Need Advice on a Workstation Build

Hi Folks,

My last build was in 2009 with an Intel quad-core and gigabyte MB. I’m looking for some advice on a new workstation build. Is this overkill? I’m not really much of a gamer and don’t care about lights in the case. I’m looking for a quality build for a good value that will grow with my needs. Most of this time it will idle, but when in use it will be multitasking some very different things, see below.

I would like 2 monitors that run in at least 1080x720.

I need a min of 6 SATA ports, perferrably 8 - 10. I may need a card to get this many ports these days.

  • Budget. How much are you willing to spend?
    Max 1k, unless there’s a very compelling argument to do so. I’d like to keep in under 800 USD. Cheaper is even better.
  • Where do you live (what country, don’t post specific details), and what currency do you use?
    USA, USD
  • Is there a retailer you prefer?
    Amazon, Microcenter, Newegg
  • Do you need or already have peripherals?
    I will use existing case, drives, peripherals. I’ll need a new WiFi card and possibly a SATA card.
  • What will you be using your Glorious computer for?
    NAS (4 - 6 drive RAID), Plex Server, VMs (Xen), Guitarix / Guitar Rig / MIDI, audio editing, coding, legal file sharing, office / productivity software, flight and racing simulators, possibly VR, Tensor Flow
  • Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking?
    My primary goal is stability, so I never have. However, it seems very much like a marketing thing now. Am I expected to overclock, these days?
  • Do you plan on going for custom water-cooling now, or in the future?
    Only if I need it.
  • Operating System. Do you need a new one?
    I’ll mostly be running Linux and maybe a BSD. I may move to Xen VMs with a Windows 10 VM.

I’m amazed at how much in the PC market is centered around gaming. I don’t think I need a crazy video card. I have an old NVidia that renders gnome 3 just fine. If I don’t use a big crazy GPU, can those resources on the chip and MB be freed up for other purposes?

Thanks!

So you are going to bring your old Nvidia card forward, what PSU/Case do you have or do you want new ones?

Add a bit to your budget and you can get a nice workstation.

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/zNWNPn

cpu/mobo should probably come from microcenter since they have access to there.

Just buy a Ryzen 2700 with however much ram you need for VM’s. Reuse your video card and call it a day. The 2700 is very cheap, and plenty for what you mentioned.

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