Talos II POWER9 Workstation With OpenBMC, PCI-E 4.0 Up For Pre-Ordering

[curaga]

As a free software advocate and a developer who'd definitely have use for a multithreaded monster workstation, I really want one. But I can't drop 2.3k on a computer. Even if it beats a comparable Xeon machine, I would not be in the market for a comparable Xeon machine either, I'd be in the market for a comparable Xeon machine 1-2 generations old, bought used.

[starshipeleven]

How about a "starter kit" using a AMD FX CPU and a modest mobo, so the freedom and security of software are not something reserved to the rich?

It is a dead end. Besides, there is already the server board(s) with opterons for that, and most nutjobs are fine with ancient thinkpads anyway.

What they are doing here is trying to go with something that has a possible future. It's normal that is expensive, they aren't targeting average joes at this point anyway. If enough dudes buy this stuff they can get some kind of mass production running and lower prices later.

At least theoretically. I doubt they will go anywhere, but it's at least worth trying.

[JustRob]

It's helpful that Raptor's Talos II Webpage goes to the trouble of pointing out that they've set pricing at "a price that won't break the bank"; if the Bank were broken I'd have to walk around with that kind of money (which some here have suggested that they do).

The U$310.00 CPU does not seem unreasonable but it's downhill from there (it's 4 Core, so SMT0) and with the U$2,150.00 Motherboard, U$110.00 CPU Cooler and U$12.50 Screwdriver it's clearly 2x pricing ATM.

IF the promised competition comes, and the price gets cut in half, people who want or need this will be snapping them up - hopefully by the end of 2018.

I'm not convinced that FB and Google are paying over U$5K (single quantity, and bare bones) for the Barreleye G2.

Once pricing is half what Raptor is asking I'm in, till then I'll be perfectly happy with something that is Epyc.

The cost of ownership and infrastructure is an important consideration for me. A 100 hours to roll my own and lack of PCIe 4.0 Hardware (let alone Drivers for all but a few Cards) would leave it a little barren looking (we'll see next year).

I understand Raptor's need to be compensated and share that.

This is targeted at early adopters and the idle rich Programmers (we never hear about).

So, I'm behind them and rooting for them - 50%.

Looking at POWER8 (eight) pricing doesn't foretell the switch from x86 that this needs to gain momentum. The Fujitsu Spark Systems are priced at 50% of the POWER9 and also a leader in performance.

[torsionbar28]

As a free software advocate and a developer who'd definitely have use for a multithreaded monster workstation, I really want one. But I can't drop 2.3k on a computer. Even if it beats a comparable Xeon machine, I would not be in the market for a comparable Xeon machine either, I'd be in the market for a comparable Xeon machine 1-2 generations old, bought used.

Ok. That's fine. But what's your point? If you aren't in the market for this product, why bother commenting at all? Who cares that you (or me, or anyone else) is not in the market for this product? Not a dig at you, I'm just saying.

[starshipeleven]

Ok. That's fine. But what's your point? If you aren't in the market for this product, why bother commenting at all? Who cares that you (or me, or anyone else) is not in the market for this product? Not a dig at you, I'm just saying.

Ok. That's fine. But what's your point? If you aren't going to respect opinions posted with no ill intentions, why bother commenting at all? Who cares that you (or me, or anyone else) complains about the cost of this product? Not a dig at you, I'm just saying.

[torsionbar28]

Ok. That's fine. But what's your point? If you aren't going to respect opinions posted with no ill intentions, why bother commenting at all? Who cares that you (or me, or anyone else) complains about the cost of this product? Not a dig at you, I'm just saying.

The Mets are playing the Rangers tonight woohoo! It's almost time to harvest the pumpkins. Meh, people like you probably don't even have cheese or forks.

[toguro123]

What software can you run on one of these that can take advantage of this cpu & gpu horsepower?

OpenFOAM

[toguro123]

in my experience power systems are extremely fast with computations dealing with solutions of complex fluid mechanics problems (CFD). I am looking into pairing one of these with OpenFOAM.

[jacob]

$2300 is $2000 more than the average dude is able to spend on something like this..

Clearly this is not meant for the average dude, not least because his software won't run on it. OTOH the price is what many hardcore gamers are spending, so it's not like it's some unheard of outrage. It's the first RYF machine in years that is technologically competitive and obviously they bet on there being enough people willing to pay for that freedom.

[dweigert]

There are LOTS of applications you can run on this type of machine, if you aren't looking for games. Prototyping Computational Fluid Dynamics models, for instance. I own a Dual CPU Xeon box that I built from parts, E2630 v3 processors were the best I could afford back then, with 128 GB of RAM. I have room to expand memory if I need to, or get better CPUs, and this cost me a LOT more than these guys are charging, even with Ebay and Amazon open box parts. Also 10 TB of internal disk, 40Gb Infiniband/Ethernet, SAS controllers, etc.