Hi all, I’ve been lurking on the Discord for a couple weeks learning and am about to pull the trigger on buying parts for a SNAFU-inspired build. I’m looking to create something that I can virtualize self-hosted services, run some compute-heavy virtual machines as Jenkins build/test workers (multi-threaded & MPI-based codes), and use for engineering consulting work that involves design studies with FEA/CFD tools when they pop up.
My current setup is a couple of older i7-2600k/i7-2700k machines that have gotten the job done as workstations for the engineering stuff and a crappy old laptop I put Proxmox on that I’m running a few VMs & containers with self-hosted stuff. I’d like to gain cores and RAM for the engineering simulations as well as consolidate everything.
I based my parts list on the SNAFU build guide, but with beefier CPU’s than recommended due to my use-case. The higher clock speed will definitely benefit me I think.
I think I will stick with Proxmox as the host OS on a smaller SSD. In the short term, the heavy VM’s I will definitely run are:
- Windows on SSD passthrough, >64 GB memory, PCI-E passthrough Radeon Pro WX5100 for CAD/engineering workflows
- Mac OS resource intensive Jenkins build/test worker
- Linux resource intensive Jenkins build/test worker
I’ll also keep virtualizing some things: webserver for internal use, Nextcloud, Syncthing, file server. I eventually want to add some extra stuff like Plex, home assistant (other home automation & security) and may get into some Machine Learning (I’ll probably stick in a beefy compute GPU if it will fit)
- Case: Rosewill RSV-L4500 (eventually replace fans for sound)
- Motherboard: Supermicro X9DRH-7F
- CPU: 2x E5-2667 v2
- Cooling: 2x SNK-P0050AP4 (eventually replace fans for quiet sound)
- Memory: 256GB (8x Hynix HMT84GL7AMR4A-PB, 32GB, 4Rx4, 1600, PC3L-12800L)
- Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling 750W (for low noise, but may checkout something cheaper on the EVGA B-stock sale)
I have a few SSD’s laying around I plan to use and will snag some shuckable HDDs for storage.
Depending on how things workout with this setup I may build a complementary compute-only machine in the future using the X9DRD-LF (based on suggestions by seanho on Discord).