Hey team,
Years ago, SO gifted me an Alienware Aurora R7.
It has an Intel I7-8700 and Nvidia GTX 1080 (8GB VRAM), 16 GB of DDR 4 RAM. (what else is relevant to this question?)
My question to you is basically this -
Given that I’m not gaming with it anymore, I want to use it for only two things -
- Plex Server
- Running random local LLM stuff like Kotaemon (https://github.com/Cinnamon/kotaemon)
Let’s say I have $1000 to throw at a GPU and I’d like to get 16 GB VRAM (or 24 if it’s possible). I want to install it myself rather than take it into a shop.
What’s a GPU I can buy that will fit,
- within my budget?
- within the chassis?
- with the CPU and motherboard without issues?
- with the needs I’ve detailed (namely Plex transcoding, and running ML models)?
I am an absolute noob when it comes to figuring out what hardware to buy (hey, we got us an Alienware sucker here).
So lemmings, help me out! I’d rather not ask ChatGPT.
I think for ML and stuff, I am currently waiting for the release of the 24gb intel battlemage cards.
Our college has a lot of alienware aurora r7’s and i think its a pretty okay sized case. Like the ones we have are loaded with 4090’s, so I assume you should be fine. If you are upgrading anything, you should make sure your powersupply covers the requirements.
I’ve never tinkered with alienware but two of my friends had issues trying to upgrade cpus because the bolts and screws were installed super tight. Maybe you wont have this issue. Best of luck hope this helps :]