My current PC specs:
- Dell Precision T1700 Motherboard
- Xeon E3 1275 v3
- 32GB DDR3 1600Mhz ECC
- 7900 XTX 24GB VRAM (Transferring to new PC)
What I want in my next PC:
- MSI Z790-P Motherboard (with Dasharo)
- i9-14900k
- DDR5 192GB 5600Mhz (Non-ECC)
- 7900 XTX 24GB VRAM
Will I see any performance increase? I’m also worried about not having ECC RAM, I will be coding a lot with my LLMs (firmware development), so part of me doesn’t want to make any mistakes and future proof. I heard DDR5 has some ECC-like features, but not the same as traditional ECC. Maybe I should buy a Dell Precision 3630 motherboard which has support for upto 128GB DDR4 ECC memory? This is a dedicated LLM PC, so, not too concerned about gaming or anything.
I would like to hear your suggestions!
Like others have said LLMs mostly use VRAM, they can use system RAM if you’re running them on CPU, but that’s ridiculously slow.
It will however increase the speed of your compile times, which is especially useful if you’re compiling something large like the Linux kernel on a regular basis.
If you are using it purely for LLMs, if it’s going to get bit flips, it’ll happen in VRAM.
If you are compiling large things for customers, I’d recommend ECC, just in case, e.g. you don’t want a bricking firmware from a bit flip. But according to EDAC and my TIG stack, my server’s ECC RAM has never even detected an error in the past year, if I understand EDAC properly, so it’s really not important.