Workstation / Lab-In-A-Box Build

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xwraith
Posts: 1085
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:42 pm

Workstation / Lab-In-A-Box Build

Post by xwraith »

So, its probably time for me to get a new workstation, and my current i7-2600K is getting quite long in the tooth...

I also need more horsepower to setup a complete lab environment -- but I don't want a rack suddenly showing up the door and raising questions :ninja:

I'm trying to spec this out with an eye towards stability, so I'm picking things like ECC RAM and making sure my drives have power loss protection -- I will be using it every day for work, and on the weekends for a bit of play and for research / learning.

My idea is that my core OS is now going to be Linux, and I'll leverage QEMU/KVM to run my VMs and allow for things like video card passthrough. The prices out there are eye watering though, and I would like to have as much storage in my new workstation as I do in the old...

Anyway what I have picked out so far (and PCPartPicker is telling me that I'm going to be spending $8000+)

CPU: AMD - Threadripper 2950X 16-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Noctua - NH-U12S TR4-SP3 55.0 CFM CPU Cooler
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver - 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 12g Thermal Paste
Motherboard: ASRock - X399 Taichi ATX TR4 Motherboard
Memory: Crucial - 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 Memory (Unbuffered ECC CAS 19)
Memory: Crucial - 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Memory: Crucial - 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Memory: Crucial - 16GB (1 x 16GB) DDR4-2666 Memory
Storage: Samsung - Data Center 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (MZ7LM960HCHP-00003) SATA
Storage: Samsung - Data Center 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - Data Center 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - Data Center 960GB 2.5" Solid State Drive
Storage: Samsung - PM961 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (MZVLW1T0HMLH-00000) M.2
Storage: Samsung - PM961 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar He8 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (HGST HUH728080ALE604)
Storage: Hitachi - Ultrastar He8 8TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive
Video Card: AMD - Radeon Pro WX 3100 4GB Video Card (Host Video)
Video Card: AMD - Radeon RX Vega 64 8 GB Video Card (Passthrough Video)
Case: Fractal Design - Define XL R2 (Black Pearl) ATX Full Tower Case
Power Supply: SeaSonic - PRIME Ultra Titanium 850W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Pro Full 32/64-bit (Need to license another Windows 10 VM)
Monitor: Dell - U2410 24.0" 1920x1200 Monitor (Host display -- I have three others for actual work VMs)
UPS: APC - SMT1500US UPS (Yeah, I want to protect this investment)
Other: LSI 9300-8i PCI-Express 3.0 SATA / SAS 8-Port SAS3 12Gb/s HBA - Single (Get IO off of the chipset and direct to the CPU where it belongs)

So... thoughts?
I forgot to call it "a box of pure malevolent evil, a purveyor of
insidious insanity, an eldritch manifestation that would make Bill
Gates let out a low whistle of admiration," but it's all those, too.
-- David Gerard, Re: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext grammar, 2010.08.06
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Paingod
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Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 8:58 am

Re: Workstation / Lab-In-A-Box Build

Post by Paingod »

I wish I had more to offer. I've never tried to build a hybrid workstation/server/lab/gaming platform. With such a custom concept, it might be difficult to provide valuable feedback.

I'd mostly be worried about component compatibility across platforms - like will Linux have drivers for everything, or how will the VM's react to these parts? At a glance, it's a beefier machine than any of my servers, but my servers at work are all 5+ years old and in need of replacement. I've never attempted a multi-OS install in one box (never had a need).

Are you going to run multiple simultaneous VM's in there? Will any of them host/run databases like SQL or Oracle? For testing only, 64GB of RAM across a few VM's should be fine. If you're maybe ending up with a production environment and a few simultaneous VM's with heavy RAM needs, it might not be enough.
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2021-01-20: The first good night's sleep I had in 4 years.
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xwraith
Posts: 1085
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 6:42 pm

Re: Workstation / Lab-In-A-Box Build

Post by xwraith »

I'm thinking at most 4 VMs at a time, and while I'm a DBA/Developer by trade, I know I won't be doing VLDB testing on this. I would like to test automation scripts, standing up/building containers, and maybe a bit of programming. I wouldn't actually host any real work data on this, all that would live on much more powerful (and secure) servers.

However it would be bad if my VMs couldn't run and I couldn't log into work.

At any rate my fallback plan would be to not use Linux as the main OS, but run Windows 10 and VMWare Workstation or try out the Hyper-V bits they have.
I forgot to call it "a box of pure malevolent evil, a purveyor of
insidious insanity, an eldritch manifestation that would make Bill
Gates let out a low whistle of admiration," but it's all those, too.
-- David Gerard, Re: [Mediawiki-l] Wikitext grammar, 2010.08.06
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