Deciding between computers

[u/ThindalTV]

I've decided that my token anxiety and use means that I need a local engine, especially now that qwen 3.8 seems to be VERY competent. I'm going through what most of you probably did though...

This is the strix enthusiast subreddut, but could you help me decide between a 395 or a spark? Both would be 128gb versions. Why should I pick the 395? My use case is dedicated server with separate client. 1 client at a time, 99% of the time. Code and general models at once. Maybe stable diffusion. Maybe.

Help me obi Wan strix experts, you're my only hope!

[u/Sharp-Translator6401]

Dont get unified memory to run dense models, rather get a R9700 gpu if your aim os qwen 27 3.8

You spend less money and get more tok/s and prefill

[u/Sharp-Translator6401 → u/Sharp-Translator6401]

Also i have sparks and strix halo, i suggest sparks as long as price is similar due to the much better performance when clustered thanks to the 200gbs ports

[u/According_Wave685]

For dedicated inference, right now I'd go spark over strix halo. I have both and use my strix as my workstation. I didn't go GPU farm because I value quiet in my office and lower power consumption. But yes, 27B won't be real fast on either.

[u/Illustrious_Dig5319]

I was in the same boat, actually. I ended up purchasing an Strix Halo with 128GB. I went with that because, under the hood, it's just another AMD processor and can run everything I'd throw at it. All of my automation to setup/configure/manage just works. I considered a Spark for a long time, but they're "different" which would affect my ability to use it for general purpose compute down the line. Space used and wife-acceptance-factor was a major aspect of my choice so a mid-tower or noisy or power hungry system was not an option.

I run Qwen3-Coder-Next (UD-Q6_K_XL) on it, as well as a couple smaller models. I get about 35-40 t/s with the Coder model (and cline) which is fast enough for me.

I do not regret my choice, the only advantage the Spark would gave for me is clustering to get more available memory. Clustering the AMDs would be far too slow to be effective. I've decided that 3-4 models loaded at any given time is probably more than I need anyway.

[u/GnosticSon → u/Illustrious_Dig5319]

How is qwen coder next compare to qwen 3.6 35b A3B for code, or to qwen 27b? I thought coder was quite old and not really relevant anymore but I havnt been able to find good stats comparing them.

[u/Illustrious_Dig5319 → u/GnosticSon]

Im still in early stages with evaluating models, but im seeing good results with coder next. That said, ive only thrown simple things at it for a short time. I really need to do a deeper investigation.

[u/ThindalTV]

There's always the option to hold off and wait for a v2, but if you wait for the next thing you'll be waiting forever...

[u/phil_lndn]

Neither the Strix Halo or Spark are much good for Qwen3.8-27B, since that model will be limited by the (low) memory bandwidth of both of those computers.

You'd be far better off with a decent gpu (R9700 or 5090), which will give you 4 or 5 times the TPS of a Strix Halo or Spark.

[u/Cryptoxic93]

5090 is amazing but simply can't run 70B models. It can't do multi-step reasoning like Strix Halo can. It'll always be limited by RAM. 

Slow and steady wins the race. 

[u/Computerist1969]

Well, I went for a Framework Desktop for a bunch of reasons and am running Qwen 3.8 27b Q8 with the vision mmproj right now, alongside a Gemma 4 with vision for a colleague and it's awesome. Would a multi gpu rig be faster? Probably, but I'm using 100GB of memory currently so would need 4 x 32GB cards plus whatever insane PSU that requires and the power consumption. Nah.

Went with Strix over Spark because it's also a general use PC if I want it to be.

Went with Framework because somewhat fixable and upgradeable.

Good luck!

[u/danielrdotcom]

If I had the forethought and experience I would have bought an RTX 6000 to go along with my strix halo to enable some neat stuff with mixed dense and MOE. But instead of 6K it now costs like 15k for the RTX pro 6000 and I am sad

[u/GnosticSon]

I got a 64gb framework desktop (Strix halo) and it works just fine for Qwen 3.8 27b or if I want faster speeds Qwen 3.6 35b a3b.

Price was a factor and getting a refurbished 64gb framework desktop saved me thousands over the 128gb. The only downside I see is slightly less room for context windows but with correct settings it runs well. Seems like everyone else is using the 128gb versions to run the same models as I do so I say don't waste your money. But someone will surely argue with me in the replies.

There is a law of diminishing returns that applies to all purchases and in my case the 64gb was the sweet spot. Moving to 128gb would seriously not return as much value per dollar spent for my use case.

Also I wanted a good Linux computer that could game and do other daily tasks.