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I am looking at replacing my Dell XPS 15 from 2019, but because I work 100% remote I am considering building a desktop developer rig instead of getting a new laptop. I have only had laptops since early 2000s, but thought it would be fun building something from scratch again. The problem is I have fallen tragically behind on everything hardware, and therefore looking for some pointers.

I don't want an RGB rainbow unit with 6 loud fans requiring a noise cancelling headset to work on. I want a top spec, stealthy thing that has all the goodies but also runs quiet. A decent graphics card that can run the latest games at a decent frame rate, but not the top of the line either.

Any tips on cases, motherboards, RAM, drives, fans and grahpics cards appreciated. The budget is roomy, comparable to a top spec Dell XPS 15 or ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

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  • 3
    PCpartpicker, google and YouTube are gonna be your friend here
  • 2
    SSD no less than 512gb, preferably 1000
    RAM no less than 16gb (eyeing to have 32)
    Intel i5-7 of a high generation.
    Some type of modern video card like Nvidia geforce 3050 rtx

    That is it.

    Googling "spec Vs spec benchmark" to choose among similar choices
  • 1
    beQuiet powersupply
    definetely check carefully which case fans and cpu fans you buy, they are crucial for noise. I like my Noctua CPU cooler.
    Also for graphics cards go with an nvidia one (3070? 3080?) and dont take the ones by GIGABYTE. 2xxxers of them tended to overheat due to bad cooling pads and activate the emergency fan which is really loud.
  • 0
    @darkwind Yep, I've got those things covered. I will go for 64GB RAM, the 32GB I've got is sufficient but why not.

    I'm not completely in the dark when it comes to CPU, disk and memory needs but when it comes to graphics cards, type of motherboard and power supply needs, quiet fans, nice cases etc - that's a different story!
  • 0
    @Katakompe Yes, I've got to look into what the different series of nVidia cards mean. 3070, 3080, RTX..

    Quiet fans are very important, so thanks for the tip!
  • 1
    @darkwind Why do you need so much space? For a developer only machine, 32 GB storage is enough (Well if you don't need heavy bloatware frameworks like node.js).
  • 1
    Use ECC RAM. Any serious work should be done on Computers with ECC memory.
  • 1
    @happygimp0 docker cache. Your memory ended.
  • 1
    @darkwind What is wrong with AMD CPUs? They are pretty good and they normally support ECC.

    If you go for Intel, you either need to search extra for a ECC support i-CPU (AFAIK, there are only i3 CPUs with ECC support) or you have to buy Xeon. Or you stuck with non-ECC, which is bad when you use your computer for work.
  • 1
    @happygimp0 as far as I hear, AMD is told to be not Linux friendly. Intel is more friendly
  • 1
    @darkwind Never heard of any problems with AMD CPUs. There is an endless discussion on GPUs and APUs drivers from AMD vs Intel vs Nvidia, but since he want's to use a dedicated GPU that isn't that relevant for the CPU.
  • 2
    I stumbled upon this website for comparisons/reviews/etc. on PC hardware: https://tomshardware.com/best-picks...
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