3DATSTech August Workstations Thread

[AJLynn]

The latest workstation recommendations are now up:

 

http://www.3datstech.com/2010/08/august-2010-workstations.html

 

New this month are a configuration specifically for photographers, Photoshoppers and other 2D graphics users, and a section on displays.

 

You might notice that we're adding some "affiliates" shopping links. This is limited to Amazon, and I've made it as unintrusive as possible and only linked to products I think are good buys. This is a test to see if we can actually generate any revenue that way. Please shop around and let me know if I'm way off on any of those, but if you do buy any of those items and find that Amazon is the best vendor, if you use the links in the article we get a few percent.

 

As always, please post any questions or comments here or in the blog comments and we'll answer them.

[Marty]

I plan on building the High-End work station listed on here for my office and was wanting to know if any one else had built it yet? Also is this a complete list of everything needed? Ive done a bit of coputer work but this will be my first one from scratch so if any one has any general advice for building a computer I'd appreciate it.

 

Thanks Marty

[AJLynn]

That's a complete list. Things I might add?... a nice big mouse pad, a display, and of course if you're an overclocker one of the Thermalright CPU coolers and one of the Scythe fans that are used in the Maxer config. You'll need a screwdriver set and for safety when handling the parts, a wrist strap (the alligator clip clips to anywhere on the case chassis). The motherboard instruction book has the assembly steps, and read the case instruction book as well. Check the motherboard manufacturer web site for the latest firmwares.

[mattclinch]

Interesting read on nVidia's FERMI cards. Have to say i've been looking at a new one as my Radeon 5700 just isn't cutting it anymore.

 

Noticed that you dont recommend the Spyder colour calibrators? Any particular reason. I use a Datacolor Spyder 3 Pro and find it excellent, although there are also Express and Elite versions. The new version 4 of the software is nothing short of superb, making double monitor calibration a breeze.

[AJLynn]

Nothing against the Spyders, I just have good experience with the i1 and the general consensus among the photographers is that the i1 gives slightly better color accuracy.

[Tim Nelson]

The other week I had to quickly purchase a workstation for rendering frames and found a system at Best Buy comparable to your budget photoshop build. http://bit.ly/aCBnvw $1099 before tax, though for some reason now its listed as $1150. I have to say it did a fantastic job at rendering, it was a little bit faster than some older dual xeon quad cores. As a bonus which they don't tell you about, is that it has two removable SATA drive bays in the front that you can use to set up a RAID 1 or 0.

 

I usually enjoy building my own systems, but I am really impressed by the quality of this purchase so far. Have not tried out the graphics card with Max yet though so we'll see about that.

[AJLynn]

Not bad. If you want RAID 0, I'd still advise getting those RE3 or E7K series drives.