Supermicro X11SSV-M4
- Intel Xeon E3-1515M v5 (45w)
AMD Radeon Pro WX4100
32GB DDR4 Micron ECC
512GB Samsung 970 Pro NVMe
1TB Samsung EVO
Lone L1 (sandblasted and repainted)
HDPlex 160w PSU + 192w Meanwell brick
2x Noctua 80mm
Eizo EV2730Q monitor
Leopold FC660C
Logitech MX Ergo
OS: Arch Linux (Gnome)
Functions: Software development, Audio processing, Video editing, General computing
The inspiration for this machine has been lingering with me since youth, when I first experienced the allure of Sun and SGI workstations. These encounters led to a life of living in the fringes of computing: I wanted a small machine with dry, nearly clinical aesthetics and reasonable performance. A pseudo-fetish maybe?
Many moons later, I found the Lone L1 case which fit the bill in terms of form and function. Along with this community, it felt good to know I wasn't a complete weirdo. I had the L1 in use across various incarnations before I decided it was time. The case was taken to a sandblast shop where it was repainted to it's current finish exterior, which imparted a matte but tactile texture onto the case pieces.
The X11SSV-M4 is quite a strange little motherboard. The stock cooling on the CPU was a bit loud, replaced it with a 60mm Noctua and improvised some standoffs. One major benefit of the L1 design is the 2x 80mm fan positions at the top of the case. The CPU and HDPlex 160w PSU are conveniently adjunct to these fans at the top of the case. Having more fans might be a noise-sin to most but the result is great and keeps the temps within reasonable levels at constant loads. Noctua fans nullify most acoustic concerns anyway.
The AMD Radeon Pro WX4100 was selected as it provides reasonable performance per watt in a single slot and low profile package. It functions incredibly well with Linux open source drivers and actually has allowed for acceptable gaming performance. At heavy load (GPU+CPU), total consumption wattage has peaked at 165W, so the beefier 192w brick was selected to provide a higher allowance.
Agnes is not the most powerful machine and to many not the prettiest build, but it satisfies my aesthetic and functional computing needs and is a personal joy to interface with. Thanks for reading.
(note: photos do not reflect the 970 Pro NVMe as it was a recent upgrade)
