New workstation build. Used for virtualization, software development, and occasional gaming.
Sorry for the boxes. Detailed build log pics will follow very soon.
Overview:
Threadripper 3960x
Gigabyte TRX40 Aorus Xtreme
128gb 3200 CAS14
Hypervisor: Proxmox
GPU #1: PCIe passthrough to hackintosh VM (development/photoshop/lightroom)
GPU #2: PCIe passthrough to windows VM (games)
Several VMs for infrastructure mocking (software development)
2x 240gb SSD mirror for Proxmox + ISOs
2x 1tb 970 EVO NVMe striped storage pool for local shares (stripe: 4gb+ read/write)
4x 1tb Inland Premium NVMe striped storage pool. Ultra fast VM storage (stripe: 10gb+ read/write)
4x 3tb WD Red ZFS Z1 for local backups. Z1 is fine as I also have a dedicated multi-pool 50+TB FreeNAS over 10gbe for āsaferā backups.
1x 120gb SSD for direct boot windows. Used for flashing, managing RGBās. Anything really that can benefit from direct hardware access.
The 5700 GPUs were specifically selected as they are pretty much the best you can get at PCIe 4.0 for the moment, with the bonus that it works OOB for hackintosh. Fully utilizing the 4.0 lanes was quite important as I wanted to maximize the amount of lanes I can dedicate for I/O.
** All of the storage drives are carry over from the last build, so their price shouldnāt be considered for this build list
The 4 Inland NVMeās get connected directly into the motherboards 4 available slots. The 2 EVO NVMeās get connected via the PCIe AIC that comes with the motherboard. With this configuration, I still have 2 available slots for expansion in the AIC.
Oh, neat. I didnāt see that was included with the mobo. TRX40 PCIe lanes + two raid 0ās with 8 NVMeās has me salivating.
Iām dying to get faster storage for a SQL Server project. Iām playing with some machine learning stuff and itās a PITA to refactor a couple hundred GBs of data.
Yah, having the AIC be included helped a ālittleā with stomaching the motherboard price. Here some pics of the card it comes with which also happen to be part of the build log Iām creating.
Very niceā¦ seems we have similar taste. We chose the same case and motherboard anyway. I put some details for my build here: https://pcpartpicker.com/b/fB29TW
I used 4 drives in RAID 0 and just put them all on the card for some reason. Wanted to test it? Then never tried populating directly on the motherboardā¦
Nice, how are you liking the motherboard and case so far?
I had done the same thing with setting up a 4 wide stripe on the AIC for testing. But since this is water cooled, I decided I would load the slots on the board first, leaving the expansion capability in the AIC. Lot easier than draining/disassembling the loop to add a new drive
Iām still working on the build log, it draws the process out. Iām also doing 100% custom wiring which isnāt speeding things up, but hereās a few more pics!
This is how I configure the radiators/fans as a combo unit before install. Each rad receives a PWM hub and each fan on the rad receives a custom wire to the hub. The hub receives a custom shorty wire. Then the single wire from the hub to the motherboard is custom length. This allows me the flexibility to change cases and only have to rebuild a single custom lead from the hub at that time. The hub and wiring is of course done on the non visible side.
Awe-inspiringā¦ Thanks so much for taking the time to share this info and these pics! I am looking forward to seeing more pics as your build takes shapeāif you are so inclined and can tear yourself away from all of this uber seduction! So many concepts hereāIām already getting wild notions in my head just looking at this mouth-watering gear!
Thanks so much for taking the time to share this info and these pics! I am looking forward to seeing more pics as your build takes shapeāif you are so inclined and can tear yourself away from all of this uber seduction! So many concepts hereāIām already getting wild notions in my head just looking at this mouth-watering gear!
