Help me build a non-gaming developer workstation

[ed271828]

Hi LTT team and forum members!

 

I did a cursory search of the forums but didn't find any similar builds.  Maybe someone here can help?

 

I am a software developer and I am looking to build a workstation that will CRUSH my compiler runs

 

Relevant benchmarks for me would be Linux kernel or GCC compile time.  The other applications I use are IntelliJ under Linux (a program that runs under the JVM) and Google Chrome (many tabs).  I will never game on the system, don't care about GPU acceleration or any media capabilities.  I love my 2580x1080 ultrawide monitor don't need an upgrade.  I previously had a 4K, but traded down because it was "too big" and my productivity was affected.  That said, I need enough GPU performance (and driver support) to have no issues running chrome and IntelliJ.

 

There is also storage and storage software component to the build as well.  I am thinking of a 5 drive solution: 1 disk for OS (256 GB?), 1 disk for managed data (256 GB?), and 1 disk for unmanaged/scratch data (256 GB?), and 2 disks for a software RAID-1 array(1 TB is probably sufficient, I already have an offsite backup).  I absolutely require the ability to take NetApp-like snapshots of the OS disk and the managed disk.  The reason for snapshot is to quickly rollback to a previous version of the files (i.e., rm -rf by accident, or revert to work from 2 hours ago).

 

Daily snapshots are at-least daily for the OS and at-least hourly for managed data.  ZFS or BTRFS may be the solution.  I tried BTRFS/snapper but it was severe performance issues adding large amounts of the files to a disk (4790k and single SSD). It could be addressed by disabling COW (copy on write)  but I not expert enough in this area.  I would consider an external solution but have no intention to pay NetApp prices (i.e., if you need to ask for the price, you can't afford it).  A good benchmark for this would be a git clone of a LARGE repository onto the disks that support snapshots!

 

Under $3000 sounds about right for a budget, but could go higher if there is an actual performance justification (i.e., I don't like burning money). 

 

What processors? Threadripper, I9? Xeon?  Maybe building 2 or 3 smaller systems may yield better performance?

 

What benchmarks are relevant?  SPEC benchmarks aren't exactly public domain.

 

LTT team? This would be great show content.  You need more non-gaming focus and this is definitely a different workload to consider! You guys spec it out and I'll cover the costs for parts?

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by ed271828