The current state of my home compute and network environment is shocking. It consists of fibre
running from outside of the flat to a router provided by my ISP that supplies connectivity via
Wi-Fi to all of the connected devices that we own. I also make use of instances via AWS for
any machines that I want to run, which is conventient, until you consider that a 4 vCPU /
16GB RAM / 30GB t3.xlarge instance costs £142.00 per month.
The objective then is to build a proper network, deploy some computers and start working on my craft from the comfort of a secure(ish) home network.
The following is a list of the kit that I want to obtain for a decent home network:
- 1 x UniFi Dream Router 7
- 1 x 5m Cat6 RJ45 network cable
- 2 x 3m Cat6 RJ45 network cables
Given the size of our flat, running a 5m Cat6 cable from the ISP router downstairs to the Dream Router upstairs should provide a 1Gbps connection to a router that only supports 512Mbps to the Internet. I can run cables to my Xbox and a Minisforum mini PC, and connect our Macbooks to the Dream Router AP. Downstairs where the Apple TV lives and our phones are typically used, getting anything over 100Mbps via the WiFi would be perfectly fine.
I'd love an AM5 desktop and a shiny new GPU, but frankly shat myself when looking at the cost of bringing my AM4 machine up to AM5 spec. So instead:
- Minisforum MS-A2 Barebones w/ Ryzen 9 9955HX
- Asus ROG Strix XG32UQ 4K monitor
- Wooting 60HE+ keyboard
- Logitech G Superlight Pro mouse
- Razer Kiara Pro headset
- Xbox Series X
- Xbox Elite Series 2 controller
- Ikea Trotten desk
- Crucial DDR5-5600 64GB Kit
- WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive
This will be my first mini PC, an experience I am looking forward to.
TBC. With a 16 core/32 thread CPU and 64GB RAM at 5600MT/s and access to LXD containers, there should be a fair amount I can do with one machine, especially if it's capped out to 96GB RAM.