Versatile PC

[SecurityIsAnIllusion]

Budget (including currency):  NZ$4000 (about US$2500)

Country: NZ

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: 

Mix of work/play.   Gaming--AoE2, Crysis1, maybe Cyberpunk2077.     Work:   QGIS and numerical computing (e.g. modelling land movement type and threshold criteria; soil classification systems, investigation of climate models) Also have a large (8TB) existing database of raw GIS data on SATA drives   Some REST and python programing for web crawling missed by Google or Dogpile.   Please advise suitable secure BIOS to handle both legacy SATA and M2 drives.

 

Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): 

This PC:: Upgrading from cooked Xeon PC with (then) 32GB RAM, nice sound and graphics card, 3.2GHz performance on 7200 rpm HDD for data storage and SDD for OS (5 years ago).

 

Prefer to use Intel chipset if it is more compatible with Linux.   Thinking Xeon chipset.  Otherwise will go with your advice.

Your advice appreciated on MOBO and chipset and BIOS.   The PC will be used 30% gaming/70% work.  Probably not run overclocked but option would be nice.

Two screens, both the same (pref 120 cm diag or larger; 60 Hz or better refresh and able to handle modern gaming requirements (shading etc) plus good resolution for maps (better than 1440dpi); pref HDMI or Videoport

Multi boot win10pro plus (for gaming) & Debian Linux (work).   All existing 8TB of HDD spread across 8 SATA drives running NTFS filesystem.    Need to run MSDOS622 from legacy CD for custom coding of legacy software.

One M2 drives of say 2TB for OSes and Steam game files.   One say 2TB M2 drive as a scrappad for doing investigative work with coding and GIS.

Need to be able to fit and run legacy RW DVD drive (I have one)

I am an audiophile so a responsive (fast rise time on signal), wide dynamic range sound card with good discrimination of timbre and soundstage visualization is important (reduced 60Hz hum; used in 5.1 sound system and headphones; I listen to orchestral music, jazz, blues; RnR, RnB, clever pop, some fusion, reggae.

Happy to have two good quality video cards if this will fit within the budget.

Better than 6 USB 3. ports for occasional peripherals (maintaining offline USB archive of papers no longer published)

No specialty gaming mouse or keyboard required.

Two separate ports for internet connection or monitoring of my system flow ("breakin box" to use old RS232 serial port jargon).

 

 

PRIMARY CONSIDERATION:: durable and large internal dimensions of box beyond ATX or eATX to allow additional cooling.  Upgradable.   Versatile.   This will probably run 24/7.

 

PLEASE NOTE:    THIS IS NOT A DREAM SYSTEM.   It is equivalent to the burnt out system I had before.

I greatly appreciate any assistance anyone would care to offer.

 

Thanks

John "Winston" Smith

14/12/2023 @1735 NZDT

 

I will check back in 5 days for responses.

Happy Christmas to me !!