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!