Let’s go big! For a little more than a year the ChatGPT revolution is unfolding, and the question lingers “Can I do something like this myself”? Some similar models have been made available for free, so you can run them locally on your own machine. But better models are also bigger. So what do you need? A lot of RAM and a lot of compute power. That’s what I went for: an older datacenter CPU with 18 cores and 36 threads for a lot of parallel compute power, and 128 GB DDR3 ECC RAM. Really expensive 10 years ago, surprisingly affordable in early 2024. Here is my setup from 20. February 2024.
CPU: 18 Cores and 36 Threads
Officially this CPU does not even exist on Intel’s website. You can only find some information on Wikipedia, it seems to be a unique model tailored for Amazon. Even Linus Tech Tips made a video about this CPU when it was still $4500 USD! Its actually the E5 2699 v3 - this one does exist on the Intel webpage - but the 2696 I have is OEM made to also support DDR3 and has a higher boost clock of 3.8 GHz (multiplier 15 instead of 13). See here on Wikipedia.
RAM: 128 GB 1866 ECC
Even more surprising, it’s only 350,000 VND per 32 GB DIMM, the total 128 GB cost only 1,400,000 VND or 54 USD. With the price surge at the end of 2025 this would be
2024-02-20 Build
I got all the materials form https://vitinhgiaphat.com/ and started assembling. Initially I wanted to unlock more power, frequency etc of the CPU. But in many cases I just ran into the thermal limitation and the 145W power limit.
2025-01-16 Water cooling
This idea was lingering for a year now, and I finally placed the order for my first water cooling block. By now the AIOs are reliable and affordable, so I ordered one VSP VCR-240 at Lazada for 630,000 VND or 24 USD.
2025-01-27 Include in mining rig
With so many cores, could it be of use for mining? The good days are long over, but for CPU there is at least Monero left. So I gave it a try:
No, 1200 kH is not a lot. A few years ago 18 cores sound a lot, but in 2025 some i3 get close to that core count.
I wanted to sell this machine, since the memory speed was not sufficient for the LLM models in early 2025. Windows 10 was installed and updated. I put in my RX 470 GPU and was about to offer it on Chotot. But then it started collecting dust.
2026-01-26 Davinci Resolve 20
Thanh talked about his project to work with video editing software. But they all require a lot of RAM, whether on iPad, PC or Mac. And a dedicated machine for either is not cheap. Well, why not try this 128 GB machine with 18 cores? Just give it a try. So I installed Davinci Resolve 20 and it worked out of the box without problems.
I tested the AMD RX470 with my KG 4K monitor - no problem, even HDR10 works. The old GPU is not the limit here. And with RAM and 18 cores it should be able to handle effects, while one might to wait a little though.
The result: to come …