Want to know how someone really works? Look at their personal setup. Not the polished demo environment or the client-facing infrastructure. The stuff they build for themselves when no one's watching.
I built my first PC at 11 years old when IDE cables were still a thing. Built a few more after that, then took a 15-year break. Last month, I finally put together a new build. Why? Because I needed proper hardware to run testing environments and VMs, and I was tired of compromising on stability.
Here's what went into it.
The Build
Why this spec? Testing environments and running multiple VMs needed something that could actually handle the workload. Plus, I don't want to pay cloud bills and wait around for hours. Would I recommend this to anyone? Absolutely not. But the thinking behind it matters.
The Specs
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5090
- Motherboard: ASUS ROG X570E
- RAM: 96GB on two sticks (not four, apparently four is a lottery on Zen5, and you've got to dig deep these days to know what actually works together)
- PSU: 1600W Seasonic Noctua Edition (massively overspecced because noise and headroom matter)
- Storage: 4TB NVMe SSD (IT'S FAST)
- Case: Lian Li 217 Black (smallest I could get, with the window facing away)
- Cooler: Be Quiet Silent Loop 3 360 (I wanted air cooling, but I couldn't justify the bulk of a 3kg Noctua)
One Rule: No RGB (Mostly)
I can't be dealing with BSODs over dodgy RGB vapourware and being kept forcefully awake by rainbow vomit lightshows at 2 AM. Call it a blackout++ build. There's one RGB component, but it's wired straight to the motherboard. If it can cause instability, it doesn't go in.
The Wiring: In case you're interested:
The Reality
After 2-3 hours of building, I had a working system and another 1-2 hours trying to get it stable with drivers and BIOS updates. Lots of research needed, and a fair bit of experience to get around the first boot teething issues.
Same approach at Volobyte. Attention to detail. Thinking through every what-if before it becomes a problem. Whether it's building out infrastructure from scratch as your first IT hire, or sorting out identity and access management across 25+ applications, the principle doesn't change.
Rate the build? Overkill/10. Does what I need it to do. Still wouldn't recommend it.
But if your IT professional isn't the type to obsess over whether the brown on the wire matches the brown on the trim, what does that tell you about how they'll handle yours?
Volobyte: IT infrastructure and cybersecurity for startups and scale-ups.