[FFmpeg-devel] Hardware purchase request

[Michael Niedermayer]

On Mon, Mar 29, 2021 at 11:03:16PM +0300, Jan Ekström wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2021 at 12:47 AM Lynne <dev at lynne.ee> wrote:
> >
> > As discussed during the last developer meeting, I am in need of new hardware to
> > work on Vulkan filtering, hwcontext, AV1 VAAPI decoding, new assembly and
> > general development on FFmpeg and projects involving the FFmpeg libraries.
> >
> > I was requested to post what I'd like on the mailing list for discussion, as well
> > as to talk about their purchase, since I currently lack the spare funds to buy
> > everything and then be refunded, which is the standard way we have handled
> > hardware and expenses in the past.
> >
> 
> Hi, and first of all - thank you for posting this.
> 
> Just to start with my position:
> 1. I have no control over whether someone receives money or not, I am
> just part of the community.
> 2. IMHO we should be utilizing the money for things we find useful for
> the project, the most recent of which were the two M1 Mac Minis.
> Hardware required for development clearly fits that bill. So as such I
> am not opposed to
> 
> > As we have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in our SPI fund
> > (121 716.03 USD as of the end of 2019), I have spared no expense in
> > my selection.
> 
> Personally, while I know that thinking about the big picture in money
> is not our hobby nor a thing that we like to keep in our minds, but I
> think we should not make such statements unless one has an
> understanding of the growth rate of that fund. I do not have such
> understanding, and I would not like to start making the calculations
> in my head to get an understanding of the yearly fluctuations of the
> fund, and thus I would not have utilized such wording.
> 
> Depending on such knowledge, it could be seen whether utilizing
> roughly 1:20 of that amount on a single entry can be seen as either
> something that can be handled within the yearly growth, or not. And if
> not, whether we have a reason to be OK with it (the single entry being
> of such importance that it cannot be ignored, other sources of income
> for the project, etc)
> 
> Let's just say that I'm happy to not be an accountant for anyone else
> than myself, having to look at whether something is sustainable or
> not.
> 
> > The price listed on each component is the lowest I could
> > find from all the stores I searched.
> >
> > PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HJwhLP <https://de.pcpartpicker.com/list/HJwhLP>
> >
> > CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 3.4 GHz 16-Core Processor  (€949.00 @ Topchat.com)
> > CPU Cooler: Fractal Design Celsius+ S36 Dynamic X2 PWM 87.6 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  (€145.66 @ Amazon)
> > Motherboard: Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero ATX AM4 Motherboard  (€574.98 @ Amazon)
> > Memory: 2x G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) F4-4000C16D-32GTZR DDR4-4000 CL16 Memory  (€470.95 @ Amazon)
> > Storage: 2x Samsung 980 Pro 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive  (€216.38 @ Amazon)
> > Video Card: XFX Radeon RX 6900 XT 16 GB Speedster MERC 319 Ultra Video Card (€1925.89 @ Amazon)
> > Case: Fractal Design Define 7 Compact ATX Mid Tower Case  (€132.78 @ Amazon)
> > Power Supply: Fractal Design Ion+ 860 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  (€185.50 @ Amazon)
> > Case Fan: 3x Noctua A14 PWM 82.5 CFM 140 mm Fan  (€21.90 @ Amazon)
> > Monitor: LG 27GN950-B 27.0" 3840x2160 144 Hz Monitor  (€742.49 @ Amazon)
> >
> > Total: €6096.66
> 
> A lot of these components sound quite alright, and reasonable for a
> development workstation. Then there are various things which
> unfortunately make it hit my uncomfortability level, mostly due to not
> knowing how the context of the fund.
> 
> The most recent purchase I recall was for two pieces of shared
> hardware going for about 1500eur (1,299 gbp) which together would be
> around 3000eur. Personally, without knowing the state or growth rate
> of the fund I would be much more comfortable with something along
> those lines.

Lynne, do you need all the parts of this list for FFmpeg development ?
In the sense that a lower priced choice for a component or none would
materially impact FFmpeg development ?
I think theres a unfortunate misunderstanding that while we do have more
money we know what to do with ATM. That doesnt mean we should attempt to
use up as much as possible.
IIRC there was a large one time donation that made it that big so it wont
replenish that rapidly also people donating likely want us to use their
donations as optimally as possible.

IMO some of this list is quite reasonable like a 1TB NVME, then iam not
sure why you need a 2nd one. That can be needed of course but its not clear
from just the list. But really i dont want to "critique" the list, it just
overall feels like there was a misunderstanding and iam happy to approve
a machiene in the 2-3k range or also higher if its explained why its needed
for FFmpeg

and sorry for my late reply

Thanks


[...]
-- 
Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

Frequently ignored answer#1 FFmpeg bugs should be sent to our bugtracker. User
questions about the command line tools should be sent to the ffmpeg-user ML.
And questions about how to use libav* should be sent to the libav-user ML.
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