About five weeks ago, my Surface Pro 3 stopped charging. Out of the blue, the white charger light went out to never shine again. The power brick could charge devices through the USB port, but it wasn’t charging the Surface. Although I was never really in love with it, the Surface served its purpose over the past two years and took quite a bit of abuse regarding workload. It would be a shame if I had to let it go at this point, as I intended to continue using it as a tablet. Fortunately, my wife was able to get her hands on another charger, and the problem was indeed with the power brick. My educated guess is that the wire that goes out of the power brick with the Surface connector got damaged on the inside and stopped providing current for the device. Given that the reviews for the official Microsoft power brick were horrible, I ended up ordering one from one of the many generic brands available on Amazon, and it’s working just fine.
Bring the Surface Pro back from the dead? Booyah!
Not having a personal computer for about three weeks allowed me to take a step back and review my hardware and software setup. I started with my desk, which was cluttered with things I don’t need for work and a bunch of cables from the keyboard, mouse, USB hub and monitor. My first purchase was an extra large mouse pad to fit both the keyboard and mouse, which improved the ergonomic layout of the desk. I considered buying a wireless keyboard and mouse, but that would only partially address the issues I’m having, and it would involve spending money that will be best put to use somewhere else. Also, given that I decided to buy a desktop computer that will sit under the desk, the cables will be mostly hidden.
I also removed the monitor arm and went back to the included monitor stand. The desk is a slab of cheap pressed wood from IKEA, and the monitor arm was digging into it in a way that was making me uncomfortable. I’ll be picking up a wood stand to raise the monitor further and improve the view angle, thus keeping my neck and upper back happy. It will give me a bit of storage space, as the current space that is taken up by the monitor stand is dead space. There are other bits and bobs on the desk that I’ll progressively get rid of (as in, find another place to dump them) and that should help clear it.
Sort my work desk at home? Ongoing…
As for the main centerpiece of the new hardware setup, the minimum requirements for the desktop computer are:
- Six-core processor to run multiple VMs or services (e.g., Docker instances) simultaneously or a single VM with enough resources to reach a performance level resembling a slightly older machine
- 16 GB of RAM
- Single SSD drive for the operating system, applications, and data
- A good graphics card to run games with maximum settings at 2560x1080 and, possibly, dive into TensorFlow.
Given a large enough budget, the recommended settings would be:
- Eight-core processor
- 32 GB of RAM
- Two SSD drives to keep two different operating systems
- An excellent graphics card that could drive a resolution far better than the one on my monitor and, possibly, crush deep learning projects with TensorFlow.
Going into a bit more detail about the individual parts, this is what I’m looking at:
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Processor
The latest AMD lineup has the best bang for the buck performers in the market. It was easy to write off the Threadripper lineup as wholly overkill for my current (and planned) workflows. I would never be able to justify the price of entry for this platform. That leaves Ryzen 5 and 7, as the minimum is a six-core processor. In both cases, I’ll only spring for the X version if the price difference is £20 or less. Also, since I don’t intend to overclock and these processors include a cooler, I avoid spending money on an after-market cooler.
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Motherboard
ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and Asrock all have stable motherboards, and I’d gladly go for any of them. The only significant restriction I’m making is going for the X470 chipset due to the increased number of PCIe lanes and better power delivery (on some models, at least). I don’t want to overspend, as motherboards can become quite expensive very quickly, but if the features on a specific model match its price tag, I’ll go for it.
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RAM
A 16 GB kit is what I can afford. Kits of 32 GB are just too expensive (the cheapest I found was £280). I’m not very picky regarding brands, although Corsair and G.Skill are usually more available and prone to be on sale.
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Storage
500 GB is the size that I consistently found around my price point for storage. I have a 2 TB Western Digital hard drive (spinning rust) that I intend to use as an external backup disk and store mostly static data. I haven’t decided if I’m going with a regular SATA M.2 or NVMe drive, but fewer cables dangling inside the case is the way to go. The later would be better to achieve the best possible throughput during I/O intensive workflows, but I’m not sure if the price difference is worth it. Either way, given the recent fall in storage prices, it shouldn’t be too hard to make up my mind in this category.
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Graphics card
My preference would be an EVGA card, but they’re the most expensive of the lot, followed closely by Asus. Also, these two brands are the less likely to be on sale. As for the model, the 1070 Ti is an excellent performer in both games and ML workflows. From all the reviews I’ve read and watched, it’s one of the best bang for the buck cards on the market. The price tag on them is within my budget, which makes them the (almost) perfect choice. I haven’t forgotten the RX Vega 56 and 64. Some models are showing up at enticing prices (namely the ASUS ROG Strix versions), so I’ll keep them in mind.
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Power supply
I’m leaning towards Seasonic and Corsair, as they make some of the best PSUs. A 650 W unit should be more than enough to power the computer. It’ll have to be fully modular to (again) reduce the number of cables inside the case.
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Case
No special preferences. I like Fractal Design and BeQuiet, but the price will be the deciding factor. I don’t need a glass side panel. I don’t need aggressive color layouts. And, most of all, I don’t need RGB. I despise RGB.
Black Friday is in full swing, so I’ll hopefully get this sorted over the next few days.
Get a desktop computer? So many choices. It hurts my brain.