First server build, please advise

[aloser]

I've built a bunch of gaming and general purpose systems before, but this is the first time I'm doing a server-like build. This is for some friends of mine who are professional photographers, so everything should be tailored towards photoshop and video editing - which is my major issue personally; I have no idea what to be looking for in that regard.

Anyway... I put together a sample system (listed below) for them which they're satisfied with. My question then becomes if AT is satisfied or not - what should be added, removed or otherwise dealt with? Thanks! Current pricing is roughly $6500.

Parts list:

NZXT Whisper Case

INTEL BX80613I7980X Core i7 980X Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz Socket 1366 Desktop Processor

3 - WESTERN DIGITAL WD20EARS Caviar Green 2.0TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.0 64MB Buffer Hard Drive for a total capacity of 4 GB; planning on 2 GB of storage plus a RAID1 arrangement for backup purposes

ASUS P6T Intel X58 Core i7 Extreme/Core i7 Socket 1366 PC3-16000 (DDR3-2000) ATX Motherboard

SILVERSTONE ST85EF ELEMENT Series 850W SLI/CrossFire Active PFC 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply

EVGA 015-P3-1480-TR Geforce GTX 480 Fermi 1536MB GDDR5 PCI Express x16 (2.0v) Video Card

24GB PC3-8500 DDR3-1066MHz 240-Pin DIMM (6 - 4GB sticks)

Thanks again!

 

[mfenn]

I've built a bunch of gaming and general purpose systems before, but this is the first time I'm doing a server-like build. This is for some friends of mine who are professional photographers, so everything should be tailored towards photoshop and video editing - which is my major issue personally; I have no idea what to be looking for in that regard.

Anyway... I put together a sample system (listed below) for them which they're satisfied with. My question then becomes if AT is satisfied or not - what should be added, removed or otherwise dealt with? Thanks! Current pricing is roughly $6500.

Parts list:

NZXT Whisper Case

INTEL BX80613I7980X Core i7 980X Extreme Edition 3.33 GHz Socket 1366 Desktop Processor

WESTERN DIGITAL WD20EARS Caviar Green 2.0TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.0 64MB Buffer Hard Drive

ASUS P6T Intel X58 Core i7 Extreme/Core i7 Socket 1366 PC3-16000 (DDR3-2000) ATX Motherboard

SILVERSTONE ST85EF ELEMENT Series 850W SLI/CrossFire Active PFC 80 Plus Bronze Certified Power Supply

EVGA 015-P3-1480-TR Geforce GTX 480 Fermi 1536MB GDDR5 PCI Express x16 (2.0v) Video Card

24GB PC3-8500 DDR3-1066MHz 240-Pin DIMM (6 - 4GB sticks)

Thanks again!

You mean workstation?

Friends don't give friends "Green" or "Eco" drives as system drives. Overall, I would say that your drive subsystem needs some serious help. You want 3 spindles (that's server-speak for drives). 1 for system (maybe make this one an SSD), 1 for scratch (decent-sized WD Black or Samsung F3) and one for final output/storage (WD Green would be "fine" here).

Other thoughts, is your friend using a CUDA-enabled application? If not, the GTX 480 will go to waste. The 980X is really expensive, but if your friend's time is very valuable, then it is worth it.

Last but certainly not least, you mention that this is for a "professional photographer". What you have is not really a professional-class system, just a very high-end enthusiast one. Do you really want to be tech support? For the budget you're talking about, I think a Dell or HP workstation with a real service contract (next-business day) would serve them better.

 

[aloser]

I see I accidentally deleted the hard drive quantity; yes, we have 3 drives as was mentioned with a plan of one "master" drive and two for RAID. SSD brings up another point which you mentioned; would it be beneficial for this situation?

Their existing workstation is a Dell; they made it quite clear any subsequent system will NOT be.

CUDA? Not likely, unless/until Adobe or anything of the sort releases a CUDA-optimized variant of their applicable programs.

 

[mfenn]

I see I accidentally deleted the hard drive quantity; yes, we have 3 drives as was mentioned with a plan of one "master" drive and two for RAID. SSD brings up another point which you mentioned; would it be beneficial for this situation?

Their existing workstation is a Dell; they made it quite clear any subsequent system will NOT be.

CUDA? Not likely, unless/until Adobe or anything of the sort releases a CUDA-optimized variant of their applicable programs.

My first point still stands. Do not, under any circumstances, give them a WD Green as a system drive. It will drag the performance of the rest of the system down. Remember that Adobe makes heavy use of a scratch file on disk. You REALLY want to consider dedicating a fast drive to scratch. Take a look at Anand's SSD articles, but my opinion is that when time is money (i.e. a pro system) you can't afford not to have an SSD. The productivity increases when running heavy app suites (e.g. Adobe CS) are enormous.

Why (specifically) don't they want to go with a major vendor? Also, realize that you're now on the hook for support for the life of this machine. Remember that workstation and consumer systems are quite different in terms of quality and support.

If they aren't doing CUDA, why did you put a GTX 480 in there? The money would be much better spent on an SSD from a $/productivity point of view. You might want to check to see if they plan to upgrade to CS 5, as it does have some CUDA features.

 

[Insomniator]

I would not spend 6500 on a machine I had to support for a friend. I wouldn't even do that for myself.

Tell them to buy a Dell... i can't imagine why they wouldn't want too. A slightly worse system + 3 years support is better than the best possible for the money with no real support.

 

[Zap]

Wow, that's totally a gaming rig you spec'd.

Hardware-wise, ditch the GTX 480 because all it would do is to increase costs, noise and heat. In case anything uses CUDA, get a cheap GT 240. It isn't that great of a gaming card, but has a lot of cores for CUDA work. Try to find one that seems quiet, or (digging into your enthusiast background) toss an AC Accelero on there.

For the power supply, you'd only need around 400W or so of quality power, so aim a lot lower.

 

[alyarb]

yeah depends on how rich these guys are and how mission critical their stuff is. if they can afford data backups, get expensive drives and SSDs with long warranties and have no qualms about dropping $1500 on system parts while possessing the ability to replace $200 motherboards if the need arises without batting an eye then hey go for it. have a blast. it depends on where these guys fall on the prosumer-professional scale. if their stuff isn't super-critical you could probably sell them on a mild OC.

and no gaming cards.