000
W PSU dedicated to the Tesla K40 AI
accelerators.
CPU Cooling: Cooler Master liquid
cooler with LED light control.
AI Accelerator Cooling: 4 cooling fans at
front and 3 cooling fans at back.
Structure: Open frame of high strength
Al alloy to safeguard your system in an
intensive working environment.
Power switch: Big button switch with 5
ft flexible extension cable, and LED
indicator for hard drive.