Help me build a $3,000 development machine

Hello everyone.

I need your help to build a software development machine with an eye for gaming. Look at my "software development" term also as video editing, a lot of photoshop stuff, a lot of file copying, winrar archiving and so on meaning that there will be a lot of hard drive activity and a lot of processes going on at the same time.

Simply put, if I fire Photoshop I don't want to wait 10 seconds for it to load or open a 25mb PSD file, I want it instantly, provided this is achievable :)

But, I would also like to do some gaming on it, nothing fancy, just be able to play recently-released games without having to switch off 90% of the details.

I'm not new to hardware, I did assemble an HTPC machine two years ago but I'm outdated on the last two years, reason why I'm kindly asking for your help. For instance, is the WD Raptor still the one or there's something better for fast hard disk activity? Just one of the many questions I have.

As I said, budget is not an issue, I can spend as much as $3,000 - maybe more.

Thanks!

well normal software development doesnt require anything special.
for video editing, how large are the files you are working with?
you will probably want SSDs if you want all out speed.

wait a few months for the next generations of SSDs to come out and for sandy bridge, throw 12GB of ram in that and you will have a super fast machine.

Thanks mate.

What about OS, what's the best for the job?

If you followed ripkens suggestion then a 64 bit windows 7 is a must. It will allow you to utilise al that ram while helping immensely in renderings in photoshop and other designing based programs.

evga sr2 with gobs of ram if you got the cash :D

Thanks a lot for your help friends!

Re the 12GB of ram mentioned earlier, allow me to ask a stupid question: If I check my task manager to check Physical Memory usage I see that I have 3.4 in total(4 GB but I'm on WinXP 32 bit so not all used) and 2.4 available.

Am I right when I assume that memory ain't really the area where I should focus to achieve my objective? Maybe I should focus on CPU and Hard Drive RPM? Hence SSDs?

Now that Photoshop can be GPU-accelerated, you're best off with a strong system all-around.

There's a few different choices--the easiest today would be an overclocked Core i7-950, 3x2GB DDR3-1600 CL8, and a good GPU (GTX-460, if not a Radeon HD 5870 or GTX-480). The motherboard, naturally, needs to be X58 and it would be beneficial if it had USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0 support. A Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R meets all the requirements (I'd think). As for storage, SSD's have a few big advantages over hard drives.

The first is latency--instead of an 8+ms latency on mechanical drives, SSD's often have <0.1ms latency. The second is bandwidth; a mechanical drive's read & write speeds are often much slower than a good SSD's speeds. Further, if you really want bandwidth, a RAID0 array will double+ the transfer speeds, often close to the chipset's limit. This comes at a price--a big price--a big price tag. The only SATA 6Gbps drives I know of are Crucial RealSSD C300's and are sold at a premium. If you're doing important work, I'd recommend one or two SSD's (one for OS & programs, the second for media) and leaving them out of RAID mode (since write-leveling--"TRIM"--is unavailable when using RAID mode). Also, a pair of 1TB or 2TB hard drives in RAID1 for backups. You can set Windows 7 to backup files ever _ weeks/days/hours/minutes.

So I'd recommend a pair of decent-sized SSD's (60GB minimum, preferring 120GB for the OS partition). Windows 7 x64 or Windows Server 08 R2 are a must.

As for power supplies, the Seasonic X-650 Gold is tough to beat and is currently available on discount with a Lian-Li PC-K58W chassis.

On a side-note, RAM usage will increase dramatically as you use Windows 7. It's not a memory leak or something--it's intentional. The prefetcher tries to load programs you're likely to use so that they're available quickly. My main, with 6GB RAM, uses about 2.5-3GB. Having 12GB RAM just means you can work with larger files faster. Combine new 64-bit support with GPU acceleration and new versions of Photoshop is many times faster than the predecessors.

I understand Bobsama, that is very kind.

May I please ask if such a set-up would force me to install what I consider bells and whistles such as a fan controller or other things like that? I mean no disrespect at all to those who enjoy controlling fans, checking the temperature in BIOS, having CPU-Z running and so on and so forth but my PC is my work and I don't want to wake up in the morning knowing that one of the many "complexities" inside needs maintenance and I can't start work immediately.

I'm the "switch on, windows started, work can start" type of guy so I'm not sure if there's a price to pay for what I am asking here. I work with tight deadlines where I can't even miss an hour, let alone a day because one of the many components is causing conflicts or things like that if you know what I mean.

Cheers.

can u wait till sandy bridge? :D

I guess so :)

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Originally Posted by thehawk

I guess so :)

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SB will have some serious video encoding power enhancement.. if u can wait till feb next yr, it'd be worth it :up:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thehawk

I understand Bobsama, that is very kind.

May I please ask if such a set-up would force me to install what I consider bells and whistles such as a fan controller or other things like that? I mean no disrespect at all to those who enjoy controlling fans, checking the temperature in BIOS, having CPU-Z running and so on and so forth but my PC is my work and I don't want to wake up in the morning knowing that one of the many "complexities" inside needs maintenance and I can't start work immediately.

I'm the "switch on, windows started, work can start" type of guy so I'm not sure if there's a price to pay for what I am asking here. I work with tight deadlines where I can't even miss an hour, let alone a day because one of the many components is causing conflicts or things like that if you know what I mean.

Cheers.

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I've never had an issue with fans dying randomly, and I don't run a fan controller (or fan monitor, either). Sometimes I pull up HWMonitor and take a quick look at CPU temperatures, but that too is a random occurrence.

Anyways, once you get it up and running, it's best to install your programs and then make a backup image, lest you run into difficulties. Running pairs of RAID1 arrays might be the solution you're looking for: WD Caviar Black 1TB drives have a fair bit of space on them and transfer rates, at worst, at 80MB/s to, at best, 110MB/s. Not quite as fast as a SSD, but cheaper and much happier in redundancy modes.

I just checked and it seems that Intel's storage drivers include TRIM support for RAID0 & RAID1 arrays, but not RAID5. Even so, if your life depends on this computer, there are two possibilities I can see.

#1: Nice dev machine and a backup machine, using NAS on a 1000mbit switch. Since the i7 machine won't run $3000 on its own, the extra money could be spent on a second machine. Then have Windows backup your data files every, for example, hour onto a NAS. This will protect you against the computer itself (any part of it--from fans to motherboards to graphics cards to RAM to storage drives, etc.) failing. Further, having 2 storage partitions (one on the main, one on the NAS) running RAID1 means that if the i7's motherboard or the NAS controller or the gigabit network switch checks out, you still have full access to your data as well as a potentially portable backup. Alternatively, instead of a second desktop, having a second laptop (again a Core i3, 4+GB RAM) means you have a portable machine again if disaster strikes.

The nice thing about that option is also that, if you're expecting very severe weather (tornado, hurricane, blizzard, flooding), you can easily shutdown and pickup the NAS, bringing that with you if you need to evacuate. The same thing goes with your laptop; a $600 Dell Vostro with a RAM upgrade should serve quite well in a pinch.

The solution's a bit more complicated than just one machine, but it's also more secure. The majority of your headache will be getting it all setup. Once you're past that step, I'd think you're golden. Sandy Bridge isn't all that far away, so just wait a bit until then to build the main machine at least. It's due for release in Q1 2011.

Wow mate, you read my mind there.

That is exactly what I am after - not necessarily the solution but yeah, I need a strong machine and a backup one just in case the main one dies for a reason or another. Right now I have a "normal" PC knowing that if something terrible happens I can go to my laptop and manage to work from that one.

I will wait a couple of months as a user up there suggested and start building up the hardware list :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by thehawk

Thanks mate.

What about OS, what's the best for the job?

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Depends on what you want.

I use MAC OS X for Photoshop and Lightroom, on work but at home, for personal use, i just use Windows.
Although i find OSX more stable and only-what-i-need but it won't run most of the program's I use at home.

I'm a windows developer and work from home.
I use 3 24" monitors for work, and have a project connected to it for watching movies for pleasure

I run an i7930 OC to 4.2Ghz, and 2 64gig SSD's in raid 0,
12 GB of ram, and so far I have never used it all except for 7zip, when i archive my work to my server (Done weekly)

If you need more harddrive space get a mechanical drive for extra data, or more SSD's if price isn't an option.

my 2¢

edit: I just bought a HD5770 with eyefinity 5, so i can use 5 displays if i want.
this isn't a gaming system.

For photoshop all you need is a decent clocked quad and SSD. SSD's makes all the difference, probably raid-0 100GB SF's?