Hey folks,
I’m figuring out what will be my 40th birthday present to myself - hopefully my workstation for the next 10 years. This is my first opportunity to build a system like this, so I’m really excited - but also a little anxious. Therefore, I would really appreciate commentary or feedback - especially from anyone with any of these components already.
This will be replacing my current system which is a Xeon E5-2698 v3 which I bought for cheap several years ago running in an Asus X99 Deluxe II with 128GB of RAM, so this will probably be an absolutely huge upgrade.
My goal is to run something like Proxmox VE as a hypervisor with a Linux (debian if you’re curious, unless there’s a compelling reason to go with something else) VM as my desktop. I’ve seen this done elsewhere I think, and I like the idea of it. I would like to have GPU passthrough to the desktop so I can play games, and I would also like to have the option to pass through a second GPU to a Windows instance in case I need software that works better there, or another Linux instance for messing around with (I am intrigued by NixOS and would like to play around with it, for example).
I also would like to run other VMs on this host just for fun - I like playing with enterprise goodies like K8s and it would be rad to be able to spin up a test cluster on this machine.
Since I intend for this machine to last a long time, I am also intending to way overbuild. With that said, here’s what I have listed out so far:
- Threadripper 7970x - I could be persuaded to step down to the 7960 but I probably won’t.
- Asus Pro WS TRX50-Sage - I like this one because I would really like to have the IPMI add-in card. I’m not sure if the Supermicro WS board is available yet or if it will support the faster memory that the Asus board supports.
- 128 or 256GB RAM kit - I haven’t entirely decided on this yet. I thought I saw a 256GB kit somewhere for $1200, and if I can find that again I’ll definitely jump on it. I’m would appreciate suggestions here.
- 7900XTX - this is obviously the most likely part to be upgraded in the next few years but I don’t have any problem starting out at what is currently the top. I will probably add my current 6800XT to the system at a later date, once I get around to decommissioning my current workstation (a
- 2xWD Black SN850X ZFS mirror for Proxmox storage.
- 2xKioxia CD6 (or similarly quick U.2/PCI-E 4.0 drive) for passthrough to main Linux desktop. I mean, the theme is no kill like overkill, right? Shooting for several TB here. Though, these seem to be getting more expensive and harder to find. Previously I found the 7.6TB read optimized drives for under $500 and it looks like I should have bought a pair then - can’t find them for anywhere near that price now.
That’s what I’ve picked so far. I’m looking for advice on some other components, though…
- CPU cooler. I have never done a full watercooling system, but it might be fun! AIO seems a lot easier though. Any recommendations here? I know watercooling will probably be a lot more expensive as well as take me a lot longer to get assembled, but I think I’m OK with that if someone comes along and says “DO IT YOU WON’T REGRET IT”.
- Power supply. I think I will go with a single here despite the option for 2 - I don’t think I’ll need it t least for a while. I can do like a 1200W be quiet straight power 12 and probably be happy.
- Case - there are just so many options here. I have some biases toward fractal design, but I also like the idea of maybe rackmounting this in the future so the Silverstone RM52 is appealing…I just don’t know exactly what to do yet.
- U.2 adapter. I have no idea what to do here. Can someone recommend some options? I guess I’m most partial toward an x8 dual carrier card.
I guess that’s it. Feedback welcome. Please let me know what (other than myself) is dumb here - but remember! There’s no kill like overkill.