Linux Budget Workstation
Table of Contents
There’s not a lot of pieces to a desktop computer. Here’s what I have, bought just after the pandemic started and it became clear I was going to be working from home for a substantial amount of time
I had a few goals and requirements for this build:
- Low cost
- Lots of CPU
- Not annoyingly loud
- Minimum 64GB of memory
- No need for gaming
I knew that I would run several VMs on the workstation, mostly to split out different things I need to do, for example access work related systems via a VPN in a Windows based virtual machine, have a VM for doing demos, ect ect, so I would need at least 64gb of memory.
The Build
The cost of this build was, pre-tax, $1300 CDN! With Ontario tax and the $50 build fee it came out to just over $1500. (I should note that this build was done about 7 months prior to this post, so it’s been a while, a quick glance suggests the pricing is still about the same.)
I bought the parts at Memory Express and had them build the system for an extra $50. They were great to work with.
| Component | Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 Processor | $259.99 |
| Case | Corsair Carbide Series 100R Mid-Tower Case, Silent Edition, Black | $89.99 |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB DDR4 2666MHz CL16 Dual Channel Kit (4x 16GB), Black | $389.99 |
| Storage | Western Digital Blue SN550 M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD, 1TB | $169.99 |
| Power Source | Corsair RMx Series RM550x 80+ Gold Fully Modular ATX Power Supply, 550W | $144.99 |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF B450-PRO GAMING w/ DDR4-2666 | $169.99 |
| Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GT 710 2GB GDDR5 Low-Profile PCI-E w/ HDMI, DVI | $79.99 |
NOTE: This video card is pretty limited, but works great to power a HDMI monitor.
Conclusion
In the end, I couldn’t be more happy with this build. It’s stable, quiet, and, as far as I’m concerned, high performance. But, that said, I don’t play video games, or do any GPU related activities. I just need to output to a monitor. It’s the perfect workstation for me, both from a cost and an experience perspective.