New PC for graphics work

[itsmystie]

Hello!

I need to get a new PC that will be used for heavy graphics work (Desktop puplishing, Adobe Photoshop, CorelDraw, Autocad...). No gaming. Only graphics work and also the typical office work. What are your suggestions on the choice of parts?

 

[paparazi]

Something like:
NVIDIA Quadro FX
Workstation graphics from Nvidia:

http://www.nvidia.com/page/workstation.html

Latest Intel P35 Based workstation motherboard ie:

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=534&l4=0&model=1692&modelmenu=1

Intel Core2 Duo or Quad Processor

http://www.intel.com/business/enter...x.htm?cid=emea:ggl|xeon_uk_clovertown|k7850|s

SATA Raid on two RE (Raid edition Enterprise drives from Westerdigital)

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=335

Quality PSU:
TruePower Trio 650

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=23650

Quality case:

http://www.lian-li.com/product/product06.php?pr_index=8&cl_index=1&sc_index=1&ss_index=2&type=a

Quality Memory 2gig minimum

http://www.valueram.com/datasheets/KHX8500D2_1G.pdf

Martin




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[wahnula]

Good list Martin. My only suggestion would be (4) RAID drives in RAID 1+0 for redundancy AND speed, plus a good backup system, either tape, external hard disk rotation, or DVD-ROM or RAM. Unless, of course, the workstation is connected to a server with a backup plan.

Tony

 

[ceh4702]

Is that for full motion video or for editing photos, or for Animation or what?

When it comes to graphics you probably want to go for the best Processor you can afford (within reason). You want at least a processor with a 1333 FSB Bus and 4 megs of L2 Shared Cache like an Intel E6550, and around 2 gigs of RAM. You need 4 gigs of RAM if you plan on using a 64 bit operating system. It depends if you software can take advantage of things like Dual Processors or a 64 bit operating system.

You may want things like a dual layer DVD burner.

Extra storage capacity - Depends if you store projects on a server or not. I would think in a work environment either putting things on DVD or a server with a backup system.

I would suggest looking at some prices for a HP Workstation or some other companies if you are considering dual quad core Xeon workstations. (Gives you an idea what kind of cost you are looking at) Something like this is not cost effective unless you are doing full motion video, or are doing complex Animation that takes a long time to compile. Nothing wrong with building a Dual Quad Core Xeon yourself, but that is more like pricing a server. Some of the motherboards for Xeon's will run off of either one or two processors. If you want to go this route, then maybe consult some IT firm that does servers and maybe they have someone with Work Station Expertise.

I looked at some of the links above and I think a $17,000 workstation is a bit excessive. Dont have a clue what your budget would be. I imagine a workstation, even a high end one like a Mac PRO is doable for around 3,000 - 6,000.

It is possible that the storage and the workstation could be separated into two units. i.e. a server and a workstation. The concept being of working on one project and then storing it on the server. That way the server could be backed up as part of a backup system. You could put 4 -6 hard drives in a RAID configuration, but that is what file servers are for. RAID if mismanaged can actually put your data at risk. The more hard drives you have the higher the chance is that one of them will die.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[paparazi]

wahnula,(4) RAID drives in RAID 1+0 for redundancy AND speed.
Best of both worlds, good call.
ceh4702 quote: "I looked at some of the links above and I think a $17,000 workstation is a bit excessive"
Where on earth did you see those prices? even with four 500gig RE WD's in a Raid 1+0 the total would be well under $4,000 complete

I think we could do with itsmystie posting with some sort of budget to base this list on.
Martin

We like members to GIVE and not just TAKE.
Participate and help others.

 

[itsmystie]

Sorry. Forgot to mention about these.
Budget would be less than $2000. No video or animation, only photo editing.