Help: SFF Workstation build

kethwika

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2003
Messages
264
1. What will you be doing with this PC? I am a physician and generally use my workstation for VPN access to the hospital, research papers, and internet browsing. I do perform data analysis for research which can be computationally intensive - I use some combination of R and SPSS - datasets with as many as 10s of millions of rows and 100-200 columns. I have an external 8TB RAID file server on my network which is primary storage for all of my laptops, cellphones, etc. and so storage is less important. The iMac Pro would be an ideal workstation, however, at $5000 it is outside of my price range. This begs the question Xeon vs. i7/i5

2. Will you be overclocking? (If so, are you looking to watercool?) Unlikely, not looking to watercool, would prefer portability and no moving parts

3. What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included in this budget? Is your budget flexible? Is cost a driving factor in component selection? $1500-2000, I have Amazon Prime, tax and shipping should be included

4. Where do you live? Do you have any big B&M (brick and mortar) computer chains nearby (e.g. Microcenter, Fry's, etc)? Palo alto, minutes from Frys, Best Buy...not a lot I can't get around here

5. What exact parts do you need for that budget? Monitor (hoping for 32"), Case, PSU, CPU, RAM, SSD - graphics only if needed since nothing that I am doing will generally require a graphics card (onboard if i5/i7 vs. low-end if Xeon) - would love for someone to describe the difference between a high-res 32" TV vs. monitor. I have read several articles that say the gap is narrowing and that if I am not gaming the difference may not matter

6. If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? None

7. What specific features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Thunderbolt? Crossfire or SLI support? How many USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s? I don't think anything is specifically required - as I explained above, I will likely just use SSDs for this system, two USB 3.0 are required I guess for peripherals

8. What resolution output do you need? 4k playback at least 2 outputs

9. Does this system need to fit into a particular space and do you need an optical drive? No optical drive, looking at the A4-SFX v2, Sentry, NCASE M1

10. How comfortable are you with custom case design/modification and electrical wiring? Pretty comfortable with both - I have Screwdrivers, Drill, Dremel, Soldering iron, CNC, laser cutters, and pretty much every tool available - the CNC and laser cutters are only available as needed through Stanford and I really don't have the time to do much of that

11. How important is the noise/silence of this system? Would prefer to be quiet but its not essential

12. How mobile does this system need to be? I would like it to be portable but it will not move on a daily basis

13. Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? Will likely dual boot Windows 10 64 bit and Ubuntu 64 bit

14. When do you plan on building/buying the PC? Next 6 months
 
Take a look at my build here, it might give you some ideas: https://smallformfactor.net/forum/threads/i-think-i-found-a-little-gem-realan-e-i7.6175/

tldr: it's a Ryzen 1800X based system, coupled with a low profile 1050Ti and a 400W DC-DC PSU solution with external bricks. Extremely portable at 7lbs total (not counting the bricks, of which I bought two, just so I don't carry them).

I only regret not getting 32GB RAM, so you may wanna do that if you need large memory for your datasets...
 
Thank you for this suggestion - looks like a great build

32 gb is a must-have for me, would love 4 slots to upgrade to 64 eventually
 
Thank you for this suggestion - looks like a great build

32 gb is a must-have for me, would love 4 slots to upgrade to 64 eventually

The only mini ITX board with 4 DIMMs is the Asrock X299 ITX, which would also work in that case, using the same Cryorig C1 cooler. The board is expensive, also the CPUs that go with it, also SODIMMs that it needs... So, do the math ;)
 
If you need 4 RAM slots, you might want to consider using a mATX case. Something like this:
http://www.chenbro.com/en-global/products/PC_Chassis/Slim_Micro_ATX_Desktop/PC722.
With 8.8L volume it's just a bit larger than the sentry. Cooling might be a challenge, you will most likely need to drill some holes.
It also only supports TFX power supplies and those usually top out at around 300w, but I don't think that would be a problem.
 
The only mini ITX board with 4 DIMMs is the Asrock X299 ITX, which would also work in that case, using the same Cryorig C1 cooler. The board is expensive, also the CPUs that go with it, also SODIMMs that it needs... So, do the math ;)
There is one other ITX board with 4 ecc sodimm slots. Link. It is for 2011-3 era xeon cpus.

Also, the asrock X99 itx board has been shown to run up 256gb of ddr4 ecc ram when running a 2011-3 xeon. Link to the thread where people have done this. It should be helpful making sure your ddr4 is compatible. Requires a bit of research and the board itself is getting phased out.

Note if you go the X299 itx route, the cheapest cpu that board supports is the 7800x (not the kaby lake x variants)
 
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Has anyone used the ASROCK X299E-ITX/ac with Intel Core i7-7820X - could get 32 gb (2x16) to start and easily upgrade to 64 down the line

Any thoughts on processor? Reasonable graphics card that can display in 4k for workstation (no gaming) use at most 2 monitors
 
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