Developer + light photo editing

[kg2v]

OK, it's time for a new build machine

Budget? I'd LIKE to keep it under $2K
Monitors 2x 1920x1080 (already have)

It's basically a developer (Visual Studio 2005, 2008 and 2010 - yes, all 3) + my machine for doing my own personal photo editing with Lightroom 3.x

NO GAMING - I think Solitare is about as gaming as I get

QUIET is important - I LIKE Quiet
I would seriously PREFER a rackmount case, if there is such a thing as a quiet rackmount case (last I looked I saw one or two, but). I've got a LOT of electronics under the desk, and it's screaming for a rack (I'm a ham, so when I say a LOT of electronics, I'm not kidding)

Prefer Intel Based - think I want to go Sandybridge I7

Drives? (I'm assuming SSDs for system, spinning iron for storage - prefer to have raid on at least the iron)

I have NO idea what to use video card wise - obviously extreme speed is not needed

Thoughts?

OS will be Win7 Ultimate

 

[rvilkman]

Something like this would probably do:

CPU: i7 2600k $314.99
MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z68XP-UD3P $189.99
Memory: GSkill Sniper 2x4GB 1.5V CAS9 1600Mhz $67.99 x2 for 16GB of ram
GPU: Sapphire Radeon 6770 $117.99 ( before $20 MIR )
Case: iStarUSA D-406-B6SA-RED Red Steel 4U Rackmount Server Case $263.99
PSU: Seasonic X650 $139.99
DVD: Asus 24x DVD+/-RW $20.99
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $54.99 x4 for RAID5
SSD: Intel 510 120Gb $278.49 x2 for RAID 0

Total: 1960.86 ( before $20 rebate )

Theoretically the Raid5 and Raid0 should be able to run off of the chipset, but not sure how that would work in the end.
The Video card supports eyefinity so it should run our 2 displays just fine.

If you want to OC or if the fan on the CPU is making too much noise you can get an after market HSF but I didn't list that.

 

[kg2v]

Just realized I asked in the UK forum, but I guess that's OK, hardware is worldwide
Specs look about right, might move the optical up to something that can read bluray - why not

 

[rvilkman]

Yeah those are around 60-70 bucks so it still fits the 2k budget. And i didn't do any extensive research on the sound properties of that case, but that one can handle the HW.
But it will give you a starting point for your search.

 

[kg2v]

Any opinion on the Lian Li PC-C32B case? I don't really need the hotswap and the likem the rackmount is more to get things neat under the desk - 2 PCs, a 12v power supply, router, antenna controllers etc - not everything can go in the rack as I will need front panel access on some of it, but if I can get things in the rack, wiring trimmed in etc, it'd really hel, and help with the wife acceptance factor

 

[kg2v]

Oh - another case I'm thinking of - the Antec Take-3 + 650 - Case with 650 w PS is $300, BUT only has internal room for 3x3.5" drives (there is an external slot howver, so I could put #4 there). Could still do raid 5...

The budget is somewhat flexible, if a few hundred is gonna make a big difference...

 

[rvilkman]

The Lian-Li might actually work out for you fine. I don't think you will run into issues with the crossbar cos the video card I recommended is not that long. It seems to have good cooling and it looks great and shouldn't be overly noisy and it comes with the rackmount handles. You still get 4 internal 3.5" bays which should fit your HDD's and the bottom 5.25" can be converted to support two 2.5" SSD's. With something like this.

With that many HDD's buy a few extra Sata III cables, they are like 5 bucks a piece. The Mobo probably doesn't come with more than like 4 and you will need 7.

 

[kg2v]

Best answer selected by kg2v.