Comment by nixon_why69
3 hours ago
I really appreciate your comment and the difficulties, but if we're hypothetically talking about $100k hardware for pennies on the dollar.. it looks like the problems are all analog? Like ok, add power supply on top of form factor and cooling but all of the silicon is compatible, right? If (if!) we are talking about pennies on the dollar then those problems are solvable.
For example, if I am a homelab, I don't necessarily need the integrated SFP networking stuff to work, I'm happy with my single overpowered GPU. I don't need CXL either, I just want one badass H200 running in my rig. Maybe Shenzhen will productive that?
There already are SXM5-to-PCIe adapter cards, but from what little I've seen, they are all a bit dodgy. If (if!) there really is some flood of used/decommissioned H100s/H200s into the market, perhaps that will motivate iterations and mass production of these, and they become more reliable?
It is not 100% out of the question. I would also love to see it happen, but am being realistic about the chances, as a check on my own usual optimism.
I think the more likely scenario is, rather than a flood of decommissioned Hopper-era servers being separated into parts, and the parts sold for "pennies on the dollar", we will see entire 4x H100 servers (CPU and RAM included) sold for "dimes on the dollar" to small-and-mid-sized businesses and labs. A formerly-$250K server sold for $50K after six years. Or $20K after ten years. Something like that.