How to proceed

Hardware Build a PC
1

Hey all. This is pretty vague but I’m looking at getting some new hardware given a disappointing experience with a pretty popular new laptop company. To make a long story short, I’m down one laptop and up about $2,000 Canadian kopeks, looking for options to satisfy my computing needs.

My situation briefly is that I’m a Business Analysis student with a strong interest in computers (probably should have taken Computer Science but c’est la vie). I was having issues running Windows 11 on a Vivobook x415da laptop (BSOD on every boot, watchdog timer violation; maybe AMD drivers. Oddly rock solid under Fedora even with closed source drivers…). This is unacceptable as I needed a reliable Windows machine for school (I cannot run our exam invigilation software on Linux or in VM Windoze). I tried to buy a really nice laptop but it didn’t work out (at all!). With the refund process started, I purchased a Thinkpad T480 (i5-8350u FHD) which will satisfy the Windoze-mobile-repairability aspects of my computing needs. But I need power and reliability.

With the remaining $1,500 (these are Canadian dollars, note. We pay some kind of premium compared to our neighbours to the south as you might deduce from the price of the T480), I think it would be nice to build a desktop which is sufficiently powerful for my needs, and will be modular and upgradeable (so no mini pc’s please! MS-01 looks cool but…).

I like to play with R and python in my spare time… would like to get into machine learning, big data analysis, maybe even LLMs eventually. I also like to do a bit of gaming now and again, but mostly older games (Metal Gear Solid V might be one of the most modern games in my Steam library, i.e. 2015). If I can game with this machine then I can retire an old Elitedesk 800 G1 and turn it into a NAS :smiling_imp: (then maybe it would be nice to reserve a bit of money for some “spinning rust”).

Suppose I want to keep the build down around $1,250CAD. Does AM4 seem reasonable? My dream machine would be something like a Proxmox box that I can spin up a Windows VM for gaming (with GPU pass through??) or school work, and Linux VMs for “real work”… I don’t know if that’s a terrible idea. Could also just dual boot I suppose. Beyond that I’d be open to suggestions, even in a completely different direction, as to how I ought to proceed here.

I was very influenced by this video, worth a watch I think (the title is somewhat misleading):

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read

2

Maybe this will help?

Concerned mostly about GPU passthrough.

Ryzen 5 5600x
Asrock X570 Phantom Gaming 4 (why do they name products like this?)
Powercolor Fighter RX 6600 (open to other budget options, it’s not really a gaming rig per se)
Cheap 32 GB ram.
Storage

I don’t expect to be spinning up multiple VMs at a time, ans the host will be headless. So passing through 2 gpu seems unncessary. From what I read iommu grouping for this board is OK. Maybe there are better options? Is this going to be severely underpowered in a few years?

3

T480 arrived. Purchased in “excellent condition” from an Amazon certified partner. Oops. I feel like I’ll never have a computer for school work at this point. :worried: Retaining screw here is stripped and won’t close. Input deck is cracked down to the HDMI port. Too bad, was in nice condition otherwise. Back it goes.

IMG-20240220-WA0000
IMG-20240220-WA00001920×3413 249 KB

4

Looks good to me.

Asrock product names are a bit weird at times.

5

Ryzen 5 5600/5600X
Thermalright AXP120-67 or SI-100
AMD Radeon RX66_0XT [RX6700, IF opportunity arises]
OR nVIDIA RTX 3060Ti [IF opportunity arises]
AM4 550 Chipset [min. tier]
2x16GB DDR4 3600
Storage [M.2s / _2.5in]
650W(+) Gold PSU [SFX sizing if needed, for intended case build]
Lian Li 011 Mini Air [iTX-ATX] / Coolermaster NR200 [iTX-SFF]

1 Like
6

is the 550 ok for GPU passthrough?

Someone pointed out to me the other day that the price of AM4 vs AM5 boards is almost the same in our market… maybe I should just look at AM5? What do you think? I suppose the processor and RAM would be slightly more expensive, but newer better? And possibly more efficient power draw?

7

I’d say the 550, for the minimum, since the _20 series is severely kneecapped, on such things
X570 would be smidge safer, as the boards can be had, with dual phys x16s [*runs dual x8]
Look up mainboard info, for them extra layer assurances, regarding IOMMU breakdown(s)
Our @Wendell, has some AM4 mainboard reviews, where he discusses such experience(s)

I haven’t kept up with AM5, outside of component pricings, have gotten more manageable
… IF I was looking, to build a fresh AMD rig- I’d be waiting, for them 700 series boards

8

Ok I did some more looking around and I do not really like the idea of buying AM4 since it doesnt leave much of an upgrade path.

Here is my prospective AM5 build. I want to have some kind of nvidia card for AI and then an AMD card for gaming. I will pass these through to VMs, hence the 8600G is fine, I think?

9

G-SKU of AMD processors, will reduce L3 cache / PCIe lanes
[due to embedded Phoenix-esque GPU, that would exceed the otherwise 2CUs]
PCIe standard, would also be downgraded, from 5.0 to 4.0
…Better off waiting, on Standard/X tier CPUs to come out

10

But I think I also lose some lanes by using 7000 series on this board as well… :cry: