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 need a wifi card or MB and 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
Do you overclock or want to get into overclocking?
My primary goal is stability. However, I would like to learn about overclocking.
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?
Xen VMs - I may run a Windows VM, but I’ll mostly be running Linux and maybe a BSD.
That looks good to me, based on your requirements. If you’re not in a rush, you might consider waiting for the 3rd Gen Ryzen stuff to release, because we are expecting a sizeable value increase, and the launch is expected in June.
Also, I am trying to wrap my head around how you’re going to use this thing as both a NAS and a personal computing/gaming rig. Maybe you’ve got another machine laying around that you can use as your NAS/Plex machine, which would allow your use-case on this machine to be productivity/flight sims/etc.
Wjtaylor, My advice would be if you can’t spend any more than $1,000 dollars USD, you probably going to get more value for your money with used equipment. It sounds like we will be running almost the same type of workloads, the only difference would be I will be running GNS3 (which is a network virtualization software) and probably running a lot more virtual machines than you. Because my new desktop build is so expensive it probably will take a year and a half before I will have purchased all the parts. I look into used equipment for my needs, and while the network equipment that I need used was a good deal the rest wasn’t.
Your choice. There’s always the next gen stuff right around the corner, so just buy when you’re good and ready, It’s just that what we know about the new CPUs is extremely promising.
I currently have a Verto GeForce 8400 GS PCI-Express. It works fine for all my basic needs. I’ll by a GPU if needed. I’m really not a gamer.
The workstation will use linux software raid along with SMB and NFS services in DOM 0 / Host OS to provide NAS functionality for VMs and laptops. My goal is to run fewer physical machines and run VM / containers.
We have already the 3rd gen AMD processors. My boyfriend went crazy with happiness:grin:
If you havn’t t bought anything yet - I advise you to think about it.
I assume with it being six months that the OP should already have the parts he currently wants, if this isn’t the case, I urge the OP to message me or any other mod/leader so we can re-open this.
