Smart home server, but...

[CAD-monkey]

Longtime subscriber of the channel, first time forum contributor!

 

LTT has done a lot of great build vids regarding smart home equipment, workstation versus gaming performance, and getting "the most bang for buck" on equipment selection. However I have a question that combines all of these elements and maybe worth exploring for a future video exploring current industry options. As "smart homes" become more and more prevalent, whether people DIY'ing it all or with new homes already including such features, I wonder if there is a new market of products yet to be tapped designed for the home server. The ability to have a rack mountable computer located in the same place as one's WiFi router, internet modem, media center, etc. is becoming more beneficial to a home owner who may or may not be as fluent in the latest computer technology.

 

I am planning a computer build and I'd appreciate some advice. I have this vision of a home office setup which has a super clean desk and a workstation computer located, perhaps in the same room like in a closet, but certainly out of sight and preferably rack mountable to go along with a 24 PoE network switch, security gateway, etc. Clearly there is a shift in perception to use AMD processors over Intel for their performance value, but I don't know enough about single vs. multi threaded performance in regards to CAD work. Dual monitors are preferred. Lots of usb-C and Thunderbolt sockets needed at the desk. I also want this workstation to double as a NAS, or at least a gateway to a large network-accessible RAID storage array. Part of that is to also remote in the 4K home media center, accessing a library of music and video files from another room. I wonder then if it is cheaper to purchase an empty 4U rack chassis to build out the main workstation (assuming large internal space for passive cooling) and have some off the shelf RAID product. From LTT's other videos though it seems more cost effective to make a VM media server within a normal computer, though that could be hardware dependent or for some other reason I'm unaware. With this kind of build the main point is value performance and practicality; I don't care at all about RGB aesthetics or how it sounds when at full load.

 

On a side note to answer your video:

, I am one of these iPad users! When I first got into planning this workstation build I calculated that buying an iPad pro 4th gen (without the magic keyboard) plus a supplemental PC workstation would be cheaper than buying a new MacBook Pro to meet my work performance requirements. 90% of what I do daily anyway is watching YouTube, browsing the web, sketching art, or using convenience apps like Notes or Paprika Recipe Manager, so the iPad increases the comfort for a lot of my daily life whether I travel with it or not. Its the working performance/value that seems to benefit most from a DIY build.

 

I think we all agree that 'smart homes' are not a trend, they are the future. I think this computer build I'm planning though also represents a shift in consumer demand, making at least the form factor of a computer more universal to a wider variety of users.

 

Budget (including currency): $1500-2000 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: main purpose: workstation capable of running Solidworks or other mid-range 3D CAD program. Secondary purpose: security camera and media server/RAID storage accessible to multiple devices on network. For gaming: only using https://shadow.tech/usen

 

 

[CAD-monkey]

16 hours ago, BlueScope819 said:

So I'm a little confused. Is this a rack mount server that you are going to run a workstation VM off of or a workstation SFF PC that you will run as just a workstation with a few VMs added onto it?

I think VM's are just an option that were previously mentioned in various applications which could work. I'm open to whatever being the best value for the purpose of it being a primarily CAD workstation. The goal is to keep the hardware out of sight, perhaps in another room entirely.

 

Rack mounting is also just a preference, but I feel that every home in the next few years will include a "server room" to meet the connectivity demands of a smart home. It wouldn't surprise me if we were to find one of these cabinets built into every house coming standard, as ubiquitous as any laundry or utility room. That said, it's likely a standard SFF computer case would be cheaper than a server cabinet + chassis that I am proposing, but i view it as an investment into the future of home computing.

[CAD-monkey]

3 minutes ago, BlueScope819 said:

So what I would really recommend if you want a cheap VM system, is just to buy a bunch of raspberry Pis to run basic things off of like PiHole or something.

Is a RasPi VM setup a 'safer' option for running NAS + RAID storage in this scenario? Could you help me understand the benefit of why it's worth keeping the workstation machine separate? I only ask because of another LLT option mentioned a few years ago.

[CAD-monkey]

4 hours ago, BlueScope819 said:

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 3.8 GHz 12-Core Processor

Why this processor and not a Threadripper 1920X?