Help review my PC workstation build list, please and thanks.

[Hammerskjold]

My own case is huge too. The next case I'm getting is a mid tower. The nanoxia deep silence 2. Should be interesting as a comparison.

My first very own workstation I got was a full tower. My second is a mid-tall mini. This current one is a full tower (and then some, it can be mistaken for a small wine fridge ) My next one will most likely be a mid-mini type.

That nanoxia case looks classy.

In your stress testing, did you saturate your ram? I'd be very interested to know how much ram you're using.

Sorry I might have misspoke here. The store did the burn in\stress test, and put the screenshot\camera snapshot proof. IIRC they did Furmark for the GPU, Memtest and Prime95 for RAM and CPU.

When I say informal stress test on my part, I should've been more clear that it was more like simulated tasks \ my worst case scenario workflow with photoshop and other things. Creating high res files, opening multiple PSD files, adding layers, using large sized brushes, opening multiple programs while PS is running etc.

Informal result from my informal test, I don't regret going with 64 gig. Having said that, 32 gig would be ok for -most- uses as well. Not going to say all, because there is no way I will say 'this will work for everyone because it worked for me'.

Going 64 gig however gives me a very nice breathing room, and decreases the chances of Photoshop needing to go to the scratch disk. Which is what usually kills PS speed.

Even 64 gig is not unlimited, in my simulated worst case scenario PS workload the need to do a purge is reduced severely, but I'm not going to say eliminated. I still have to get rid of layers that I no longer need. Aside from keeping it organized, CS6 can still be a hog in many respect.

CPU wise, the overall direction is toward being feature rich and better efficiency, not absolute performance. Your CPU will be as good as it gets for a long time coming.

It may be fleeting, but it'll be high end for long enough that the cost of replacement / upgrade will be signifigantly reduced. If an upgrade is needed at all, that is.

I hope so, at least that's my wallet speaking. Having said that. If I were to upgrade\add it would be another SSD to use as scratch disk\ temporary non critical storage. RAM is cheap right now, but SSD gives such a demonstrable, dramatic boost. Showing off to friends how a large amount of RAM is great in photoshop is kinda hard, since it's about as exciting as watching paint dry. In the sense that you don't really see anything dramatic, you just see someone continuously working without cursing 'wtf, out of memory error?!'.

But fast booting\loading on a SSD is easier for folks to see.

No real regrets. I'll have two desktops available for high end gaming when company is over. There are advantages to that too.

Did someone say...LAN party?! Though I'd probably insist on guest bringing their own keyboard\mouse. I can't believe I used to go some Net cafes for some 6 hours, late night Counterstrike matches and still lived to tell about it. In that I sometimes forgot to wash my hands before eating some Doritos during break, after touching and using the store's keyboard and mouse.

Oh, do you use a mousepad? I am really enjoying my steelseries mousepad. It is very smooth and reduces movement strain for me. I've also heard good things about trackballs and trackball mice hybrids. I tried out a mouse with a little trackball at the thumb few a few minutes, and I'd have to get used to it, but it intrigues me.

I don't use a mousepad at the moment since I use a Wacom tablet. I use the medium sized version of this one.


Though I do use the mouse occasionally. While I certainly appreciate a nice keyboard\mouse, it's overkill for my use. I love mechanical keyboards, but I'd never buy it for this rig. For a personal gaming rig, that might be a different story. Those steel series looks very elegant and tasteful.

If I were to use a mousepad, it'd probably be glass table top with something opaque underneath. I heard laser mouse does better with glassy surface, but honestly it's more about ease of cleaning for me. And glass with graphics underneath looks classy to me. Maybe a picture of a space unicorn with laser canons or something.


kandrathe wrote:

You'll most likely be happier with more space. I have a friend who builds PC's also, and he built a microATX cube. It was hard to maintain being so cramped, he basically needed to disassemble it to change anything. Other than being somewhat portable... there are few advantages over an ATX design. If I lived in a loft, and space were a premium, then my PC would be tiny and double as my space heater.

I want to be clear here, I got no regrets going with the full tower on this current rig. It's got great airflow, great airflow = cooler temp = longer lifespan of parts = my wallet is happy.

All that being said. Small Form Factor PC, is t3h sexy to me. I call my current work rig the USS 'Nigella Lawson'. She's tall and big, cool and classy, bold and beautiful.

But if I were to get something for work and play however, I am definitely attracted to the mATX format aka the speed boat 'Pia Zadora' build. Small, potentially loud and hot, and charming out the wazoo. It'd be the computing equivalent of this lil beaut.



Edited for pic size substitution.