I find it to be an odd choice. I mean the CPU itself is perfectly fine (typing this myself on a 5600G, which I very much like), but AM4 socket is pretty much over - there is no upgrade path anymore once it starts getting long on the tooth. (Unlike the other parts, which can be bumped: RAM, GPU, storage...)
Probably yes but we just built it to be cheaper. AM5 is on the costlier side and we don't plan to upgrade these machines. Our calculation is we can retire them by the end of 3 years.
As soon as the AM4 vs AM5 conversation started, I immediately thought "price". The cost of swapping a mobo to AM5 in a few years is minimal compared to bulk price savings you can get using "good enough" AM4 now.
Seeing AM4 boards and cpus easily 1/2 the price of AM5 gear in consumer sector. Imagine it's similar in the professional sector.
I'm still building more AM4 machines than AM5 for clients, FWIW, even for folks that want relatively performant desktops. The price/performance just isn't better enough yet to do otherwise for most.
How do you feel about their GPU selection? I understand the 2U rack limits their choices, but what would you recommend as a good GPU that strikes a balance between performance and price?
My honest opinion is that until the software situation drastically changes, there is zero reason to get anything other than nvidia cards, because the cost of hardware will always be dwarfed by engineering hours in dev, and ROCm isn't there yet by a long shot.
I'm very much looking forward to this changing, for VRAM reasons in particular. But it's not going to happen any time soon.
> Our calculation is we can retire them by the end of 3 years.
I was going to say, business just needs server to last 3 years, they are normally written off after 3 years and you don't do upgrade plans. Currently we're aiming more for 5 years, but budgeting for 3, that way anything beyond the 3 years is basically free. No one plans to purchase upgrade parts for their old Dell servers either.
You can also move some of these machines into other roles like QA later on.
