PC build for Robotics, Machine Learning and CyberSecurity

Question

I'm planning to build a PC for personal use. I'm studying Swarm Robotics, Machine Learning (for robotics), and Cybersecurity (mainly hacking and pentesting).

From what I've read online, there's not much specific needs for the robotics area but good GPU is needed for Machine Learning and 1TB of SSD is needed for running VMs for Cybersecurity. Since I'm also learning to use CUDA programming, I'll be using an NVIDIA graphics card.

My PC should include:

• run "dual" booting with Ubuntu (for ROS & robotics), Kali (for cybersecurity) and Windows 10 (for MS Office, some circuit design & CAD software)
• a main SSD for fast processing and storage
• 1+ extra HDDs with 1TB+ storage for data (I've read that it's hard to use Linux software on external drives)
• RAM (not yet decided)
• GPU: Geforce 10 series (for CUDA, machine learning, simulations)
• A network/wireless card compatible with Kali tools (preferably with Bluetooth and/or BLE)

I'd like specifications and recommendations for the SSD, HDD, RAM & GPU for my needs. Please also add if I need some other hardware not yet specified for Machine Learning or Cybersecurity.

I'd like to optimize my PC for Machine Learning (with robotics), simulations, and Cybersecurity (mainly pentesting) with minimal future upgrade/change to the system in mind.

My budget: 1500-2000 USD

Answer 1

For your PC, I would recommend having an M.2 SSD, as they are faster than normal SATA ones because they interface directly with the motherboard. For you specific needs I would recommend the 1TB version of the Samsung 970 PRO. While on the expensive side, it is fast (3500 MBps reads and 2700 MBps writes) and last longer (5 years) than a lot of other SSDs and has lots of built in software features, such as full drive encryption and SSD toolbox and cloning software.

For your HDD, I would recommend either a WD Blue or a WD Red. The Blue is a standard HDD with no exceptional qualities, other than a lower price tag than any other WD drive. The Red is typically for servers and therefore has lots of features designed to keep data as long as possible without corrupting any of it. It also has lots of recovery features. Whichever one fits your needs more, I would recommend getting the 4TB versions as that should be more than enough for your needs.

For RAM while it does not really matter what RAM you get, you should get at least 32 GB. My personal choice would be the 2 16GB version of the Corsair Vengeance LPX.

For the graphics cards, of all the 10 series card, I would recommend the 1080 or the 1080 Ti, as these cards have the most CUDA cores for you to work with (2560 and 3584 respectively) but I would go with the 1080 over the 1080 Ti as it has a higher base and boost clock rate.