| ▲ | cosmotic 4 hours ago |
| The GPUs used in data centers cant really be used outside the same context. They cant connect to standard PCs or servers. They are highly specialized. The resale would need to be at the server or rack level for the same use case. |
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| ▲ | doubled112 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| Aren't they PCIe like everything else or am I missing something? I know they have some fast interconnects. If not, is an adapter to PCIe possible? Cooling is usually what kills you with server gear at home. I don't have a cold aisle, or a case that flows that much air. Can I water cool it enough? No video outputs would probably be my biggest annoyance. It should be fine at headlessly rendering games for streaming though, as well as AI. If there's a will, there's usually a way. |
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| ▲ | boredatoms 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Lots of the newer stuff is watercooled Yes they use pcie electrically, but its not the same slot shape and there is usually carrier boards You wouldn’t repurpose these for home gaming, it would still be for llms | | |
| ▲ | KellyCriterion an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | would it be possible to sell this stuff to any of these "crypto" companies for mining or whatever tasks? | |
| ▲ | marcyb5st 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Indeed, also even the air cooled ones are designed for high static pressure fans (ie small fans that spin at really high RPMs). Those fans are really really loud. You can just mod them to run on consumer fans that are designed to spin much slower but have higher diameter |
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| ▲ | theideaofcoffee 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yes, they're "just" pcie, though units like H100 and newer (or did it start with pascal? i really don't know) have variants that use a proprietary connector called SXM, but it's always just pcie lanes underneath. In some versions there are interposer and mezzanine boards, but again, pcie with associated bits and bobs like retimers and pcie switches. Not impossible to integrate, just annoying. So, sort of specialized? but not really. > If there's a will, there's usually a way. That's the spirit! | |
| ▲ | LoganDark 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I bet China will find a way. They have stuff like desktop-size motherboards with BGA soldered mobile chips, just cause they can. | | |
| ▲ | happycube 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | They already have PCI-e SXM risers and external multi-SXM boards for V100's. | |
| ▲ | hypfer 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I mean it's not that hard. It's just hard if your frame of reference is "can I download it within one click on my $6000 Macbook". This whole subthread is just sad. "Oh no, it's not the same form factor. It is useless". Where's the "Hacker" in "Hacker News" there. It's a shame that we need to defer to "China" as a shorthand for "actual engineers" just because our own engineers lack imagination and drive that would validate being given that title in the first place. | | |
| ▲ | LoganDark 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > It's a shame that we need to defer to "China" as a shorthand for "actual engineers" just because our own engineers lack imagination and drive that would validate being given that title in the first place. There are a lot of reasons other than skill why China is the way it is. Culture and locality are big ones. I don't know a whole lot but I disagree that any "actual engineer" could easily come up with a sustainable business for this stuff in the US -- for example, harvesting and processing used parts for their components is a hugely laborious process, and China has a huge culture of recycling and reworking that simply does not exist in the US (and would largely be socially unacceptable to introduce!). Take for example the pre-modded 4090s, or the BGA desktop motherboards I mentioned, or any number of other products that are based not merely on sheer engineering. It's not exactly engineering on its own that causes these things to happen, but more the fact that nearly anybody can just throw together an operation like that and have tons of workers available to make it sustainable. | | |
| ▲ | hypfer 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | I do believe that your assessment that it will come from China is right.
Though, at least the "coming up with the idea" is something that could be done in the West I would argue. We too could read datasheets and probe stuff. We just chose not to. Please don't misunderstand me as attacking you. I was attacking that other guy further up the thread with the empty GitHub account and the equally empty ambitions, trying to drag all of us crabs back into this bucket we find ourselves in. | | |
| ▲ | LoganDark 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | > I do believe that your assessment that it will come from China is right. Though, at least the "coming up with the idea" is something that could be done in the West I would argue. We too could read datasheets and probe stuff. We just chose not to. Oh, plenty of people do not choose not to -- there are tons of blog posts and YouTube videos out there of people doing stuff exactly like this! It's just the making it sustainable part that's very difficult outside of somewhere like China, because -- unless you have special VC privilege -- you can't really offer reasonable prices to the masses, which makes your purchase volume go down, which further drives up your prices even more, until it converges on some insane number. |
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| ▲ | ReptileMan an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I don't mind running private deepseek instances on server rack that I have bought for cents on the dollar. |
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| ▲ | charcircuit 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Why not use them to host AI models? There is a ton of demand for AI that shadows consumer Pc usage. There is a compute shortage right now for AI. |
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| ▲ | richwater 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| There have been some examples of folks ripping off the SMX interface and rewiring the card for PCI-E but I'm not sure how efficient that would really be or what kind of market there could be |
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