Home Rig Plan
A used desktop for three jobs: gaming, the always-on Brain hub, and a photo and video server. Written October 16, 2026.
Verdict: a solid fit for all three jobs.
The 8GB graphics card is the one compromise. It handles gaming, the Brain hub and the media server today, with room to grow.
The build
| Part | What it is | Read |
|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 5700, 8 cores. Confirm 5700 vs 5700X: the plain 5700 runs the graphics card on PCIe 3.0, a small loss. | Plenty |
| Graphics | NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti, 8GB of video memory. Great at 1080p; some new games need medium textures at 1440p. | OK |
| Memory | 16GB DDR4, two 8GB sticks in dual channel (set up right). Two slots empty. | Add later |
| Storage | 2TB NVMe SSD. Fast, but photos and videos will fill it. | Add later |
| Board | B550. Room for a second fast SSD (M.2) plus SATA hard drives. | Good |
| Cooling | Four case fans. | Good |
| Power supply | Unknown. Get the brand and wattage before buying. | Check |
How it handles each job
Gaming Good
- High settings at 1080p in most games
- 1440p works; drop textures in the newest games
- Most Steam games run on Omarchy; anti-cheat games need Windows
Brain hub Big upgrade
- Runs Seance, the scheduled jobs and the git hub with room to spare
- Twice the memory of the XPS, which already runs short
- Small local AI models (7 to 8B) run well; bigger ones won't fit in 8GB
Photos Good
- Immich: a self-hosted Google Photos with phone backup
- The graphics card speeds up face and object search
- Storage is the limit, not speed
Videos Good
- Jellyfin: stream your videos to phone and TV
- The card's video encoder converts on the fly without loading the CPU
- Down whenever the PC is in Windows
What it needs
- A big hard drive for photos and videosSoon
4 to 8TB on a SATA port. The SSD keeps the system and recent files; the hard drive holds the library.
- A backup somewhere elseSoon
One copy in one box isn't a backup. An external drive kept elsewhere, or a cloud backup of the photo library.
- A small SSD for WindowsIf dual booting
500GB to 1TB in the second M.2 slot, so Windows and Omarchy never share a drive.
- 32GB of memoryWhen it feels slow
Add a matched pair of 8GB sticks (same speed, ideally same model), or swap in a 2x16GB kit and keep two slots free.
- A 16GB graphics cardOnly if needed
Only if bigger local AI models or 1440p on max settings become a real want.
Dual boot: Omarchy and Windows
Drive 1: Omarchy (2TB)
The daily system. Brain hub, Seance, timers, Immich, Jellyfin, Steam.
Drive 2: Windows (new, small)
Only for games that won't run on Linux. Pick it at power-on.
- Install Windows first, with the Omarchy drive unplugged, then install Omarchy on its own drive.
- Switch from the board's boot menu at power-on (usually F8 or F12 on B550 boards).
- In Windows: turn off Fast Startup, and save the BitLocker recovery key or turn BitLocker off.
- Fix the clock once so it doesn't jump when you switch.
Trade-off: while it's in Windows, the Brain hub and the media server are offline. They come back on their own when you boot into Omarchy, and the Mac keeps its own Brain copy meanwhile. Check your games at protondb.com first; you may not need Windows at all.
Buy-day checklist