Workstation Final Check

[meiscory]

Hey everyone, this is what I have come up with for my workstation for CAD. Just wanted to post to see if anyone can foresee any problems before I go ahead and order. Thanks a lot for the help.


• Case: COOLER MASTER RC-690-KKN1-GP Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119137

• Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139006

• Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131365

• Processor: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

• RAM: (12gb) = 2x CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145232

• Hard Drive: 4x in RAID 10: Western Digital RE3 WD7502ABYS 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache]
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136316

• Graphics Card: PNY VCQFX3800-PCIE-PB Quadro FX3800 1GB 256-bit GDDR3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133271

• DVD/CD drive: SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner Black
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175

Total cost: $2498.90
Thanks again.

 

[kufan64]

This... would be a HELL of a workstation. When you say workstation, you mean a station someone sits down and works at right? Not a server?

It would be important to know exactly what you are going to be using it for before good recommendations could be made...

First and most importantly, that video card alone is worth more than any workstations in my office, so could you explain why you selected it?

If you're not going to need SLI or do some serious overclocking, drop the motherboard to a ASUS P6T SE. It'll save you roughly $50 for features you won't use.

You won't get the most out of that RAM unless you heavily overclock this setup. If you aren't going to overclock, drop the RAM to something with speeds of only 1066, or 1333. 12GB is overkill for absolutely anything you could possibly be doing especially at stock speeds and if this isn't a server; go with 6GB. You also shouldn't need Dominator RAM unless (again) you intend to seriously overclock.

Take a drive out of your RAID 10, drop it to a RAID 5, and dedicate the solitary card to only the operating system. I'd also get another HDD or an external and use it for a backup drive. RAID should never be depended on to prevent against data loss; it should only be your last line of defense.

Get back to me on what you think. More information from you would help to establish what is necessary, and what is basically a waste of money.

 

[meiscory]

This... would be a HELL of a workstation. When you say workstation, you mean a station someone sits down and works at right? Not a server?

It would be important to know exactly what you are going to be using it for before good recommendations could be made...

First and most importantly, that video card alone is worth more than any workstations in my office, so could you explain why you selected it?

If you're not going to need SLI or do some serious overclocking, drop the motherboard to a ASUS P6T SE. It'll save you roughly $50 for features you won't use.

You won't get the most out of that RAM unless you heavily overclock this setup. If you aren't going to overclock, drop the RAM to something with speeds of only 1066, or 1333. 12GB is overkill for absolutely anything you could possibly be doing especially at stock speeds and if this isn't a server; go with 6GB. You also shouldn't need Dominator RAM unless (again) you intend to seriously overclock.

Take a drive out of your RAID 10, drop it to a RAID 5, and dedicate the solitary card to only the operating system. I'd also get another HDD or an external and use it for a backup drive. RAID should never be depended on to prevent against data loss; it should only be your last line of defense.

Get back to me on what you think. More information from you would help to establish what is necessary, and what is basically a waste of money.

Thanks for the advice, but I'll try to justify my decisions (note I say try because im kind of new to the computer building world).

Workstation as in I will be sitting at it (I just said workstation so people knew is not going to be used for gaming). Well, I will be using this for CAD mostly. Catia and Solidworks. Lots of rendering and analysis. That is the reason for the video card that I do realize is very expensive. It just outperforms all of the others for CAD (that being the reason I chose it).

The reason for the p6t deluxe was so that I can change my ram settings to 1600 or 1866. I chose the higher ram speed and 12gb instead of 6gb because the computer already costs enough, whats an extra $250?

And I don't understand why I cannot depend on RAID 10 to prevent against data loss. That is the point of a RAID 1, and RAID 10 has that covered. I will have everything super important on an additional external anyways. In other words, I wanted the performance increase of a RAID 0, and wanted an easy fix if it fails (worth the extra two hard drives in my opinion).

 

[kufan64]

There are more efficient ways of data loss prevention. RAID 10 has redundancy for the loss of 2 drives, but you lose the performance/capacity of 2 drives for that redundancy. RAID 5 does the exact same, but only has redundancy for the loss of 1 drive. RAID 0 has no redundancy whatsoever. RAID 1 creates a copy or mirror image of a single drive on another drive so you have a full backup constantly.

The reason RAID shouldn't be trusted exclusively to backup important data is because all four drives will be identical, and will have been working under the same conditions and stress as eachother. If one fails due to "old age", the others will NOT be far behind it. There are even reports of additional drives failing before the lost data can be rebuilt into a hot spare.

Backup your important data to a standalone drive, and perhaps consider alternatives to HDD's if you have anything that CANNOT be lost forever.

I suggested a standalone drive for the OS for several reasons, I'd do a little Googling if you aren't sure why.

 

[shortstuff_mt]

You've got a very nice workstation build here! I've been considering a system very similar as a workstation for my brother in law. He's also looking for a system for mostly CAD work. I agree with the 12GB of RAM, but you could probably take it down a notch and get one of these kits instead:

OCZ Flex EX Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Triple Channel Kits Desktop Memory Model OCZ3FXE1600C7LV6GK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227408 $114.99 - $10 MIR

CORSAIR XMS3 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TR3X6G1600C7 G - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242 $149.99

G.SKILL Trident 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL6T-6GBTD - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231272 $169.99

mushkin 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model 998691 - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226050 $174.99

DDR3 1600 with CAS 6 or 7 timings will probably be faster than DDR3 1866 CAS 9 anyway.