14 DAY TRIAL // AVADirect is responsible for some of the most ambitious server projects out there and, unlike other supplies of such systems, has managed to keep the press on its toes through the employment of hardware not normally meant for business or data center use.
The server whose photo AVADirect posted on its Facebook page is just the latest example of a non-consumer product using consumer hardware.
A 2U server, it uses NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 graphics adapters to conduct parallel processing tasks, even though NVIDIA has special device lines for such things (Quadro and Tesla).
Of course, when each 690 card has 3,072 CUDA cores, there is no way any concerns could arise regarding the parallel processing competence.
What's more, AVADirect's server doesn't use just one or two GTX 690 cards, but a full set of four. That means eight GK104 GPUs. 3D rendering, mathematical data computing and graphics design should be a breeze.
Unfortunately, the company hasn't provided the other specs of the 2U system, possibly because this is just a preliminary setup. As such, we can't be totally certain of its capabilities or price.
Then again, that's nothing an educated guess can't fix. A GeForce GTX 690 card, specifically the 4 GB models herein employed, cost almost $1,100 each (885 Euro). That means four of those need a payment of $4,400 / 3,553 Euro all on their own.
If we assume that to be half the total price, then AVADirect's computer hovers somewhere around the $9,000 / 7,270 Euro mark.
The PSU will need to be of 2,500W or so, if all that hardware is to have enough juice. As for the CPU (or CPUs, if there are two of them), it should be high-end as well, backed by a matching RAM capacity. If any details arise later on, we'll try to keep track of them.