
Ask HN: Build a deep learning box from scratch or just buy one? - misiti3780
I&#x27;m interested in hearing from anyone here who has either built a deep learning box from scratch or purchased one? I would like to build one from scratch but if the analogous HW can be purchased already constructed for a similar amount of money, I would just buy it.<p>I&#x27;m basically looking for links to instructions for building your own box and&#x2F;or links to a product I could purchase.
======
brudgers
I'm not exactly sure what a 'deep learning box' is, but if I wanted a box to
stuff some GPU's on a budget I'd start with a used Dell Precision 7xxx series
off of ebay for a couple of hundred dollars as a platform.

These machines have two graphics x16 PCIe slots wired as x16 and two more x16
wired as x8 powered by an 1100 watt power supply. New, a similar power supply
would cost more than the what a whole system will go for including a Xeon CPU,
some Ram and possibly a disk and perhaps a Windows license.

The downside is that the Precision 7xxx's are big and heavy and a bit power
hungry and only come in Oakland Raiders black with silver.

The Precisions are also certified for various flavors of Linux when new, so
there's unlikely to be any driver problems regarding their hardware. They're
stupid easy to open up and in and around...a similar new case would also
probably cost more than a complete used system. I've found them very reliable.

From there, it would just a be matter of how much money there is for
GPU/graphics cards, more RAM, and SSD's and how it gets spread around based on
the anticipated workload: a $50 SSD and a $50 GPU might be enough for fooling
around and developing a toolchain. After that, it's just a matter of how far
you can fall when sitting on your wallet.

------
lovelearning
Adrian Rosebrock of PyImageSearch explained his rationale for purchasing a
pre-configured Nvidia box in [1] and talked about other build considerations
in [2] (I'm not affiliated in any way; just a subscriber of his blog who
thinks you may find the info there useful).

[1]: [http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2016/06/06/hands-on-with-the-
nv...](http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2016/06/06/hands-on-with-the-nvidia-
digits-devbox-for-deep-learning/)

[2]: [http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2016/06/13/considerations-
when-...](http://www.pyimagesearch.com/2016/06/13/considerations-when-setting-
up-deep-learning-hardware/)

------
sprobertson
To build mine I took an existing Linux server (nothing special, 16G RAM and a
3.something CPU) and squeezed a GTX 980 into its tiny frame. The speed up for
basic image processing was about 31x over CPU alone.

I don't know anything about pre packaged solutions but maybe a gaming rig
would be appropriate.

~~~
xemdetia
This is probably the most current at-home option. It's basically just building
an average gaming rig, yes you can buy them prebuilt but you probably just
need an i5 or i7 a good pool of RAM and a late-model GTX. There's many ways
prebuilt or otherwise to accomplish that.

------
ses4j
Here's one guy's approach: [http://www.kdnuggets.com/2016/06/build-deep-
learning-box.htm...](http://www.kdnuggets.com/2016/06/build-deep-learning-
box.html)

------
fair_child
You can go to drive-vector.com They take order for Deep Learning Box for
researchers and self-driving car developers

