BetaNet Node Final Hardware Requirements are here!

Hi,

Thank you for your response.

We have been hearing similar responses across the board and are working to alleviate the issues, and should have the updated specifications by the end of the day. This is a learning process for us, and we will work to adapt quickly.

CPU: your analysis is correct, we will be putting out a specification based upon Benchmarks which should include the Ryzen 5 3600

GPU: The GPU ends up being the work horse of the node, but is not used 100% of the time. A smaller form factor will be sufficient.

SSD: We will be putting out better guidance today and will most likely lower the required specification

Static IP: This requirement is likely to change as well, given the difficulty we are hearing about meeting it.

Gateway: While we will always recommend running it separately, we will likely today put out guidance on running it on the same machine as the node.

.

Haha well I’ve bought everything as specified and got the gateway node set up. With the rewards I figured it was a no brainer front loading the cost.

Ultimately I expect you will be in the better position, we modeled these specification to compatible or easily upgradable to MainNet, lower specifications may require more costly upgrades in the future.

Could you post a full shopping one-click list here if you could? Thanks!

Could you post a full shopping one-click list here if you could? Lots of options out there.

Thanks @benger

Not easily as I sourced everything from various places. I can literally list what I bought if you like:

1 x ASUS PRIME B450-PLUS DDR4 ATX Motherboard
1 x CiT C6063 White with RGB Strip 1 x LED Fan and Side Window
1 x 700W - Builder Pro B700X 80+ Bronze PSU
1 x 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (1 x HDMI | 3 x DP) - RTX Enabled!
1 x 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000MHz - Black
1 x AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12 Core CPU with Wraith Prism RGB Cooler [GPU Required]
1 x GameMax Iceberg RGB Watercooler - 240mm
1 x 23.6" ASUS VP247HAE Full HD Eyecare Monitor
1 x EZ-Touch Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo Set
1 x Samsung 970 PRO 1 TB PCIe NVMe M.2 (2280) Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-V7P1T0)
1 x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO 2.5" SATA III Solid State Drive [Up to 550MB/s Read | Up to 520MB/s Write]
1 x 3M HDMI 2.0 Cable

Total price in UK Pounds: ÂŁ1939.50

I haven’t finalized my build yet, but I’ll post below the precise component sources I’ll be using in case it’s helpful. (My side gig is building boutique computers for professionals that need silence, performance, durability, or other off-market considerations. This has exposed my systems to uniquely hostile environments, and I’m happy to share the product lines that have proven most reliable over the years.)

  1. Case. Use Silverstone. They’re masters of screwless locking mechanisms that don’t vibrate. CoolerMaster’s large sized cases are superior if you want to drop an extra buck for literal-silence.

  2. Power. Use Rosewill’s modular power supplies. They’re inexpensive, and I’ve installed over 100 in the past 5 years without a single failure. (As of this writing, 1/13 products from Rosewill is actually in stock at newegg… Get 'em while you can.)

  3. Mainboard. ASUS-PRO and ASUS-PRIME series come with exceptionally well tested parts, and higher quality materials. The majority of build-failures happen due to a mainboard or RAM module that’s dead on arrival, and the majority of first-year failures are the result of bad mainboard power regulation components. These product lines have always been reliable for me.

  4. CPU. Considering that the Elixxir betanet this build is for will end one day, and I’ll want to continue to use this device for gainz, I will use an Intel processor with SGX, and a mainboard that supports it. That’s a small investment of research I can do ahead of time that could open a door in the future to participate in an oracle project or something.

  5. Cooling. Consider a liquid cooler. The amount of heat water can absorb is staggering. Metal is great at conducting heat, but it’s terrible at storing it. So in the Elixxir application, which is characterized with intermittent bursts of high activity, you want to set your CPU up to sprint/rest/sprint/rest/sprint without wear and tear. Using a big metal tower cooler with a fan attached will fit the bill, but it’ll be loud as heck during those bursts of activity. A water cooler, on the other hand, will remove the heat of a sprint from your processor and store it in the liquid as a buffer while it slowly vents off the radiator. This means you’ll never hear a change in noise level over time. You’re safe to set you fans once and forget about it. (Not to mention improving the lifespan of the processor by reducing physical strain.)

  6. GPU: I stick to GPUs built by mainboard manufacturers, because they have the easiest time with vertical integration and are somewhat less likely to stick me with bad capacitors or some such folly. ASUS, EVGA, MSI, GIGABYTE… they’re all professionals.

  7. RAM: Buy Corsair, pay mid-tier, don’t think too much about it. Expensive RAM doesn’t help, cheap RAM kills your system. Corsair doesn’t break. That’s all I care about.

  8. Storage: Get 2x Samsung PRO SSDs. The ones with the red dot. The red dot means it’s meant for business use, and a literal order of magnitude more sheets to flash per bit. (i.e. they stay useful over years of constant write/rewrite. A consumer grade SSD will be used up in a year with Elixxir mainnet.) You want 2x drives in a RAID-0 because the cost per GB is nearly the same but that doubles your throughput. EZ speed.

  9. Fans: People swear by Noctua for a reason. Their silent series is dummy good. I recommended a larger size case, above, to accommodate your fans. The larger the fan, the slower it needs to move to push the same volume of air, and the relationship is geometric. (A fan twice as big might be 10x less noisy.) So use 140mm casefans rather than 120mm component-fans where possible.Use Noctua NF-S12A/NF-A15 (flow optimized) for casefans, and NF-F12/NF-P12 (pressure optimized) for radiators/heatsinks.

Good luck, fren!
(I’m happy to hit you with a parts-list if needed.)

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Revised Hardware Specifications are available: Revised BetaNet Node Hardware Requirements

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Appreciated mate! I was looking for exactly this, thanks.

:open_mouth: A million thanks for the advice, that’s VERY helpful! And sure, the parts-list would also be welcome, if sharing doesn’t take much of your time. I really appreciate :+1:

Glad it helps :smiley: I’ll post my build once things are ordered.

A couple notes, once everything is together and you’re ready to build:

  1. RAM goes in first. The CPU’s heatsink will cover it like a little tin roof.
  2. Overdoing your power supply (750 watt) prevents impossible-to-diagnose problems.
  3. If the underside of your mainboard is touching your case, you’re going to have a bad day.
  4. The following guide to thermal paste application is fantastic: tomshardware dot com /reviews/thermal-paste-comparison,5108-3 dot h tea emm l.
  5. Plug in your CPU power (yellow/black) before you install the GPU. That cable often has to thread under.
  6. Take your shoes off. Way more reliable than a “grounding bracelet.”
  7. Forgetting to purchase or download an OS when you buy your hardware causes premature hair loss.
  8. Installing your OS to a separate SSD isolates it to a drive that isn’t worn out by node operations, making replacement of the data-intensive cache drives much easier.
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Big thanks, once again!

You’re welcome. It all arrived yesterday. Ubuntu 18.04 installed on 500GB SATA and 1TB NVMe mounted and ready for some xx network action. Unfortunately this forum won’t let me post a picture but it’s on the discord!

For any admins, I’d be happy to be part of the soft launch given everything is ready.

Which version of Linux has to be on the node? Ubuntu or Mint?

@emiel The nodes in the lab, which will be testing everything that goes out to nodes participating in BetaNet, are running Ubuntu Server 18.04.

$ uname -a
Linux node02 4.15.0-99-generic #100-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 22 20:32:56 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

How much bandwidth consumption are we expecting in a month?

Hi @benger,
Your opinion > what alternatives are possible besides to Samsung 970 PRO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe?

Current moment I see a strong shortage for Samsnung.

Thanks.

Hey @Elvis if you see any Intel NVMe memory it’s universally a good bet. They’re pretty quick in their latency across the board, have mad IOPS, and every bit as reliable as Samsung. Plus they integrate into Intel’s crazy “optane memory” stack, and that’s cute. They just tend towards the expensive side.

Crucial has been around long enough to have minimal issues, but I have received something like 2 bad drives from them over the years so they’re a “distant third” IMO.

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right now it isn’t too significant, we use somewhere between 10% to 20% saturation at our most aggressive test setup

but we have a series of improvements which are likely to increase that.

Thanks, @Icarus