Replacing PC after 10 years!

[yofilter]

Things have changed a lot since I last bought a PC.

I am fed-up with Windows, so am moving to Linux. Not sure this spec will work with it, so looking for insight. Have also tried to future proof it.
Uses coding, music, video watching, BOINC projects, running VM and admin.

Comments and advice welcome.


Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 12 Core Processor i9-10920X (3.5GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME X299-A II: ATX, USB 3.2, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (8 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE IRONWOLF PRO 3.5", 7200 RPM 128MB CACHE
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 Hydro Cooler w/ PCS Ultra Quiet Fans
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Extra Case Fans
1x 120mm Black Case Fan (configured to extract from rear/roof)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365 (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Cable Management
3 x PCS 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management

 

[SpyderTracks]

Basically, intel, especially workstation CPU’s are utter garbage and overpriced compared to AMD.

An AMD desktop processor would keep up with that workstation processor for half the cost, that’s how bad the intel chips are. Avoid at all costs.

as said, what’s your max budget?

 

[yofilter]

@Nursemorph That is really good advice about the SATA. I had not thought of that. I am not transferring my current HD, but I always mirror as well of my external backup. I will now look at SSD. Also, my office is dusty and very hot during summer, but your argument about the extra fan being disruptive is sound. I will also look again at the cooling. Thanks so much.

@SpyderTracks My research did reveal your point about AMD and Intel, but as I understand it Intel just slightly edges it in long-term reliability. It is what I have in current 10 year old PC. Thanks so much for your advice.

 

[SpyderTracks]

My research did reveal your point about AMD and Intel, but as I understand it Intel just slightly edges it in long-term reliability. It is what I have in current 10 year old PC

What do you mean “long term reliability”?

short term or long term, those processors suck

Intel chips are more and more insecure literally every week, they've just discovered YET another security flaw which can't be fixed, but all the ones that have had patches have impacted performance by around 30% at THIS time. I guarantee that will continue to get worse.

The analysts have been saying they basically think the entire Hyperthreading technology is flawed and the only way to truly mitigate the flaws is to disable hyperthreading which would completely nerf their processor performance:

Intel SGX is vulnerable to an unfixable flaw that can steal crypto keys and more

Just when you thought it was secure again, Intel's digital vault falls to a new attack.

arstechnica.com

Not only that, but their 10 series chips have to use a stupid amount of power to run poorly. They're just awful awful chips.

A Threadripper would be a much better investment long term.

 

[yofilter]

@SpyderTracks I assume you moved post. Thanks - could use all the advice from the pros I can get.

Long term - I understand this to mean long-life. I had a PC with AMD, about 20 years ago. I have no real attachment to either brand. I just want reliability, good performance, long life and quality. Did look at the Ryzen, but I am hype aware and their just seemed too much "enthusiastic" welcome.

 

[yofilter]

@SpyderTracks I had not seen the security issue news; that is a big problem. Thanks for sharing.
Back to the drawing board for me

 

[SpyderTracks]

@SpyderTracks I assume you moved post. Thanks - could use all the advice from the pros I can get.

Long term - I understand this to mean long-life. I had a PC with AMD, about 20 years ago. I have no real attachment to either brand. I just want reliability, good performance, long life and quality. Did look at the Ryzen, but I am hype aware and their just seemed too much "enthusiastic" welcome.

AMD are completely different now to what they were in the bulldozer days, the enthusiasm is justly deserved. Enterprise if moving across to Epyc chips in droves which signifies exactly how reliable and powerful they are compared to Intel, since enterprise has been on intel exclusively for about 15 years.

Also specifically regarding Linux, AMD have been working incredibly closely with the Linux community to optimise 3rd gen chips and it's paid off.

AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3990X Offers Incredible Linux Performance Review - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

AMD Ryzen 3000 Series Playing Nicely With Latest Linux Distros Following BIOS Updates - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

Seriously, I'm not a fanboy, all my current PC's and laptops are on Intel, I just go for the best performer at the time, but AMD is just streets ahead in performance, price and support, there is literally no area that Intel are better.

This one is just to give an example of generally how much better AMD are nowadays, they're comparing AMD's top of the range desktop processor vs Intels entire 10th gen Workstation processors:

 

[yofilter]

I have tried another build using Ryzen.

Would love feedback from all the fans/pros out there; thank you in advance.

Case
BE QUIET! DARK BASE PRO 900 REV. 2 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X 24 Core CPU (3.8GHz - 4.5GHz, 142MB CACHE)
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME TRX40-PRO (DDR4, 6Gb/s, CrossFireX/SLI) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
128GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (8 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB AMD RADEON™ RX 580 - HDMI, DP - DX® 12
1st Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive
2TB Samsung 860 QVO 2.5" SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
RAID
RAID 1 (MIRRORED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Wraith Ripper Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED

 

[SpyderTracks]

What's the reason for the RAID setup? You realise they're very slow drives by today's standards?

Why the GPU?

 

[ubuysa]

Why 128GB of RAM? I know you're a VM user but do you really need that much RAM? Over-specing is not 'futureptoofing' because by the time you can actually use that RAM everything else in the PC will be well out of date.

RAID is a waste of money if you're not running a 24x7 server farm, and certainly not with relatively expensive SSDs (you do know what the I in RAID stands for?). Set up a scheduled and automatic backup regime instead.

Those are pitifully slow SSDs too, you want your OS on the fastest drive you can get. That said, some Linux distros seem to have issues with the faster M.2 NVMe SSDs,its important that you check that your Linux system will support whatever hardware you buy - PCS don't support Linux and won't warranty that it will run on any of their builds.

 

[yofilter]

I am running RAID for data protection and minor performance gains. I do have external backup, but I also need the security of a mirror. The fact that I is for inexpensive is a fallback to the naming convention and environment at the time of RAID's creation. However, the process has moved on and is still a very valid option.

I run my computers almost, although not quite 24x7.

My issue is really running Linux on the new build. I generally convert older systems to Linux, once replacing parts to keep up failures and Windows OS changes is no longer viable. However, I am aware that some software and hardware is specced only for Windows, hence the question here.

Good to know about PCS lack of warranty for Linux. I had not picked up on that fact from the website. I know Dell support Linux, but ... price point.

 

[ubuysa]

I am running RAID for data protection and minor performance gains. I do have external backup, but I also need the security of a mirror. The fact that I is for inexpensive is a fallback to the naming convention and environment at the time of RAID's creation. However, the process has moved on and is still a very valid option.

We're going to have to disagree on that then, because what you propose makes no sense. Those are slow SSDs so if even a minor performance gain is what you need then buy a faster drive. Mirroring for data security on a single-user home PC a is pointless waste of money. It's your money though.

PCS will still warranty the hardware even if you run Linux, what they won't do is provide any support for Linux nor will they guarantee that Linux will even install....

 

[Stephen M]

As Ubuysa said, PCS do not support Linux but it will not effect your warranty. I use 'nix almost all of the time, I have one W10 machine as I need it for my dye-sublimation ink printer which has no 'nix drivers yet but all my other machines have been 'nix only and they have been fairly easy to get set up.
It is worth checking the Linux compatibility thread on these fora to see which machines are fine with 'nix.

 

[Stephen M]

Forgot to add in previous post, this is a very handy site for 'nix users: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=home

 

[yofilter]

@Stephen M thanks for the info. Actually, I have been chatting on some Ubuntu forums; also I spoke with PCS yesterday too. Thanks to all comments from @ubuysa, @Nursemorph and @SpyderTracks as well, I think I am close to a comfortable decision.