Holla Wireheads!
Back in the day since 80286, 486 through Athlons I used to make my own boxes, it was the only way I could afford something performant.
Now I need something performant again and just can’t see spending $10k for something I can source for $6k in parts.
I haven’t rolled my own in a while, been taking a self guided crash course to catch back up. A lot of cool stuff (literally) nowadays. That didn’t exist back in the 80-90s… (no kidding huh)
Anyhow I want to build a box that handles two purposes: Fast everything as it comes to Visual Studio and SSMS for a large, distributed enterprise solution. I want to be able to see lots of open code and sql windows without waiting on the UI thread to unlock as I switch context. I want to not have to wait for Intelisense, VS Extensions and GitHub CoPilot to duke it out every time I type a character (my loaded Surface Book3 is getting its butt kicked). I also need to replace a venerable multi processor server that can’t go past Widows Server 2012 for an AD testing and debugging environment. I’m figuring a Threadripper Pro will easily allow for a substantial distributed Virtual Server environment to spin up without slowing down Visual Studio.
It bothers me that the 5000 series is so old, But with all the literal melt downs during AMD’s Zen 4 roll out, maybe tried and true makes sense. The recent significant price drops make me wonder if they are clearing inventory prior to announcing the next series or is it just saving face due to recent miscues…
Anyhow so here is where I’m at:
I got a ridiculously big case ThermalTake 900, various equally ridiculously big water cooling components. I’m thinking the Asrock Creator MB and the 32 core CPU, 512GB of ecc as recommended in the videos on this topic (but would like recommendations as to manufacturer and part #s, I’m finding matching the compatibility list to what’s available a little challenging) .
One video card to drive 2-4 (just 1 at first) 5k UW monitors for code and sql windows. I’m currently thinking an AMD Radeon Pro W6800 and adding an after market water cooling plate (though I’m antsy about voiding the warrantee). Eventually one card to drive a gaming monitor (not really a priority, just don’t want to be painted into a corner) I’m currently thinking a ASRock AQUA Radeon RX 7900 XTX if no other reason than it has water cooling built in.
I really don’t know what the state of current power supply technology is like. I want to be able to drive everything with room to spare, but don’t want it drawing 1600 watts while idling. I’m hoping power management is smarter now than it used to be.
With all that in mind recommendations for:
Power Supplies,
RAM,
Boot drives (is redundancy still a thing?) ,
two drives for SQL Server
and a ( or redundant?) drive(s) for everything else.
Would be most appreciated.
Thanks