Home office setup: demanding workloads

ashamb

New member
Hello,
My apologies for writing this in English. I'm an English speaker living in Belgium. I'm a Linux user and a programmer by profession. Being a programmer, I work on complex systems where I need to compile a lot of things, quite frequently, build docker images and have them deployed on servers. Many times I prefer to do this locally than via a CI/CD pipeline.
I recently got a ThinkPad P52s from my company but I've been disappointed with it so far. It seems like a laptop that is heavily under-performing, mostly because on Linux its quite hard for me to use the nvidia card and drive good performance (I happen to have 2 4K displays: one on the laptop, and one external; and both of these can really bog down this laptop. There's noticeable typing lag etc. on Chrome/Emacs etc.).
Since I work from home quite often; I'm thinking of setting up a powerful home desktop. I've come to realize that there is just not that much power one can pack into a laptop and my workloads generally demand a lot from the machine. I commute to Brussels often (2-3 times a week) but then I can also run my workloads on my home computer via ssh.
I've been browsing pc-specialist and I've done some research but I wanted some advice from people who know much more than computer hardware than I. I've not kept up to date with recent hardware trends, but from my basic research, what I've found is:
  1. 1. AMD Threadripper seems to be the ideal CPU for these kinds of workloads (especially the 16 core WX model; apologies for not remembering the numbers)
  2. 2. No more nvidia for me; their Linux support is not good, and it seems unlikely to change in the near future; so I'd like an AMD based graphics card
  3. 3. Ideally, I'd like to drive 2-3 4k displays, but I can go for a lower res. monitor as well; while 4K displays are nice, they're not magically going to make me more productive; that will enable me to cut on GPU costs; but maybe I can add additional GPUs later?
  4. 4. I'd like a motherboard that copes up with the demanding Threadripper setup; and is extensible
  5. 5. I'd like to know how often the insides of a desktop need cleaning/vacuuming, since I reckon it also will gather dust. How often does one need to clean it?
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My apologies if my questions are those of a hardware/desktop noob. The last desktop I had was in 2006 and since then I've been on laptops and have not cared about my hardware much. But quite recently, I seem to have realised that when performance counts, so does form factor (basic thermodynamics).

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Thanks a lot in advance. I've attached a test offerte from PC specialist; albeit it mistakenly has the nvidia card included. I'd like to replace that with an AMD based GPU.
 

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Powerwolf

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Dear ASHAMB,

The AMD Threadripper is indeed an ideal CPU for your needs, It has plenty of cores and will run over his tasks with the speed of light.
I would advise going for an AMD Radeon RX580, however, I don't know how well AMD supports Linux and I can't give you any advice on that.
You would be able to fit a second graphics card on a later time, the only thing you need to keep in mind is how much extra power you need from your power supply to add an extra card, the best is to set up a configuration on the PC specialist with 2 graphics card and see how much wattage you need to power 2 graphics cards. Normally the Asus Rog Strix X399-E motherboard will be fine, it has onboard wifi and has plenty of options to upgrade. Cleaning your desktop depends on where you store it, If you store it on the floor I would advise cleaning it ones every 1/2 months, just bring your desktop outside and remove the side of the case and blow it out with a can of compressed air.

This forum is actually set up for Dutch-speaking members, If you want to send posts in English I would advise posting in our English forum on our English website.:)
 
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