Author | Lightnews

Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · 1d

I might be crucified for saying this, but OEM GPU servers are boring now.

Everything is just a rebadged HGX box or NVL rack now.

The only point of differentiation becomes whose lights out management interface does it have.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · 2d

Say what you will about the hardware or the software, @tenstorrent.bsky.social's Blackhole QuietBox is a gorgeous bit of kit.

Full review is already in the works #AI #Workstation #watercooling #Tech

Side view of a Tenstorrent QuietBox (Blackhole) with the side panel removed.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · 9d

This was a fun review. I don't think folks realize how big a deal the DGX Spark is. A year ago an #Nvidia #workstation with 128GB+ of VRAM cost tens of thousands of dollars. Is it better than AMD's Strix Halo? Now that's the real question.

#DGXSpark #AI
www.theregister.com/2025/10/14/d...

DGX Spark Nvidia's desktop supercomputer: first look

hands on: This relatively-affordable AI workstation isn’t about going fast; it’s about doing everything well enough

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · 23d

a man with a straw in his mouth is drinking from a bottle

ALT: a man with a straw in his mouth is drinking from a bottle

media.tenor.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · 25d

On the road again.

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Reposted by Tobias Mann

Iain Thomson @iainthomson.bsky.social · 26d

If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff.

If you can't use AI then it's bye bye, Accenture tells staff

ai-pocalypse: Consultancy says machine learning advice is making bank

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 13

tenstorrent.com/hardware/tt-...

It’s the Blackhole variant

TT-QuietBox™

The TT-QuietBox™ Liquid-Cooled Desktop Workstation offers superior performance per dollar for developers looking to run, test, and develop AI models, or port and develop libraries for HPC.

tenstorrent.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 12

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’ve never held a QSFP DD cable before. It’s enormous compared to the SFP+ DACs I’m used to.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 12

I love my dog. He's usually a very good boy. But having adopted him as a 10 week-old puppy less than a year before COVID hit, his anxiety can be overwhelming at times.

He had a vet visit today. He got his shots, but wouldn't let the Dr. do a proper exam. We get to come back in 4 weeks and try again

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 12

Look what just landed in the lab

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 11

Something curious I’ve noticed is I’m using virtualization less in my homelab preferring instead to run bare metal with containers.

I still keep a PVE box for VMs when they’re warranted but a lot of the stuff I’m doing can be achieved using containers.

#Linux #VM #Homelab #tech

Terminal output showing Neofetch:

tobiasmann@uranus
-----------------
OS: Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS x86_64
Host: TRX50 AERO D -CF
Kernel: 6.14.0-29-generic
Uptime: 1 hour, 50 mins
Packages: 795 (dpkg)
Shell: bash 5.2.21
Resolution: 1920x1080
Terminal: /dev/pts/0
CPU: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7960X s (48) @ 5.364GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Ti
Memory: 1068MiB / 128295MiB

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 10

Ever since Nvidia started talking about disaggregated inference architectures at GTC this spring, I had a feeling a HBM-less prefill accelerator was only a matter of time.

My latest for @theregister.com

www.theregister.com/2025/09/10/n...

#Nvidia #AI #Datacenter #Servers #HPC

Nvidia's context-optimized Rubin CPX GPUs were inevitable

Analysis: Why strap pricey, power-hungry HBM to a job that doesn't benefit from the bandwidth?

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 7

R9 9900X on a MSI X870E-P MB.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 3

a man in a suit and tie is looking at something

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is looking at something

media.tenor.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Sep 3

Oof. I can relate. Last night my email was filled with TrueNAS warnings. A drive reported Smart Errors.

Logs: extended test failed.
short test fails. Yep dead drive. 😟

Backup my core files and drop in the cold spare. 6 hours of resilvering left to go.

www.theregister.com/2025/09/03/m...

Matrix.org homeserver grinds to a halt after RAID meltdown

: Engineers wrangle 55 TB restore and traffic replay as millions of messages queue up

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 30

Yes indeed. Stout little card. Though I’m rather eager to put the Radeon Pro AI r9700 to the test.

Here’s batch 1 perf figs if you’re curious.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 30

My Bugatti and Ferrari are on loan.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 30

The 6000 Ada is in the other system.

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 30

New bench who this?

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 26

After three years of 24/7 service in my homelab my R9 3900X met its end on Sunday.

During routine thermal paste change the cooler ripped it from the socket bending several pins.

Alas even when bent back into position it refused to post. RIP my friend.

#AMD #CPU #PC #Homelab #Tech

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 25

In my latest hands on for @theregister.com I break down everything you need to know to run large language models in the privacy of our home using Llama.cpp.

www.theregister.com/2025/08/24/l...

#AI #PC #LLM #HomeLab

How to run LLMs on PC at home using Llama.cpp

Hands on: Everything you need to know to build, run, serve, optimize and quantize models on your PC

www.theregister.com

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Reposted by Tobias Mann

Iain Thomson @iainthomson.bsky.social · Aug 20

Some stories are just made for puns, not to mention highlighting F-grade security.

Yes, I did have fun with this.

McDonald's not lovin' it when hacker exposes rotten security

: Burger slinger gets a McRibbing, reacts by firing staffer who helped

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 20

So wait. Is Arm really getting into silicon? Seems like a sure fire way to piss off your customers.

Maybe chiplets would be okay? Most Arm customers take off-the-shelf cores anyway.

My latest for @theregister.com

www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/a...

#Arm #CPU #Chips #tech

Top AWS chip engineer reportedly defects to Arm

: Rami Sinno led Trainium and Inferentia development at Amazon

www.theregister.com

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Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 19

The way the report describes the B30A it sounds a lot more like a B300 NVL than a H20 replacement...

www.theregister.com/2025/08/19/n...

Nvidia reportedly plotting cut-down B300 for Chinese market

: It's that or a replacement for its aging H200 NVL PCIe cards

www.theregister.com

Tobias Mann @tobiasmann.bsky.social · Aug 19

AMD Radeon Inference perf in Llama.cpp is an interesting conundrum. The Vulkan backend offers higher token gen but ROCm is vastly superior in prompt processing.

Which do you opt for?