Fletcher Blight

Hi LTT community, I am looking at creating a single machine to serve as a both a server (for media (plex), and package manager server) and a normal desktop workstation (mainly used for software development). So here are some more details... Motivation / Background: I currently have a desktop (4790K, GTX970, 16GB DDR3) which is great but I would really love more cores for building. I am a software engineer, and I often build gcc/clang and other big projects where multi-core scaling is utilized extremely well. So I have been wanting to upgrade to an at least 8c/12t cpu, above 16c/32t would be overkill for my work though. So I could just upgrade my desktop and be done with it .. but I have recently also started a plex server on my desktop, which is great but it means I have to boot up my desktop top in the other room whenever I want to watch plex on the TV. I would leave my desktop on, but I am at work (when there isn't a pandemic) for most hours of the day and don't want it sitting there being power hungry for 90% of the day (including night time of course). So I am really looking for a solution where I can upgrade my desktop to have more cores, and have some abstract machine (virtual or physical) which is running 24/7 as a server. So I could upgrade my desktop AND buy a separate NAS (QNAP or DIY, not important) .. or I could think of a much cooler / complex over the top solution which would be an awesome project / setup and see if the LTT community shuns or redeems my idea. The Plan: Have one beastly machine, 16c/32t at least 32GB RAM, with virtual environments for a server and workstation. With a single thunderbolt interface from the server to my desk where the peripherals will connect. Ideally I'd like to have this off in another room but I don't have the space. (Yes this is a little inspired from Linus' gaming server / remote peripherals setup). So I was thinking of getting an AMD 3950X (16 cores, I can dedicate at least 12 to my workstation), at least 32GB of RAM (maybe 64), keep my current graphics card (I'm not a big gamer, don't need the upgrade), and I would need help knowing what motherboard I would need to best support thunderbolt-ness. Also what type of power supply I should look into? Should I get a server-style case which supports redundant power supplies, or should I just get a UPS. I hope my plan makes sense, I would really like if anyone could give me any past experiences on if this is a stupid idea and I should just get a simple low powered NAS; is this setup even via-able? would it draw a lot of power in idle? what are some possible downfalls I might run into? (e.g. I have heard plex doesn't like hardware acceleration with containers / virtual environments). Also how server oriented should I go with this, server rack-styled case / ECC memory (I don't think it's necessary...). Notes: when I say "virtual environment" I mean anything from unraid to docker to whatever, I haven't done this before so if anyone has a good guide on what to read/use for this setup that would be great. I use linux (20.04) for both server and workstation at the moment. I have never used thunderbolt before (with a desktop), would appreciate any information on what's required here. I don't have any need for Plex remote, it's only local use and it's only every one streamer at once. (I could see a future where there is 2, but unlikely). So the plex server doesn't need too much horsepower. Thank you to anyone who actually read all this, and great thanks to anyone who end's up replying!