Thoughts on using a personal desktop as work machine?

MatteRB26

MatteRB26

MatteRB26

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Hi, so it looks like there's a potential future of remote working for me, which I am 110% thumbs-up for. I work in software/web development and currently have a work laptop, relatively well specced. i7-7700HQ, 1tb NVMe, 32gb ram... but even then it can become quite the chugger when thrown a lot of resource-intensive load at it - ie: multiple IDEs with a mix of small and large projects, Unit testing, code analysis etc.

The performance difference between my laptop and PC in terms of processing power is highly noticable. My PC is sitting on a Ryzen 5 3600 (which is currently running 4.2ghz on all cores) which simply destroys the workloads without so much as a bead of sweat. The downfall is my PC's 16gb ram (which I'd upgrade). CPU comparison: https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare/Intel-i7-7700HQ-vs-AMD-Ryzen-5-3600/2906vs3481

Right now I RDP onto the laptop which means I still get full use of the core setup - Desk, multi monitors, peripherals etc. without sacrificing "messing about" time to plug stuff in. I never touch the laptop except to turn it on 95% of the time now.

I'm thinking of going to work with a proposition of using my desktop as my main development machine. What I'm planning (should it be approved) is to buy a new SSD and dedicate it to work (or possibly give myself a personal upgrade and repurpose my current SSD for work) so whatever drive used will have its own Windows installation, it'll be used for nothing but work, it will be Bitlockered, it will have all necessary software (such as Sophos which is the AV we use at work), I'd link it to Azure AD and all of it. Work would have just as much control over the setup as they do now.

I just wondered what other people's thoughts are on it? Does anyone else do something similar? Or perhaps I'm just being a bit of a thorn in the side making a deal out of nothing? For me, when doing a side-by-side comparison of 100% performance boost upwards when looking at load times, compile times and everything else it seems like the obvious choice?
 
I'm in almost an identical position to you, nice powerful gaming PC at home, but currently RDPing into a laptop in the office (granted it's an OK laptop - in fact has the same CPU as yours - but still no comparison to a desktop, even with a "budget" CPU like the 3600).

I wouldn't do this.

You're opening yourself up to issues, e.g. if the PC breaks, whose responsibility is it to repair it? Do you have a spare machine? If it takes 3 days to get the parts needed, what alternatives do you have in place? Do you get paid for those 3 days you can't work?

This is an easy one if it's your employer's laptop which breaks - a) they (should!) usually have stock of spares which can be swapped over in a couple of hours. b) if they don't, they aren't providing you with the tools needed to your job, if you can't work because of that then it's not your responsibility!

Another consideration - does your home insurance cover equipment owned by your employer? You might have to look into this.

What happens if your employer's IT department need to do some out-of-hours work e.g. software updates on all machines - are you happy to lose the use of your PC and allow them access during this time?

A far better solution (and what I'm actually considering) is - if you don't need the remote machine to be a laptop - put forward the case for them to provide a desktop/workstation for you to remote into instead. Other than the initial outlay for the company (which will be lower than the cost of a new laptop of equivalent spec), this will likely be a far better solution for everyone. It gives you the performance benefit. The company retains all responsibility and control of the equipment, and the only real downside is that you lose the mobility of a laptop (which it doesn't sound like is actually a consideration anyway)
 
I've worked from home for nearly 20 years and would never consider giving IT control over my personal PC. Haggis put it very well above, but I'd also add that you need a clear mental separation between home and work - and for me that's work provided laptop and my home/gaming desktop being on separate desks, separate monitors, keyboards/mice etc.
 
Haggisman said:
I'm in almost an identical position to you, nice powerful gaming PC at home, but currently RDPing into a laptop in the office (granted it's an OK laptop - in fact has the same CPU as yours - but still no comparison to a desktop, even with a "budget" CPU like the 3600).

I wouldn't do this.

You're opening yourself up to issues, e.g. if the PC breaks, whose responsibility is it to repair it? Do you have a spare machine? If it takes 3 days to get the parts needed, what alternatives do you have in place? Do you get paid for those 3 days you can't work?

This is an easy one if it's your employer's laptop which breaks - a) they (should!) usually have stock of spares which can be swapped over in a couple of hours. b) if they don't, they aren't providing you with the tools needed to your job, if you can't work because of that then it's not your responsibility!

Another consideration - does your home insurance cover equipment owned by your employer? You might have to look into this.

What happens if your employer's IT department need to do some out-of-hours work e.g. software updates on all machines - are you happy to lose the use of your PC and allow them access during this time?

A far better solution (and what I'm actually considering) is - if you don't need the remote machine to be a laptop - put forward the case for them to provide a desktop/workstation for you to remote into instead. Other than the initial outlay for the company (which will be lower than the cost of a new laptop of equivalent spec), this will likely be a far better solution for everyone.
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Thanks for the input! I hadn't even considered the home insurance side of it, though surely that's an issue right now with the laptop, as it's currently with me.

Should I have PC issues, I'd be keeping the work laptop relatively up to date with codebase and databases etc for those kinds of situations - and for in case I need to travel and work. I'm happy with the loss of use to work requirements as we have a small child so I rarely get to use my pc outside of late evenings :rolleyes:.

I have a good relationship with my employer, I joined as the 4th team member and we're now at about 8. I'd get any issues would be solved "contractually" regarding any hardware/software problems, but I'm usually happy to put myself out when problems do occur - I'm not tech lead but do have relative input on the tech side of things. I even built our in-house build server (which actually got retired for Azure)

Not sure I'd sell the work desktop any easier than selling using my machine - work would rather spend more money on a laptop than a desktop, I've mentioned it a few times, but perhaps being remote instead of in the office (where we'd work inthe office and at home) it could be put forward again.
 
Would never be allowed anywhere I’ve worked due to data security. Clients data needs to be kept in an environment they can completely control - their encryption, remote wiping etc.
 
Matthew.M said:
Would never be allowed anywhere I’ve worked due to data security. Clients data needs to be kept in an environment they can completely control - their encryption, remote wiping etc.
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My thought is to buy an entire isolated work drive that would be encrypted, Azure joined etc. There'd be the same amount of control over it as there currently is on the laptop. From where I stand the main concerns would really be hardware. As the laptop is company-owned everything is their responsibilty with it - whereas if I'm using my personal desktop with an isolated work drive - there becomes a grey area with responsibilities
 
Matthew.M said:
Would never be allowed anywhere I’ve worked due to data security. Clients data needs to be kept in an environment they can completely control - their encryption, remote wiping etc.
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this is the main issue - you'll typically need the machine to be remotely managed by your IT department. Worth asking but i think you'll find they'll want more control that your happy to give them. VMs could be an option though?
 
Siliconslave said:
this is the main issue - you'll typically need the machine to be remotely managed by your IT department. Worth asking but i think you'll find they'll want more control that your happy to give them. VMs could be an option though?
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Funnily enough we considered VMs before due to the constant mess of keeping developer's environments the same after a lot of "Who's changed this?" "Yeah you need to upgrade Node" "ffffff". Perhaps something to revisit
 
I'm on a 3900x with 1080Ti and I use RDC daily to access my 6700 (non-K) 750Ti work machine.

I wouldn't want work stuff on my own machine personally, so I simply use what I have been supplied with :)
 
Your work should be providing you with the adequate equipment to work efficiently if home working. I wouldn't be spending a penny of my own money or using my own PC. They either provide a higher spec laptop for you or your productivity falls as a result. I guess it's up to them as to whether it's a worthwhile investment.
 
MatteRB26 said:
My thought is to buy an entire isolated work drive that would be encrypted, Azure joined etc. There'd be the same amount of control over it as there currently is on the laptop. From where I stand the main concerns would really be hardware. As the laptop is company-owned everything is their responsibilty with it - whereas if I'm using my personal desktop with an isolated work drive - there becomes a grey area with responsibilities
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What would happen if a virus got into the system and started to infect your work systems?
 
MatteRB26 said:
Thanks for the input! I hadn't even considered the home insurance side of it, though surely that's an issue right now with the laptop, as it's currently with me.
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My mistake, I thought you still had the laptop in the office and you were RDPing in via VPN (as I'm doing).

The insurance thing might be worth checking anyway then, as I assume if the laptop goes missing while in your possession then your employer would hold you responsible for replacing/paying for it?

Looking at this also from an infrastructure manager perspective (in a previous life :p), it's not something I'd be happy with - even at a very basic level, if there are technical issues then who is responsible for it?

Email not working - your network & hardware, company's OS & software, who does the troubleshooting?
Sorry, our standard company OS image doesn't work with your hardware, who is going to cover the time needed to build a new image or figure out why the existing one bluescreens every 5 minutes?
Time for an IT refresh - oh look everyone in the company has new systems with 16 core CPUs, 32 GB RAM and NVMe drives - MatteRB26, your PC is too slow, please upgrade it ASAP - no we don't care that it's going to cost you £1,200 that you can't really afford.
You (or rather the company) may also run into software licencing issues, where they have a corporate licence which is only allowed to be used on company hardware.
As mentioned above, security is a potential concern as there are almost certainly company policies in place (or should be) regarding sensitive data on non-company systems.

etc.

TL;DR - whilst on the surface this looks like a good idea, in practice it's an absolute minefield and is more aggro than it's worth (to anyone).

Speak to work about a faster PC/laptop - if you can make a good case for how it will increase your productivity by X% then they may go for it. If not, they almost certainly will not agree to this (and are clearly happy with the amount of work you are producing currently).
 
I'm sat at my desk at home now with my work laptop on my desk, my personal desktop next to me powered off with the keyboard and mouse tucked away, the laptop is plugged into my personal monitor so I can have two screens.

Even if I was allowed to I wouldnt want to use my personal desktop, I've gone to the extreme of keeping them both separate and spent a fair bit of money on cabling, cable tidies Monitor riser etc just to be able to have them both share the relatively small desk. Reason being is what Haggisman said, the amount of work related apps that I'll need to install and configure to connect it would take forever just to get it all configured "Dont mix work and play" applies
 
I would not use your personal desktop as your work machine.

I use my main personal desktop to connect in to my remote machine via Citrix. But I would not use it for actual work. This is because there will be restrictions on what software you can install. For example they may require a specific version of Java (for example) which conflicts with a version you may want to use for personal use. What happens if they want a specific windows update to be performed or postponed? What happens when you want to upgrade your machine and you can't risk the downtime due to work?
 
feels like it's maybe opening you up to more risk than it's worth if they even let you do this.
but I guess that depends how sensitive the data is that would be on there and is it were ever leaked they would likely blame you even if it wasnt you
 
Bassmansam said:
I use my gaming pc as my work pc at the moment. Connect to a remote server, i don't see the problem?
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It all depends on what you're doing and the data you're handling.

For example, if all you use is word, excel and outlook and you aren't storing customer data then you will likely be okay. It's a bit of a minefield with GDPR though and a security audit would likely flag up loads of issues you haven't even considered.
 
I use my own PC at home for development work. However we are a tiny company and I pretty much have full reign over IT.

Alternatively could get a better work laptop if possible and use your screens you have at home.
 
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