max / everycycle

hardware: replace price estimates with dated observations Observed 2026-07-25. The CPU came in under estimate at $589 (AMD 1KU tray list, a hard anchor rather than a street average); memory and storage came in over. Total lands near $2,800. The line that justifies the exercise: the identical Kingston 48 GB ECC UDIMM part number priced from $270 to $1,006 across retailers on the same day. Two DIMMs bought without looking would have cost either $550 or $2,012, and none of the expensive listings look like scams — server memory simply has no consumer price discipline. Flagged in the table so nobody buys that line casually. Also swaps the storage slots, which were backwards. Root gains nothing from Gen5; kv-cache-overflow scratch is the only thing here whose point is bandwidth. So scratch takes M2_1 (Gen5) and root takes M2_2 (Gen4), and both drives can be Gen4 now while NAND is in an up-cycle, leaving the Gen5 slot as headroom for a cheaper drive later. Working notes, per-vendor spreads, the PSU trap (Seasonic's PRIME PX ATX 3.1 line starts at 1600 W, and Vertex PX-1200 exists in both ATX 3.0 and 3.1) and the re-check list live in _private/docs/hardware/bench-v1/price-baseline.md.

Author: Max Johnson <me@maxj.phd> · 2026-07-25 16:01 UTC

Signed with PGP, not checked

Commit: 659a778b58c0e15796d9424851afd48c4d192747

Parent: 5863e5f

1 file changed, +8 insertions, -8 deletions

M docs/hardware/bench-v1-bom.md +8 -8

			@@ -31,21 +31,21 @@
31	31
32	32		## Component list
33	33
34		-	Prices are 2026-07 estimates, not quotes. Snapshot the real number and date at purchase.
	34	+	Prices are observed 2026-07-25, not estimates, except the frame/cooler/sled lines. Working notes, per-vendor spreads and re-check list: `_private/docs/hardware/bench-v1/price-baseline.md`. Snapshot the real paid number and date at purchase.
35	35
36	36		\| Component \| Choice \| Approx \| Notes \|
37	37		\|---\|---\|---\|---\|
38		-	\| CPU \| AMD EPYC 4565P (16c/32t "Zen 5", AM5) \| ~$700–800 \| 4.30 base / 5.70 boost, 64 MB L3, 170 W, 2× DDR5-5600, 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Sized for throughput: clean builds, container builds, the ISO's zstd pass. See the CPU note below for why this and not a Ryzen 9950X. Ceiling: EPYC 4005 stops at 16 cores, so if throughput ever binds the answer is a new machine, not a new CPU — acceptable for a declared stepping stone \|
39		-	\| Board \| ASRock Rack B650D4U (base variant) \| ~$400–450 \| mATX server board. AST2600 BMC with IPMI 2.0, iKVM, vMedia, dedicated management LAN. Base variant chosen over -2L2T/-2L2T/BCM because it is the only one with two M.2 slots; see the networking note for why its 1 GbE is not a compromise \|
40		-	\| RAM \| 2× 48 GB DDR5 ECC UDIMM (96 GB) \| ~$450 \| 1 DPC runs 5600; 2 DPC drops to 3600. Two slots stay empty on purpose \|
41		-	\| Storage 1 \| 2 TB NVMe on M2_1 (PCIe 5.0 x4) \| ~$180 \| xfs root. Not ZFS — see the note in `mm-v1-bom.md` \|
42		-	\| Storage 2 \| 4 TB NVMe on M2_2 (PCIe 4.0 x4) \| ~$280 \| Raw XFS scratch: kv-cache overflow later, container build scratch from day one \|
43		-	\| PSU \| 1200 W Platinum, ATX 3.1 with native 12V-2x6 \| ~$220 \| Was 850 W, which contradicted this document's own claim that two cards are reachable: 2× 250 W passive + a 170 W CPU is ~750 W, or 88% load. 1200 W also covers one modern ~450 W card. ATX 3.1 is deliberate: it handles the transient spikes modern cards produce and provides 12V-2x6 natively, so no adapters when the current-gen vertical gets tested. The 500–600 W-class vertical triggers a PSU review \|
	38	+	\| CPU \| AMD EPYC 4565P (16c/32t "Zen 5", AM5) \| $589 list \| 4.30 base / 5.70 boost, 64 MB L3, 170 W, 2× DDR5-5600, 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. Sized for throughput: clean builds, container builds, the ISO's zstd pass. See the CPU note below for why this and not a Ryzen 9950X. Ceiling: EPYC 4005 stops at 16 cores, so if throughput ever binds the answer is a new machine, not a new CPU — acceptable for a declared stepping stone \|
	39	+	\| Board \| ASRock Rack B650D4U (base variant) \| ~$420 \| mATX server board. AST2600 BMC with IPMI 2.0, iKVM, vMedia, dedicated management LAN. Base variant chosen over -2L2T/-2L2T/BCM because it is the only one with two M.2 slots; see the networking note for why its 1 GbE is not a compromise \|
	40	+	\| RAM \| 2× 48 GB DDR5-5600 ECC UDIMM (96 GB) \| ~$550 \| 1 DPC runs 5600; 2 DPC drops to 3600. Two slots stay empty on purpose. Priced $270–$1,006 for the same part number — never buy this line without checking, see the baseline note \|
	41	+	\| Storage 1 \| 4 TB NVMe on M2_1 (PCIe 5.0 ×4) \| ~$300 \| Raw XFS scratch: kv-cache overflow later, container build scratch from day one. The fast slot goes to the only thing whose point is bandwidth. Buy a Gen4 drive now while NAND is expensive; the Gen5 slot is headroom \|
	42	+	\| Storage 2 \| 2 TB NVMe on M2_2 (PCIe 4.0 ×4) \| ~$200 \| xfs root, and not ZFS — see the note in `mm-v1-bom.md`. Root gains nothing from Gen5 \|
	43	+	\| PSU \| 1200 W Platinum, ATX 3.1 with native 12V-2x6 \| ~$300 \| Was 850 W, which contradicted this document's own claim that two cards are reachable: 2× 250 W passive + a 170 W CPU is ~750 W, or 88% load. 1200 W also covers one modern ~450 W card. ATX 3.1 is deliberate: it handles the transient spikes modern cards produce and provides 12V-2x6 natively, so no adapters when the current-gen vertical gets tested. The 500–600 W-class vertical triggers a PSU review \|
44	44		\| Enclosure \| Open frame — see the enclosure section \| ~$150–250 \| Optimized for access. Airflow is solved at the card, not by the case \|
45	45		\| CPU cooler \| AM5 tower, any height \| ~$100 \| Air. No lid to clear on an open frame \|
46	46		\| Card airflow \| Per-card test sled: server blower + shroud, per vertical \| ~$150 setup \| The actual thermal instrument. See the enclosure section \|
47	47		\| Boot GPU \| none \| $0 \| The AST2600 has its own VGA and iKVM. `mm-v1-bom.md` carried a GT 1030 only because it was unsure the BMC would suffice; the manual settles it \|
48		-	\| Total \| \| ~$2,500–2,900 \| vs ~$10,280 for the `mm-v1` host platform \|
	48	+	\| Total \| \| ~$2,800 \| vs ~$10,280 for the `mm-v1` host platform. Line-by-line observations, spreads and market notes: `_private/docs/hardware/bench-v1/price-baseline.md` \|
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50	50		Vendor manuals for the decided parts are in `_private/docs/hardware/bench-v1/`.
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