New Linux Workstation Build Ideas and Feedback Wanted

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Thinking about putting together a new workstation so that the existing workstation can be used for home lab duty. Replacing 6700K with 16G RAM.

General purpose Linux workstation. Most of my work is done in terminal on remote hosts. Use the browser a lot with occasional video/audio encoding/rendering stuff, code compilation. Want some horsepower available if I do want to play with virtualization or other stuff but mostly it should just be a solid workstation. Don’t game much at all anymore, my current 970 rarely even spins the fans up so thinking no point in replacing that right now. Have a Fractal Define R5 with no reason to replace (have case for old gear already). The quieter the better. Budget up to $2000 but the less the better. Will turn on PBO and memory profiles but little desire to try and overclock.

Put together the following with the idea that it has a mid to upper workstation performance available but not a bunch of overkill that will never be used practically. Wanted a higher clocked processor with ample cores. Motherboard has 2 more m.2 slots available should I need them. 4 sata ports is enough though more is always better with all the sata drives I have kicking around. PCI expansion seems good enough, not great but not sure what more I wold practically need. Plenty of USB available. 2.5G networking will be nice once I get more devices that support it (have none currently).

What do you think?

[PCPartPicker Part List

Type Item Price
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 7900X 4.7 GHz 12-Core Processor $411.68 @ Amazon
CPU Cooler be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler $89.90 @ Amazon
Motherboard ASRock B650M Pro RS WiFi Micro ATX AM5 Motherboard $149.99 @ Newegg
Memory TEAMGROUP T-Create Classic 32 GB (2 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600 CL46 Memory $72.98 @ Amazon
Storage Samsung 980 Pro 2 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive $129.99 @ Amazon
Video Card EVGA FTW+ ACX 2.0+ GeForce GTX 970 4 GB Video Card Purchased For $0.00
Case Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case Purchased For $0.00
Power Supply Corsair RM750e (2023) 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply $99.99 @ Best Buy
Prices include shipping, taxes, rebates, and discounts
Total $954.53
Generated by PCPartPicker 2023-06-11 00:34 EDT-0400
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Alternatively, see if you can track down a used Threadripper workstation. More cores&threads, may not fit your budget though.

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I would probably look at a little higher grade motherboard simply to get more M.2 slots as storage is in general moving towards that. MAG B650 TOMAHAWK WIFI or Asus TUF GAMING B650-PLUS (w/wo Wifi) might be worth considering in that regard without being that much more expensive.

I’d think twice about getting 16Gb as AM5 seems to have trouble keeping memory speed up populating more than 2 slots. A single 32Gb stick might be a better option longterm despite not running in dual channel mode. Not that you’ll notice it much but that RAM seems rather slow, if you still want 16Gb*2 you might want to look at the Corsair Vengance 5600 (cmk32gx5m2b5600c36) which seems to pack a better bang for the buck. I would also highly consider replacing the SSD with Crucial P5 Plus 2TB instead, it is a tiny bit slower on paper but Crucial have proven themselves to be a solid player in general when it comes to SSDs.

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Think twice about dual 16G sticks? I dont see having to add more sticks down the road so would like be two sticks max for at least a few years. If i need more down the road I can go with 32G sticks then? Can you give me more info on the issues you descibe? Trying to avoid those pitfalls.

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I’m referring to this: Reddit - Dive into anything

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+1 think about a different motherboard. But I hate ASUS, and since this is a “workstation”, I’d recommend a board that supports ECC RAM and is built for 24/7 operation like the ASROCK B650D4U https://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=B650D4U#Specifications .

Thus, you should also opt for ECC RAM as well. It’s a “workstation” build, and your CPU will support it.

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I’d think twice about getting 16Gb as AM5 seems to have trouble keeping memory speed up populating more than 2 slots. A single 32Gb stick might be a better option longterm despite not running in dual channel mode.

Little confused by this, want to make sure I understand correctly. Both the kit I originally linked and the kit you recommended (which I will go with) are both 2 sticks of 16GB. This is what is recommend in that chart you linked as well right? Looks like the chart you linked say’s not to go with 4 sticks if I understand it correctly.

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What I linked are (RAM) sticks that have better timings by default which is good unless cost is unjustified however what I also pointed out is that you might want to consider getting a single 32Gb (or larger) stick instead as you will most likely need to drop the overall frequency when populating all DIMM slots if you want to expand later on.

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