BestConfigs - High-End Workstation

The cheapest one is also the one who knows what is a high-end "workstation". The other 2, pffff......

SSD's in a workstation? One of the major concerns with a workstation should be reliability. From everything ive read id be scared to put these into that environment. Though my vertex 2 has never given me any problems.

Why one drive for the OS and one drive for the apps? I can understand a scratch disk, but shouldnt your apps be on the boot disk? Edumacate a noob!

Mostly for JD's: Don't get the physical Scratch drive, though. Put the money into more memory and set up a RAM drive.

No nvidia tesla ?

Look at what the SSD's are being used for, Boot and high speed App. The valuable "Data" is being stored on spinning disks that are in a RAID5 configuration.

Also I think the 120GB "APP" disk is just a scratch area for work in progress. The Revodrive X2 would smoke that Agility 3, so I'm guessing she's designing in so that OS / Applications are stored on the RevoDrive but using the Agility 3 as a temp working area until the product is finished and copied to the RAID5 Array for storage.

The only hitch is that the target of the workstation wasn't mentioned. Kay's is obviously the superior design except that it can't do any CAD / CAM or design work. Possibly look into inserting a low to moderate end OpenGL card if that function is required.

Forgive me if I am wrong but arent a lot of workstations used in graphic design????

Does that not make Kay's blow a big one?

I vote for SADAMS04 build since it seems to be well rounded. JD's lost it when $999 was blown on the proc especially since its the outdated architecture (an no just because it has 2 more cores on it does not justify the price).

I understand what the SSD's are being used for, but if you are using this in an actual work environment, you cant have it go down for even part of a day or it will cost your business a lot of money. From what i read about these new ssds, specifically the ones using the the SandForce SF 2000 controllers, is that while they are incredibly fast, and i would definitely put one in a personal build, they just are refined enough to have all the problems worked out. Just take a read though of some of the reviews on newegg. It scared me out of doing it on a workstation i set up for a co-worker last week.

I wish i had more faith in SSD's because they are incredibly fast, but in my mind with a workstation, its all about finding the right combination of performance and reliability. And I'd rather not spend my workday re configuring an OS/CAD/Network Settings instead of making money.

If i am missing something please let me know.

This really should have more parameters. It should be "workstation number crunching" and "workstation graphic design".

Either way, the only "workstation" computer--Kay's wins.

This topic has been desticky in top of the forum by Jpishgar