I wanted to build a decently powerful server for all my self-hosted staff for a long time, but after Russo-Ukrainian had been started priorities obviously shifted, so I put this idea on hold.

Since then, I moved to the Serbia, but I am not sure if I will stay here for years, so both main PC and server should be as compact as it’s possible and also as powerful.

Main desktop PC

I built my new desktop PC in May, and I am still impressed! Couldn’t imagine that 10L case could hold so much power.

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
• GPU: ASUS ProArt GeForce RTX 4080 Super OC
• Motherboard: ASUS ROG X670E-I
• RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 96GB DDR5-6000 CL30
• PSU: Phanteks Revolt SFX 850W
• Cooling: Fractal Design Lumen S24 с Noctua NF-A12x25 и SilverStone Air Slimmer 120
• Case: FormD T1 v2.1 + Essentials Pack (USB Type-C front panel addon) + Fitting Pack (just for fun)
• Storage: Crucial T705 4TB
• Additional: Noctua NA-FG1-12 fan grill

More photos

I can even put it inside Kanken 2.0:

Server

I didn’t build it yet, but I faced with a lot of problems while tried to pick right parts. Unfortunately it’s very hard to build something good with consumer-grade hardware. Even more unfortunate because I want to play with a lot of stuff which is present only in enterprise.

At very least:

1. Two NVMe on board slots.
2. Four SATA ports.
3. ECC memory support.
4. Mini-ITX form factor.

Would be nice:

1. Good iGPU for transcoding.
2. Proper IOUMMU support.
3. PCIe Bifurcation.
4. DRTM and other security staff.
5. Soldered dTPM instead of fTPM.
6. GPU with SR-IOV support.

I will update this post based on my findings, but for now this is my planned build:

• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900K
• Motherboard: ASRock Rack W680D4ID-2T/G5/X550
• RAM: Kingston Server Premier 96GB DDR5-5600 CL46
• GPU: ASRock Intel Arc A380 Low Profile 6GB
• PSU: HDPLEX 250W GaN
• Cooling: Noctua NH-L9x65
• Case: Custom Mod SL3 modified to fit Deep mini-ITX
• Storage:
  • 2 x M.2 (Kingston DC2000B 960GB)
  • 4 x SATA (Samsung SM863 1.96TB).

What this build covers:

1. All disks should have Power Loss Protection (PLP).
2. Proper ECC memory support with reporting.
3. Low draw while in idle.
4. Good Intel network chipset that works perfectly in Linux.
5. Various Intel security features I would welcome, including vPro.
6. Intel iGPU is preferable due to good Linux supports.