The term "AI server" is everywhere, but when it comes to deploying your own artificial intelligence servers, the conversation quickly turns from abstract concepts to a very concrete question: what is an AI server? What components make a dedicated server into an AI server?
An AI server isn't a special type of computer; it’s a high-performance bare metal server with a carefully balanced architecture, engineered specifically to eliminate the bottlenecks that cripple demanding AI workloads. While the GPU gets all the attention, a truly effective artificial intelligence server is a holistic system where the CPU, RAM, storage, and network all play critical roles.
Let’s break down the essential AI server requirements, explain how to approach your AI server build, and discuss the real-world economics of the AI server price.
GPU is the heart of AI
The single biggest differentiator of an artificial intelligence server is its reliance on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
A traditional CPU has a few very powerful cores, making it great for sequential tasks. A GPU, by contrast, has thousands of smaller, more efficient cores. This architecture is perfect for the type of mathematics at the heart of AI—matrix operations and tensor calculations—allowing it to perform thousands of operations simultaneously. This is why the NVIDIA artificial intelligence server demand is so high; their GPUs have dominated this space.
For general AI workloads and inference, GPUs like the NVIDIA RTX series offer a fantastic price-to-performance ratio. For more intensive training, high-end data center GPUs like the NVIDIA H100 are the standard.
A balanced AI architecture
A powerful GPU is useless if it's starved of data. The rest of your AI server build is designed to ensure your GPUs are constantly fed and operating at peak efficiency.
CPU: The CPU's primary job in an AI server is to manage the system and, most importantly, feed data to the GPUs. A CPU with a high number of PCIe lanes, like those in the AMD EPYC series, is critical. More PCIe lanes mean a wider data highway between the CPU, storage, and your GPUs, preventing the CPU from becoming a bottleneck.
RAM: Before a dataset can be processed by a GPU, it must first be loaded from storage into the system's main memory (RAM). AI workloads often involve massive datasets, so a generous amount of RAM is essential. While 128GB is a minimum, 256GB or 512GB of ECC RAM is a common and recommended starting point for a serious AI server.
Storage: The speed at which you can load your dataset from storage into RAM directly impacts your "time to train." This is why NVMe SSDs are non-negotiable for any serious AI server. Their massive throughput and low latency, compared to older SATA SSDs, can shave hours or even days off your training times.
Network: Whether you're pulling datasets from a central repository or serving your trained model via an API, a high-speed, low-latency network is essential. A 10Gbps or 25Gbps dedicated port ensures your AI server can communicate with the outside world without constraint.
The AI server price
The sticker price of the hardware is only one part of the equation. The true AI server price is a measure of its Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) versus its productivity.
The cloud vs. bare metal equation: Renting a GPU instance from a major cloud provider seems easy, but it is often prohibitively expensive for sustained workloads. The hourly costs for powerful GPUs can run into the thousands or tens of thousands of dollars per month. This model is ill-suited for the long training runs or 24/7 inference availability that many AI applications require.
A dedicated AI server from NovoServe provides a fixed, predictable monthly cost. You get 24/7, unrestricted access to your hardware. This allows you to experiment, train, and deploy your models without watching the clock or worrying about a surprise bill. For any long-term AI strategy, the TCO of a dedicated bare metal server is almost always significantly lower.
With NovoServe, you can deploy dedicated AI server with GPU already from €555. Check out our sales on AI servers.
Build your AI server
So, what is an AI server? It's a balanced, high-performance bare metal system where every component is chosen to support the massive parallel processing power of the GPU.
Ready to build your AI infrastructure? Don't guess. Our specialists are ready to help you architect the perfect artificial intelligence server for your project, with the right balance of GPU power, CPU capability, and high-speed I/O.
Explore our powerful GPU server configurations and get your special AI server offer today. Chat with our AI infrastructure now.
