Doug Franklin wrote: > So, that's US$2,600, no hard drives. > You can drop down to the quad core CPU (save $300 on the CPU and > probably $100 more on the mobo), change the 256GB system drive for a > duplicate of the 60GB drive (save $150), go with an 850W power supply > (save $150) which is still more than this setup requires, look at a > mid-tower case (save $150), and stick with 32GB of RAM instead of 64GB > (save $340). Now you're around US$ 1,400 with very little loss of > capability or performance.
A bit unfair to say "no hard drives", I think, but I see your point. Reason I wanted to go with a larger PSU is that I plan to add a second graphics card (in addition to the RAID disks + an eSATA bay). Not because I want to do gaming, but because it simplifies the challenge of calibrating two computer screens. AFAIK, larger PSUs are slightly more resilient to power spikes in the grid too. The large case was chosen to leave room for watercooling and more disks if necessary. As to the RAM, I agree. That's the easiest part to upgrade later too. I guess 64 GB is an overcompensation for my current computer. It has 8 GB DDR2, and I regularly hit the roof when working with DNG files from the 645D. WRT to the 6 core CPU I guess I have to explain even if I said I wouldn't. :-) This system spec is something I arrived at after considering whether to build a dual Xeon workstation, or go for a i7 series single-CPU setup. So the budget I started out with was the equivalent of the cost for the prospected Xeon machine. That gave me a pretty comfortable headroom for picking components... But then again, I didn't have any _real_ plans of buying it. Just a mental excercise. So John S... Listen to Doug. He's the sensible one here... :-) Jostein -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
