Building My Admin PC | Floyd's Homelab

The workstation I run FSJ-LAB from.

Goal

Every lab needs a place to run it from. I wanted one machine for SSH and console sessions to the switches and FortiGate, managing the Proxmox nodes, and staging packages before they move into the air-gapped lab. I also wanted to build it myself rather than buy one prebuilt.

It dual-boots Ubuntu for Linux-native lab tooling and Windows 11 for everything else.

Specs at a glance

Component	Part
CPU	AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (6-core / 12-thread, 3.7 GHz base)
Motherboard	Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE AX (ATX, AM4)
Memory	Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine RGB 32 GB (2 × 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16
Storage	Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 (PCIe 3.0 x4)
Graphics	ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3070 Ti OC V2 (8 GB GDDR6X)
Case	Lian Li LANCOOL 215 (ATX mid tower)
Power supply	Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850 W 80+ Gold, fully modular
GPU support	GPU support stand
OS	Ubuntu + Windows 11 (dual boot)

Product breakdown

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X. Six Zen 3 cores and twelve threads on AM4. It has plenty of headroom for a browser full of management UIs, several terminal sessions, and local tooling at once, without the cost or heat of a higher-core-count chip.

Motherboard: Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE AX. The X570S chipset gives PCIe 4.0 to the GPU and primary M.2 slot. It has several M.2 slots for NVMe storage and onboard Wi-Fi 6 (the “AX”). The “S” revision uses a passively cooled chipset, so there’s no small chipset fan to wear out or whine.

Memory: Silicon Power XPOWER Turbine RGB 32 GB DDR4-3200 CL16. A dual-channel 2 × 16 GB kit running at 3200 MT/s through its XMP profile. That’s enough for heavy multitasking, and it leaves two DIMM slots free for a later upgrade to 64 GB.

Storage: Samsung 970 EVO Plus NVMe. Fast, reliable NVMe storage on the M.2 slots. Both operating systems live here, along with the staging area for files headed into the lab.

Graphics: ASUS TUF Gaming RTX 3070 Ti OC V2. An 8 GB GDDR6X card with a triple-fan TUF cooler. It drives the displays, handles general GPU work, and gives me CUDA for experimenting locally.

GPU support stand. The 3070 Ti is a long, heavy triple-fan card. A stand under its far end prevents GPU sag, which takes strain off the PCIe slot and keeps the card level over time.

Case: Lian Li LANCOOL 215. A mesh-front ATX mid tower with two large front intake fans. It gives the GPU and CPU strong airflow and leaves room for clean cable routing.

Power supply: Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 850 W 80+ Gold. 850 W gives comfortable headroom over the 5600X and 3070 Ti’s peak draw, which keeps the PSU in its efficient, quiet range. Being fully modular means only the cables I need are installed, so the case stays cleaner and airflow is better.

The build

I assembled it by following Linus Tech Tips’ full-length guide, How to build a PC, the last guide you’ll ever need!. It covers part selection, assembly order, cable management, and first-boot troubleshooting.

Ryzen 5 5600X and two RGB memory sticks installed on the Gigabyte X570S AORUS ELITE AX motherboard — CPU and memory seated on the X570S AORUS ELITE AX, before it went into the case.

Bench test outside the case: board, GPU, and PSU powered up on the desk before the final install.

First boot into the AORUS BIOS, then the RGB inside the finished case.

Walkaround of the finished build inside the LANCOOL 215.

The finished admin PC in the Lian Li LANCOOL 215 with RGB memory and front fans lit — The finished admin PC at my desk.

Dual boot: Ubuntu and Windows 11

Ubuntu handles lab administration: SSH to the IOS gear and the FortiGate, Proxmox management, and package staging for the air-gapped network.
Windows 11 covers everything that’s Windows-only.

Skills this covered

Component selection and compatibility planning: socket, chipset, PSU headroom, and case clearance
Hands-on assembly and cable management
BIOS/UEFI setup, including the XMP memory profile and boot order
Installing and running two operating systems side by side