For a while now I've only had my Core i3 laptop with 6GB of RAM from 2010. That changed slightly because Linode provided me with a MacBook Pro when I started working there, which I do use for non-work activities. But I don't game on the MacBook, and my old laptop can only just handle modded Minecraft or League of Legends on all minimum settings. After building my NAS it was time to finally get a desktop. I planned to go a bit overboard, but not insanely so. The system I ended up with is more than I need, but I'm quite happy with it.
One of the biggest choices, given recent offerings, is going with an Intel or AMD CPU. Given reviews, price point, not being a hard-core gamer, and frustration with vulnerabilities (Meltdown & Spectre, Foreshadow) while working at Linode, I went with AMD. I was initally also going to go with an AMD graphics card, but my brother offered to sell me one of his older nVidia cards at no markup and I happily took him up on the offer. He also gave me the case for free as a Christmas present, which was awesome. The rest is pretty standard, chosen mostly based on cost or brand recognition, except I wanted (a frankly unnecessary) 32GB of RAM to make it basically impossible to run out. Most of the components were purchased at MicroCenter, the rest on Amazon (I'm using Amazon links for almost all of them for consistency though).
| Item | Model | Price | Quantity | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 2700X | $279.99 | 1 | $279.99 |
| Graphics card | nVidia GTX 1060 (3GB) | $175.00 | 1 | $175.00 |
| RAM | Corsair 2x8GB DDR4 2400MHz | $149.99 | 2 | $299.98 |
| Motherboard | MSI X470 Gaming Plus | $99.99 | 1 | $99.99 |
| System drive | Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD | $94.99 | 1 | $94.99 |
| Case | Fractal Design Meshify C | $89.99 | 1 | $89.99 |
| Power supply | EVGA SuperNOVA 550 G3 Gold 550W | $84.99 | 1 | $84.99 |
| WiFi card | TP-Link Archer T6E PCIe 802.11ac | $44.99 | 1 | $44.99 |
| Fans | Noctua NF-S12A 120mm | $22.99 | 3 | $68.97 |
| Main OS | Ubuntu 18.04 | $0.00 | 1 | $0.00 |
| Gaming OS | Windows 10 Pro | $189.00 | 1 | $189.00 |
| RAID drive | WD Red 4TB HDD | $124.99 | 2 | $249.98 |
| Monitors | Acer R240HY 23.8 in. 1080p | $129.99 | 2 | $259.98 |
| DP / DVI cable | Amazon Basics 6ft DP/DVI cable | $11.99 | 1 | $11.99 |
| DVI cable | Monoprice 6ft DVI-D cable | $5.89 | 1 | $5.89 |
| Keyboard | 1st Player Steampunk Black Switch | $55.99 | 1 | $55.99 |
| Mouse | Logitech G203 Prodigy | $37.17 | 1 | $37.17 |
| Headset | Logitech G233 Prodigy w/ boom mic | $79.99 | 1 | $79.99 |
| USB soundcard | Sabrent USB soundcard | $7.49 | 1 | $7.49 |
| UPS | APC Back-UPS Pro 1500VA | $169.00 | 1 | $169.00 |
| Gaming chair | Songmics polyester gaming chair | $194.99 | 1 | $194.99 |
| Armrest pads | Aloudy memory foam armrest pads | $17.99 | 1 | $17.99 |
| TOTAL | AMD Desktop and Gaming Center | $2518.35 | ||
| (excluding chair) | $212.98 | $2305.37 | ||
| (also ex. UPS) | $169.00 | $2136.37 | ||
| (also ex. peripherals) | $180.64 | $1955.73 | ||
| (also ex. monitors) | $277.86 | $1677.87 | ||
| (also ex. HDDs) | $249.98 | $1427.89 | ||
| BASE SYSTEM | (also ex. Win10) | $189.00 | $1238.89 |
Some comments on the items:
- CPU — if you're not familiar, Intel is still the king of single core performance, making them the leaders in gaming, but AMD's latest CPUs are nothing to sneeze at; I ended up with 8 cores / 16 threads @ 4.3GHz (with boost)
- CPU cooler — one of the reasons AMD is a better value than Intel is that they include a pretty nice CPU cooler with their CPUs; this one looks nice and kept my CPU at a reasonable temp even during brief stress testing; plus it's RGB, so of course it's pink
- Motherboard — MicroCenter had sales when buying specific motherboards with specific CPUs which determined my choice
- Graphics card — AMD cards have better open source drivers in linux, but nVidia does make proprietary drivers available, and I was happy to buy this mid-tier but still respectable card from my brother
- Case — I was extremely happy with this case; cable management was awesome (it even has built-in velcro), it's sturdy, and the front panel and glass side look awesome
- RAID drive — I bought 2 of the same HDDs I used in my NAS for this desktop in case I wanted them, but honestly I'm probably just going to put everything on either my desktop's SSD, or on my NAS; I probably will use these for something in the future, at which point they will be in a RAID 1 configuration
- USB soundcard — unfortunately the audio codec in my motherboard has some really annoying issues in linux so I bought a cheap USB soundcard to use with my headset's microphone
- UPS — stands for "Uninterruptible Power Supply" and it's just a nice to have so my desktop can run on battery backup for a few minutes and shutdown cleanly in the event of a power outage (the UPS tells it to do a clean shutdown over a USB cable)
- Chair — I wanted to replace a cheap mesh-backed chair I got from Staples a few years back; my main criteria here was to get polyester because I hate fake leather; overall quite happy with the chair
I first installed Windows 10, then Ubuntu 18.04 on the SSD. I then named it shinkiro in honor of Lelouch's custom Knightmare Frame from my favorite anime, Code Geass. Photos:
Further reading: