Musings on a new Workstation
I received an email today from AJ asking what I’d recommend if building a new workstation. Well, it turns out I’ve been thinking a lot lately about building a new workstation. My current setup is based on a Core2Duo E6600 with 4Gb RAM. It’s starting to show it’s age. I did upgrade to Windows 7, first the RC, then the RTM version. I like W7 a lot, but it’s not helping the old processor run any faster. I also upgraded recently to the 18MP Canon 7D. Working with 18 MP RAW images and HD Video really taxes the current machine. HD Video editing on this machine requires, shall we say, a lot of patience. So, in no particular order, and in not too much detail, here’s what I’m thinking:
For the processor, I’m definitely leaning toward a Core i7 9xx series. The RAW images and HD video almost demand a high-end processor. I’ll probably select one the middle of the high end models. We’ll see what that is in a few months when I get around to doing this. Price is always an issue, so I like to find the highest performing processor below the “knee” in the price curve (where it suddenly turns upward). This generally give the best bang for your buck.
The motherboard selection really boils down to compatibility with the processor (obviously), and a reputable vendor (MSI, ASUS (becoming Pegatron), Gigabyte). I’m not overly picky here as long as it has lots of SATA channels, lots of USB ports, and good customer reviews. When I’m ready to buy, I’ll spend a couple hours looking at the current offerings and decide on one.
This time around I’m thinking about finally going to go with a 64bit OS. This means I’ll be able to use lots of memory. I’m thinking that 12GB would be good. More memory won’t make Photoshop process images any faster, but it will prevent large images from being swapped to disk. And it’ll let me run more programs without swapping anything to disk. Video editing will also significantly benefit from more memory (it tends to rely on disk swapping much more than Photoshop since the source files are measured in GB’s). Truth be told, I’m still nervous about going to 64bit. I’ve never had good luck with it in the past and now Windows 7 is sold as either 32bit or 64bit. If 64bit doesn’t work for me I’m stuck with an unusable OS license.
About storage. One serious upgrade I did make recently is a NETGEAR ReadyNAS NVX Pioneer Edition RNDX400E
For storage on the workstation I’m seriously considering a fast SSD drive for the OS. Here I can get away with a smaller capacity drive (which let’s me afford a faster model). A friend of mine just upgraded his system to an SSD drive and can’t stop talking about (rubbing in) how fast the computer boots and how fast applications load. With Photoshop and Lightroom taking quite a while to load, I’m really tempted to go down this path too. I’m thinking one of these OCZ Technology Agility Series SSD
I’ll probably throw another 1TB drive in the workstation for miscellaneous storage to cover work in progress files, documents, and other projects. I think the days of throwing 6 or 8 HDDs in the computer are gone for me. With drive capacities these days, I don’t see the need (though a really fast 4 drive RAID-0 array for video editing would be nice, but I don’t enough of that to justify it).
I’d like to buy new displays for the new workstation. I want four displays. I want three 23″ to 25″ widescreen (1080p, or 1920×1200) displays arranged next to each other, and a fourth 40+ inch plasma or LCD TV that will be mounted on the wall above the 3 displays. It sounds like overkill, and maybe it is. But I’m very used to having a lot of display real estate and I like it. The wall mounted TV will be the primary display for Windows Media Center 7 in my office. (We use Windows Media Center 7 exclusively for the entertainment center in the family room). We’ll see if this comes to fruition. The display portion of this build definitely falls under the fantasy wish heading. It’ll be the last part to be funded. This will aslo require a couple of dual output graphics cards (at least one of them requires HDMI).
I’ll probably add a Blu-Ray drive, but just a reader. I see no need for a writer.
A Soundblaster X-Fi card (whatever is the current value offering). I play with music production sometimes so I like descent audio. Also want to get some decent near field monitors but none of this has much context in a photography blog.
Another primary goal for this build is to build a machine that is more quiet than my current workstation. The current on isn’t load, but it’s not silent either. To accomplish this I’ll take advantage, and probably order some parts (case, power supply, fans, etc…) from End PC Noise. I’ve ordered from these guys before and been very pleased with what I received.
All right, let’s talk about vendors for a minute. I still like NewEgg a lot. I also like Amazona lot. I order almost everything from one of these two vendor (except to special stuff from the likes of End PC Noise). You have to price compare. I build wish lists at both places to keep track of what I’m ordering. With my recent ReadyNAS/Gigabit network upgrade I was all set to order everything from Newegg. The order included 2 mail in rebates delivered as prepaid VISAs totaling about $120. When I checked everything at Amazon, I found that the entire order was $100 cheaper and didn’t require any rebates and the shipping was free. I ordered from Amazon. You gotta shop around. And, whatever you do, do not shop at Fry’s. I just isn’t worth the hassle and risk of buying previously opened (and probably abused) merchandise.
Please leave any feedback or suggestions you’d like to share in the comments.
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