Hello, I currently run a homelab on an old Dell Optiplex. I am looking to upgrade this to a larger one with a strong GPU. The intention is to use this effectively both as a gaming PC as well as one to run local LLMs and experiment with it. Do you have recommendations on builds I should use as a base to consider for this? I also recently got a quest 3 - so I would like the be able to connect it to the computer using an oculink cable if possible. I don't have a fixed budget per-se - but would like to be on the sweet spot of lifetime value.
My current setup is headless - what monitors or specs would you suggest?
Do these parts go on sale often? When is the ideal time to consider buying them?
Thanks.
What are you going to run apart from occasional (small-ish) LLM? I'd recommend sticking to separate hardware for gaming and homelab purposes. Reasons? Personally I think:
- Better separation if hardware or software breaks, you don't lose EVERYTHING.
- Most likely better power usage. Running a beefy PC (even when things are pretty efficient these days) as a server all the time will most likely consume more energy in the long run.
- Managing a homelab using VMs, killing the OS if you did the wrong thing and setting it all up again would be less painful than also install all your games and configs as a personal computer.
- You can also (depending on the VM/VLAN setup) better or easily isolate things, but that entirely depends on you networking ability.
Again, this is a personal view of how I've done it at home, and I might be wrong :)
I have a mini PC running an i5 8500t with 24gb ram I think, and then a gaming/personal PC with a Ryzen 5 7600 + 4080s, which I use remotely with Sunshine/Moonlight, it just works for my needs.