My current systems are an HP EliteBook 8530w (fan always running due to damaged heatpipe) and an HP Microserver N40L (running from PicoPSU, with rear fan reversed and filtered).
Possible plans I'm considering:
- Replace laptop with another laptop: most likely $2000+ for the specs I'd want (HP ZBook 17, due to awesome touchpad and screen).
- Replace laptop with a desktop, now that I've found a decent desktop touchpad (Logitech T650).
- Replace both the laptop and the Microserver with an all-in-one workstation+server, using VT-d for GPU passthrough.
CPU: Xeon E3-1245v3
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-Chip-Proces ... B00D697QGI
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SAE
http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Mother ... B00D656NSY
* This is the only ATX board I could find with all three of VT-d, ECC Memory, and Intel vPro.
* ECC and VT-d are important; I can give up vPro and go with a quieter board if it has a real serial port.
* I'd use the Intel iGPU for the Linux host OS, which I'll use as a desktop as well.
In terms of performance specs, I'd love to have something with a high-end single GPU. With VT-d, ATI is massively preferred. I don't need Quadro or FirePro features.
I'm not sure exactly how to describe what my questions are -- I guess I'm overall looking for advice from people with experience in choosing good desktop and server components.