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kobeone
03-24-2009, 03:51 PM
Hello Everyone,

I am in the final process of configuring a new workstation for a friend of mine. Her primary use for the system will be high level Photoshop work but she is also starting to get into compositing. So this system will need to wear two hats. The system will also need to have a shelf life of at least 5 years with minors updates along the way. The specs should be self-explanatory but I want to touch on the hard drive setup. The VelociRaptor will be used for the OS & programs. The two RE3 500GB drives will be used in a raid0 for all the project work (Using the raid controller on the MB). The 1TB drive will be used for backups.

My main concern is the power supply? Is 1000W really needed? Can I use a 850W supply with the specs below?

Can someone please review the specs below and let know if this will work for heavy Photoshop work and a growing interest in composting. The total budget is 2000 US dollars. When you add all the stuff below along with a few minor things we will have about 180 US dollars remaining.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Pioneer DVD Burner
Antec Three Hundred Tower Case
Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA Drive
(2x) Western Digital RE3 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Drive
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB 10000 RPM SATA Drive
GIGABYTE GeForce 9800 GT 1GB GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Intel Core i7 920 Quad-Core Processor
Microsoft Windows XP Professional 64-bit
ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 ATX Intel Motherboard
CORSAIR DOMINATOR 6GB DDR3 1600 Triple Channel Kit Memory
CORSAIR 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC
olson
03-24-2009, 05:42 PM
Go with Vista Business instead of XP. Also 850W would be plenty, even 750W would be plenty for the power supply. Cheers!
MichaelR
03-25-2009, 09:43 PM
hey kobeone,

I just recently put together a Core I7 920 workstation, it is definetely worth the money.

With reference to your PSU, 550 Watts would be enough I guess, if you want to be on the safe side, I do have 650W Corsair PSU, which is plenty.

My specs:

Core I7 920 @4,0 GHz (Overclocking does the trick)
12gb OCZ RAM
GTX 260

Cinebench:


CINEBENCH R10
************************************************** **

Tester : Michael Reiter

Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
MHz : 4,02
Number of CPUs : 8
Operating System : WINDOWS 64 BIT 6.0.6001

Graphics Card : GeForce GTX 260/PCI/SSE2
Resolution : <1920*1200>
Color Depth : <32Bit>

************************************************** **

Rendering (Single CPU): 5554 CB-CPU
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 22539 CB-CPU

Multiprocessor Speedup: 4.06

Shading (OpenGL Standard) : 6735 CB-GFX


************************************************** **


I am more than satisfied with that rig,
and definetely pay the few extra bugs on a 200er Series of Nvidia, either 260 or even 285.

-Michael
kobeone
03-26-2009, 12:50 AM
Thanks for the posts! I have lowered the watts of the power supply to 850W just because there basically was no difference in price between 750W and 850W. I figured 1000W was overkill but when i looking around I noticed a number of tech sites configured their computers with 1000W supplies.

MichaelR, I was thinking of getting Nvidia's 200 series graphics card but for what my friend do she really didn't need it. The graphics card in her current computer is super old and it suites her fine. Thanks for suggestion. Something to think about when I configure mine ;-)
anevsky
03-26-2009, 01:45 PM
Michael R - could you elaborate a bit more on your system parts....
MichaelR
03-26-2009, 05:58 PM
-Core I7 920 @4,0GHz
-Noctua nh-u12p (Air cooling)
-Antec 300 case

-ASUS P6T
-2* 6GB OCZ Platinum 1600MHz 7-7-7-24
-MSI GTX 260 OC Edition
-2* 750GB F1 Samsung HDDs (Raid1)
-1* 500gb Samum
-Corsair 650W PSU

-24" Dell Screen
mattmos
03-26-2009, 08:01 PM
Very nice system! I've heard some pretty dodgy reviews of those samsung F1 drives, how are they holding up for you?
tutelary
03-26-2009, 08:19 PM
a 9800 gt is complete overkill for photoshop. a 9600 range card would be fine. whatever you get, make it passively cooled.
tfortier
03-27-2009, 12:11 PM
I have a 8600gt and do loads of photoshop, 3d and compositing. A 9600gt will be perfect.
MichaelR
03-27-2009, 03:53 PM
Very nice system! I've heard some pretty dodgy reviews of those samsung F1 drives, how are they holding up for you?

Well, at least here in Germany they are the cheapest ones and fast enough for my purposes (50-60MB/s) certainly not the fastest, but for that price I canīt complain
kobeone
03-27-2009, 07:04 PM
-Core I7 920 @4,0GHz
-Noctua nh-u12p (Air cooling)
-Antec 300 case
-ASUS P6T
That is a massive heatsink for such a small case. Do you have any problem getting the side cover closed? How do you have the heatsink positioned, vertically so air is pushed out the top 140mm fan or horizontally so air is pushed out the rear 120mm fan?

I would think about getting something like that for my own personal machine that i'm hoping to build soon but I'm concerned that the tall heatsinks on CORSAIR DOMINATOR memory will not fit when the fans are placed horizontally on the Asus P6T motherboard.


a 9800 gt is complete overkill for photoshop. a 9600 range card would be fine. whatever you get, make it passively cooled.
I agree but the price was so cheap I figured why not.
MichaelR
03-28-2009, 02:09 PM
no problems at all with the heatsink and I donīt thik the fan is above DIMMs, however Iīd prefer the OCZ anyways. (cheaper and better timings)

Regarding the airflow, I have both the 140mm and the rear 120mm fan sucking air out of the case and the front 120mm fans push inwards.
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