Challenge: Small Form Factor Workstation

[harryk]

I've been considering replacing one of my work machines. In terms of function, there is nothing wrong with the current system, in some respects it's actually overkill. The issue is it's big and it's heavy and this is a portable machine which I take with me to remote sites at least once a month. Every time I have to lug this monster around I look into building a new compact system but I've yet to come up with a configuration which is significantly smaller, e.g. mITX size. 

 

Current System:

- MasterCase Pro 5 

- Intel i9 7900X

- Asus WS X299 Sage

- 64GB (8x8GB) DDR4

- GTX 1060

- Corsair AX860i

- 2x Intel Gigabit Network cards

- PCIe 1x IRIG Timekeeping card

- Intel Optane 905p PCIe SSD (960GB)

- 512GB Samsung SSD (boot drive)

- 4x 4TB HDD

 

Requirements for new system:

- Include a case, as small and portable as possible

- At least 8 cores

- At least 32GB memory

- Be able to connect 3x monitors 1440p (bonus if it can do 4)

- 4x gigabit ethernet ports (bonus if one is a 10G port)

- At least 1TB of high speed NVME storage

- At least 10TB of bulk storage

- Separate boot drive

- Include the timekeeping card from above

 

You're welcome to reuse parts from the old build or not. Budget is not really a factor, it's more of a question of how much will this cost. I would really love to figure out a way to do a mITX but most (all?) motherboards only have one PCIe slot which makes things difficult. 

[Grabhanem]

28 minutes ago, harryk said:

I've been considering replacing one of my work machines. In terms of function, there is nothing wrong with the current system, in some respects it's actually overkill. The issue is it's big and it's heavy and this is a portable machine which I take with me to remote sites at least once a month. Every time I have to lug this monster around I look into building a new compact system but I've yet to come up with a configuration which is significantly smaller, e.g. mITX size. 

 

Current System:

- MasterCase Pro 5 

- Intel i9 7900X

- Asus WS X299 Sage

- 64GB (8x8GB) DDR4

- GTX 1060

- Corsair AX860i

- 2x Intel Gigabit Network cards

- PCIe 1x IRIG Timekeeping card

- Intel Optane 905p PCIe SSD (960GB)

- 512GB Samsung SSD (boot drive)

- 4x 4TB HDD

 

Requirements for new system:

- Include a case, as small and portable as possible

- At least 8 cores

- At least 32GB memory

- Be able to connect 3x monitors 1440p (bonus if it can do 4)

- 4x gigabit ethernet ports (bonus if one is a 10G port)

- At least 1TB of high speed NVME storage

- At least 10TB of bulk storage

- Separate boot drive

- Include the timekeeping card from above

 

You're welcome to reuse parts from the old build or not. Budget is not really a factor, it's more of a question of how much will this cost. I would really love to figure out a way to do a mITX but most (all?) motherboards only have one PCIe slot which makes things difficult. 

What does the timekeeping card look like form factor wise? You might be able to get away with a M.2 adapter or similar, or if it's an M.2 card on a riser you could just install that and drill holes in the case for whatever you need.

[harryk]

55 minutes ago, Grabhanem said:

What does the timekeeping card look like form factor wise? You might be able to get away with a M.2 adapter or similar, or if it's an M.2 card on a riser you could just install that and drill holes in the case for whatever you need.

This is what it looks like. Full height PCIe. I'm not concerned about modding a case if there's a way to adapt it to M.2 PCIe.