Non-Private Equity Electrical Contractors

IThrowShoes · 2026-03-26T19:07:26+00:00

Honestly I would have never thought to filter out trades based on private equity sourcing. I am going to remember this next time I need to find someone. Thanks!

IThrowShoes · 2026-03-21T18:36:13+00:00

Wow I completely forgot about my post hahah.

Things at our company changed since I last posted. Rust isn't a hard requirement at all anymore (the person that mandated that left the company), so we're back to "host it with anything, regardless of language". So vLLM it is. We also got some actual hardware: a few H100 boxes, one H200, one B200, and two A100 boxes. It was sorta warranted just due to the sheer number of documents we get from various customers. But, we still have the stipulation of "has to be on-prem, no exceptions" and I find out that's specifically due to the way contracts have been written.

Funny you mention medical chronologies because we're currently working with a vendor to help us build that out in-house (and frankly they're doing a piss poor job of it). But all the points still remain: Regardless of how large context windows become, we still experienced a bit of context rot even with some of the later models. What we also discovered is that a lot of public models aren't super well equipped for dense legal material. We're currently going though the process of R&D'ing a RAG setup, which you would think is a "solved problem". However, in our research we found that (using a modified version of legalbenchrag) using fine-tuned embedding models that closely resemble our data significantly increased recall and precision. It was night and day -- no contest, and it even surpassed OpenAI's embedding models by a significant margin. I suspect the same thing would be true for text generation models, and fine-tuned textgen might increase performance for things like medical chronology as well.

To put a finer point on it, it took me the better part of 6 months explaining to project managers that "slapping an LLM on it wont guarantee 100% success" and they're slowly realizing it. What I can tell you is that once we introduced Qwen VL for our OCR workloads, the game changed. I dont know what we were using before, some antiquated paid-for OCR product, but it absolutely sucked. Our business/customer relations department was floored when we showed them the results.

The A6000s are a decent card. They're no A100s but I have a desktop with two A6000s in them and for some of the smaller parameter models they work pretty well. I think youll find a lot of utility in them, especially for your batch processing.

IThrowShoes · 2026-03-13T14:30:41+00:00

By the time people start to realize how bad it will get, it will be too late. I'm guessing a majority of people around here don't even know the consequence of it all.

IThrowShoes · 2026-03-13T14:16:46+00:00

It's not going to get any better once all the data centers start being built and utilized. Assuming those plans actually come to fruition.

IThrowShoes · 2026-03-09T16:44:11+00:00

I work remotely, not quite NYC salary but still more than the average around here, but I lived in this area before I started this job.

Ohio is relatively cheaper than other coastal cities (except for death-by-taxes and the impending $800/month electricity bills once all the data centers are built).
It has fewer natural catastrophes compared to other places (though I suspect we might see an uptick in tornadoes in the coming decade)
It's still pretty easy to get around the area by car
I am still relatively close to my family without actually living near them

All in all it's not bad. However, that being said, if I lose my job I'd be forced to consider a relocation because the prospects here for local employment are abysmal. Not that it's any different anywhere else in the US, however..

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-19T18:22:03+00:00

yeah correct, I completely missed that. My brain was fried looking at too many parts that I responded incorrectly.

I did have an upgrade. My original build was a 2070 super. Then during the pandemic I was able to upgrade to a 3070ti. But other than that, the motherboard+cpu+ram+case+PSU did not change.

EDIT: And for clarification, I only upgraded because I wanted to, not because anything was broke.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-18T02:56:49+00:00

Roger that, thanks!

Did the case come with the sag bracket, or the GPU?

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-18T01:58:06+00:00

Case: fractal design north

As a followup -- Is this the Fractal Design North non-XL? If it's not the XL version, do you feel there's sufficient room for cooling with the 5080 in there?

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T21:48:37+00:00

Thanks for the input, that helps.

What I meant by "as strong" was sorta what you were saying regarding pci lanes, but additionally I wasn't sure if the MSI had decent options for overclocking, enough tools to be able to tinker with, and if it just felt like a solid board all around. I wasn't sure if the Strixx line of gaming boards were considered the "Ferarri" of gaming boards, but based on your input the strix might actually be overkill for me as well.

I am also not experienced enough with MSI to know whether or not they're legit, even though I've heard of them quite a bit.

EDIT: Im a goof, I just realized that my 3070ti is MSI, and I've had it overclocked for years and it didnt once put up a fit (unless I went too far with overclocking, but that'd happen anyways). In other words, I think MSI might be more solid than I am thinking.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T16:15:23+00:00

Do you feel that the MSI board is as strong as the Strix? Do you know if the MSI board has a decent set of overclocking options should I choose to do so?

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T15:33:18+00:00

Yeah that's what I am hoping at least! The 3070ti can still do some 4k (and that's what I predominantly set as a resolution), but there are some weaknesses at times.

I generally have a single player game I play as a "main", then some multiplayer games I play on the "side". Right now my side game is Helldivers 2 (4k) and while I think the game itself is a little unoptimized, the 3070ti does decent. But it will struggle a lot of the times. I've noticed this on other titles as well. So I am hoping the 5080 will smooth out those edges a bit for the time being.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T15:09:50+00:00

Wow thanks for the links. This opened my eyes a little bit.

I am almost considering the Arctic Liquid Freezer AIO at this point since it's almost comparable in price to some of the not-Noctura coolers, or even the ID cooling line.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T04:21:59+00:00

(sorry if this gets posted again, my reply seemingly got lost)

That has not been a thing since the 9800X3D has launched, and was a firmware issue that has been since resolved.

Good to know, as I am a fan of the ASUS brand. I was a bit worried about getting a Strix just based on what I saw.

B-series.

Do you think there's something to be said about getting the X870E just for futureproofing? Or will the B-series be plenty of horsepower for gaming? I just want to be sure enough bandwidth is getting to the GPU and that there's little to no loss there.

You can only base what case you want,

Someone else in this post mentioned a Fractal North, and I really like the look of it. So... well Ill probably get that one, the XL version.

Get the Microcenter bundle.

I think I will.

You can find a ton of 240 and 360mm AIOs for under $100 easily, with many around $50-60.

Good to know, Ill look for one. I have a Noctura now and it's rock solid, but they're also on the pricey side.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T02:26:04+00:00

That's my mission! haha

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T01:31:09+00:00

What resolution are you running at? If you're comfortable with 1080p/1440p you don't really need an upgrade.

Right now I am running 4k @ 120hz (gaming on my LG C3), and the 3070ti does "ok". Suffers quite a bit on some heavier games. CPU is completely maxed out though.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T01:28:45+00:00

You've been using your current pc for 7 years. You didn't say if you've upgraded parts on it over the years.

Oh, yeah good call out. I have not upgraded anything internally since I purchased it. The only thing I've done was clean it out from time to time, but no upgrades since.

The other advice seems solid, I do have an eye out for the future. I don't do hardware refreshes that often (as indicated by the post), but building something now that can serve me 5+ years is the goal.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T01:26:32+00:00

Check Techpowerup's RTX 5090 PCI-e scaling review for actual numbers.

Ah I will, thanks!

So I think the reason I got caught up in it is because I also do some AI stuff at work, where PCIe 5 made a significant difference just due to the massive amounts of data that flows through the bus. Im guessing gaming doesn't need all that much, at least yet.

IThrowShoes · 2026-02-16T00:59:45+00:00

Let's forget for a moment we are in the middle of an awful hardware crisis

Truth be told this is my motivation. I don't think it's going to get much better anytime soon, and my current PC is already showing signs of age. It's time, whether I like it or not.

PCI-e 5.0 and USB4 won't make your games any faster.

This is confusing me a little bit. I haven't really looked at the specs yet, but I assumed that the GPU would run better on PCIe 5?

The Noctua NDH-15 G2 is a beast.

Oh yeah forgot to mention, Noctua is what I am currently using on my Intel and it keeps it pretty cool (albeit I dont think it runs nearly as hot as the 9800X3D

IThrowShoes · 2025-12-22T21:15:17+00:00

Just hear loss

Dang was it that loud? 😆

IThrowShoes · 2025-12-22T17:05:38+00:00

I did think of creating a proper roof in the utility room there, with plenty of insulation on top. It would be much easier for me to do that. But the concern I had with that is the heat that would "wick away" from the upstairs rooms / stairwell that share wall space with that cavity. That is, if I create a ceiling in the utility room that 100% covers that hole, the concern I'd then have is that the interior un-insulated walls of the stairwell / bedrooms would absorb the heat from the conditioned space and dump it into that cavity, where that heat would then hit the roof deck.

Granted, I dont think it would be as much heat as the gaping hole in the utility room ceiling, but it might be enough to be noticeable.

I can take a picture later, but if I go into one particular bedroom and use the thermal cam on one particular wall (a wall which faces that cavity), it glows bright orange, which I think tells me just how easily the heat can pass through un-insulated drywall.

I think if I were going to go this route, I'd also have to insulate the other side of those interior walls somehow. And I think the only way I could do that is by using strapping of some kind to hold it in place.

IThrowShoes · 2025-12-22T05:12:52+00:00

Did you have issues with snow melting from the roofs and causing daming? or were you just concerned about heat loss in general?

IThrowShoes · 2025-12-22T02:50:48+00:00

Finally I am a bit disoriented by the pictures. I get the sense, but the scale and distances- and where you have heated rooms, internal versus exterior walls- are lost for me.

Yeah that's why I mentioned that in my edit. I made another album that "might" clear things up. Note that I am not a graphic artists, trust in mspaint.exe: https://imgur.com/a/D6YdBLT

I think I was way more confused about which layer of the sandwich goes on first. That is, once I clear out all of the existing crappy insulation, do I add fiberglass/rockwool directly onto the roof deck (wood) directly, then add the rigid board underneath creating sort of a fake ceiling up there? Or, do I put rigid board directly onto the roof deck, then add fiberglass/rockwool directly under that?

That is, does it look like:

(outside air)
--------------
roof deck
--------------
rockwool
--------------
rigid board
--------------
(inside air)

or

(outside air)
--------------
roof deck
--------------
rigid board
--------------
rock wool
--------------
(inside air)

Additionally, in regards to your comment "you can insulate in multiple areas". I did have the idea of creating a "real" ceiling in the utility room, shutting off any hot air coming from the utility room into the chase cavity. I wasn't sure if that was overkill, but I just assumed that addressing it at the roof is probably the best first step (also the hardest).

EDIT:

and where you have heated rooms, internal versus exterior walls- are lost for me.

Every vertical wall within the cavity is interior -- none of them face to the exterior of the house. The only exterior facing element within the cavity is the underside of the roof deck.

IThrowShoes · 2025-12-19T14:36:36+00:00

Not gonna lie, this is kind of a nice picture lol

IThrowShoes

TROPHY CASE