Obligatory: https://youtube.com/watch?v=T0fAznO1wA8

I typically code a lot of back-end and processor intensive workloads. The issue I have with i5s is that they don’t seem to be as “snappy” as i7s. I’ve worked with both for good long periods of time. When I had an i5 laptop, I had to off-load a good majority of my development to the cloud because I couldn’t do containers and listen to music and run two monitors at the same time. I never had the same issue with i7 processors, even on a laptop.

Oooh, I had not considered that but thank you for the recommendation. The only thing I don’t like about these PCs is that they all have RGB lighting. I really don’t need this and I don’t get their appeal.

Are CUDAs something that I can select within pcpartpicker? Or is this like a cloud thing?

With the conversations I’m having here, I’m leaning in the direction of integrated video (assuming I can get one with display port) and a discrete card just for AI work.

I use VirtualBox for VMs. I’m assuming there are instructions on how to give the card to the VM? My cursory google search came up with dubious results.

I just checked the specs for the M.2 NVMe drive that I pulled from an old laptop. It’s read speed is 3000mbs so it looks like I’m good there. Thanks for the heads up though.

I know that this is the self-hosted community but I very much agree. The way I run my desktop is that I can, in most cases, lose my primary hard drive and I’ll survive. It won’t be pretty and I might have a few local repos that I haven’t synced in a while but overall, it ain’t bad.

Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t want my primary hard drive restored if I can do it. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to restore them from the drive. But if I can’t, the most I lose is some config files, which I should start to version control but I get lazy.

I can’t back up my media. It’s just too big. But yar.

My greatest fear is losing my porn collection. 😅 But not enough to RAID.

I actually did. And the quantum twin that succeeded is now solving global warming.

I am the twin that didn’t succeed.

And if you want to join the “I use arch btw” crowd…

I may be a linux nerd and pedantic, but not that pedantic. 😅 I’ve looked into Linux Mint and not opposed to an distro switch. I’ve been very happy with Ubuntu over the years. My first distro was slackware, then Fedora. Settled in Ubuntu and haven’t turned back.

if CUDA should be part of your calculus or not.

Probably not, if my cursory google search is correct. But happy to be convinced otherwise.

Though another nicety for my latest builds, is multi-gig nics (though 2.5Gb was my ceiling, since you’ll also need the network gear to utilize it)

I’ve had the benefit of laying my own CAT-5e in my house. Given the distances, CAT-6 was going to cost twice as much with a negligible increase in bandwidth. That said, I’m restricted by the narrowest straw, which is wifi (when streaming media to my phone) and ISP (which taps out at around 300mb/s). My current PC has 1gb/s card and I’ve only occasionally had issues.

I use newegg for its reviews of items, specifically so I can search for the term “linux” in any given product’s reviews.

Oh that’s a good tip!

I was really hoping to cannibalize the 32 GBs of DDR3 RAM but I couldn’t find a MoBo that supports it anymore. Then I saw DDR5 is the latest!

I don’t really do any gaming. If I wasn’t going to tinker with AI, I’d just need a card for dual DisplayPort output. I can support HDMI but…I prefer DP

I’ve gone back and forth on whether I need RAID locally. Giving up at least a third of your storage capacity (assuming RAID 5) for the off-chance that your hard drive dies in 3-4 years seems like a high price to pay. I had two drives fail in the lifespan of my current desktop. And I had enough warning from SMART that I could peel off the data before the drives bricked. I know I got lucky, but still…

Two GPUs? Is that a thing? How does that work on a desktop? Honestly, if it wasn’t for my curiosity into AI, I’d just go with the onboard video though given my need for specific resolutions, I find comfort in having a dedicated card.

I’ve been using ubuntu exclusively for 10 some years and don’t use snap at all. tbh, not even sure what snap is.

If it’s not apt, then I don’t use it.

is that really a concern? 2 cables vs. pushing a card into the mobo?

I for one would not purchase any Intel hardware as long as AMD is around. Not that they’re bad or anything, but AMD gives me much Kore “bang for the buck”.

If you have a processor line in mind, let me know. Happy to give them another look, given my experience with AMD is 30 some years old.

And then there’s the cooling. I see you went with a radiator and fan, but I strongly suggest getting some type of liquid cooling. The prices are not that bad anymore (unlike about 10 years ago, which was insane).

I’m not tied to the cooling solution I picked. I just picked something that looked affordable and did what I wanted. I’d love to do liquid cooling so long as it isn’t a pain. I helped my friend back in high school do liquid cooling and it was a proper mess. We came close to shorting his entire rig.

As for the board, you’ll get all kinds of different suggestions. Some people swear by Asus, I’d rather go with Gigabyte (love the Aorus line), so it’ll come down to brand trust at the end of the day.

I have zero brand loyalty here. The boards I’m looking at right now all have embedded wifi with the annoying antenna…I really want bluetooth embedded so it seems like I’ll have to have wifi but just not use it.

I’ve been learning the same. Though, I don’t get the sense that SATA is going out of style. I could be wrong though.

I remember working on a PC back in my Geek Squad days that had a lever.

For air circulation, what should I be on the lookout for? Making sure I have clearances, of course, but should I buy more fan that I need?

Wait…

I want a news alert set up whenever porn stars get boned by rather large phalluses belonging to those with darker complexions.

If I want that, what search terms should I use?

I use GitHub private repos for my home configuration stuff. So it’s not open source since I’m the only one using it and I don’t want someone else to know how to attack my network.

For certain configurations, self hosting doesn’t make sense. For people like me, who would rather spend his time doing the stuff I care about instead of maintaining the stuff I don’t care about, I’m okay giving Microsoft some “control” over my code for the convenience.

That said, I am thinking about moving my FOSS code off of GitHub since that is an option. I’d have to see their CI/CD pipelines though.

I think what the author meant was that it’s impossible in the capitalist marketplace.

Joe Rogan is probably a good anti-example. His podcast (as I understand it anyway) is only available on Spotify. But Conan O’Brien, the Office Ladies, and even The West Wing Weekly (which hasn’t been producing in years) is still available, for free, on any podcast platform.

That’s the irony of all of this. I too would donate to a project that was actively trying to do this, even donate to their legal fund. I’d probably pay more than the subscription!

These asshole companies just don’t realize that a determined developer and engineer will move heaven and earth to make sure that their freedoms (as in speech) aren’t restricted.

I don’t care if it’s illegal. It’s my fucking car. Once you sell it to me, it ceases to be your property. You leave $100 bill in the glove compartment before you sell it to me? Well it’s mine now.

You leave software on my car’s computer? Welp, it’s mine now.