Rebuilding an old workstation into an AI testbed

I had an old (circa 2012?) Hackintosh, which started life as a Core i5 3570K Processor (3.4 GHz 4 Core), installed on a Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3P main board (LGA 1155 socket, B75 chipset). Basically, a lightly tweaked version of this moarfish build. The Corsair Carbide 300R case (or, rather, the plastic drive rails) were showing their age, the power supply had a tendency to run extremely - worryingly - loudly, and so it was just sort of collecting dust. A lot of dust (see below). I had picked up a new Cooler Master case and EVGA power supply to rebuild it, but never got around to it. Instead, I eventually moved to a maxed out (1TB SSD, 16GB RAM, Core i7-3720QM CPU @ 2.60GHz) 2012 Mac mini server, running the latest macOS through OCLP.

Now that I’ve finally decided to pull the trigger and start getting my hands dirty with “AI,” after flopping around for a minute looking at various options (eGPU chassis hooked up to a 2020 MacBook Air running Linux? $249 NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit? Raspberry Pi 5 16GB with a Hailo-10H and an M.2 hat?), I realized, hey, I’ve got this workstation, I can slap a GPU in it and start playing around. At first it was just going to be the existing configuration (i5 and 16GB RAM), plus whatever cheapest GPU would provide any reasonable performance (I was looking at the NVIDIA Tesla P100, but then saw the V100 was the first with Tensor cores and not a huge leap up in price ($150 approx. for a 12GB P100, $275 for a 16GB V100). GPU comparison tool. End of life / support dates for NVIDIA architectures.

But then I started realizing, remembering the NAS upgrade project, how cheap this stuff has gotten as it’s slipped further and further away from “state of the art.” Why stick with a mid-range i5 when I can max it out with the top of the line (for the time) Ivy Bridge Xeon for $35? Why stick with 16GB RAM when I can max it out at 32GB for $48? Why reuse a 13 year old OEM CPU cooler, or the old case fan, when brand new stuff is < $20? And then I realize how little I’m actually re-using in this build (just the motherboard, and the “new” case and power supply I already had on hand). Sigh. Oh well. It set constraints I had to stay within for this project, and that ain’t nothin’.

New stuff:

• CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1275 V2 3.5 GHz CPU Processor ($35 on eBay)
• RAM: cmz32gx3m4x1600c10 DDR3 32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance ($48 on eBay)
• GPU (picked as hopefully the best bang for the buck, 16GB should be enough memory for at least initial experimentation (up to 7b maybe?), and this was the first generation to add Tensor cores; actual graphics will be handled by the HD4000 integrated graphics in the CPU / motherboard): NVIDIA Tesla V100 16GB GPU SXM2 +PCIE Adapter PCIe 3.0x16 Accelerator Card kit ($275 on eBay)
• Storage: Samsung 870 EVO SATA III SSD 1TB 2.5” Internal Solid State Drive ($73 for a “Used - Mint” drive, $95 new) (I wanted to go with an M.2 NVMe drive and PCIe 4x adapter, but apparently this board is too old to boot from that setup without a patched BIOS, and it just seemed to be more than I wanted to deal with, especially since I doubt the storage will be a bottleneck in this setup)
• New CPU cooler (the OEM Intel one is ~13 years old...): Thermalright Assassin X120 Refined SE CPU Air Cooler, 4 Heat Pipes, TL-C12C PWM Fan, Aluminium Heatsink Cover ($18) (comes with thermal paste)
• Fan setup (this may not be enough cooling, but it’s what I’m starting with, I can always add more if necessary):
• ARCTIC P9 Silent - PC Fan, 92 mm Particularly Quiet case Fan, Optimized for Static Pressure, Quasi Silent Fan Motor - I think this was a mistake order? Need a 140 mm ... Whoops ...  ($7.50)
• ARCTIC P12 PWM - PC Fan, 120mm Case Fan with PWM, Pressure-optimised, Quiet Motor ($9.50)
• ARCTIC Case Fan Hub - 10-fold PWM Fan Distributor with SATA Power ($10) because there’s only one 4-pin SYS FAN connector on the motherboard
• Case: (I’ve had this for several years, I was going to rebuild the Hackintosh in it but never got around to it and ended up just getting a maxed out 2012 Mac mini i7 server to use as my daily driver): Cooler Master MasterBox Q300L Micro-ATX Tower ($40, same price today as in 2018!)
• Power Supply: EVGA 100-BR-0450-K1 450 BR, 80+ BRONZE 450W ($40 in December 2018) (at 450W, with an up to 250W GPU and a 77W TDP Xeon CPU, this power supply may not be adequate, but I already have it, so I’m going to try it...)
• Misc:  
• 502PCS Computer Screws Assortment Kit, Motherboard Standoffs Screws PC Screws for PC Fan, PC Case, HDD Hard Drive, Laptop, SSD, CD-ROM ($8)
• Fresh CR2032 battery for the motherboard

What I’ll have when I’m done (parts are ordered but not here yet), a Xeon E3-1275v2 (3.50GHz, 8MB L3 cache, integrated P4000 graphics) CPU (could have gone up to a Xeon E3-1290v2 (3.70GHz, 8MB L3 cache, but with no onboard graphics); 32GB RAM; a PCIe x16 3.0 slot, another x16 slot running at x4 (2.0), an x1 slot (2.0), and an old school PCI slot; in that x16 slot an NVIDIA V100 16GB GPU (CUDA cores and 640 Tensor Cores, >100 teraflops); and for storage, a SATA III Samsung  drive. That should do nicely as a starter system.

How it started...