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Workstations for gaming

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  • Aria told me he posted this. After I read it, I made 2 predictions. First, "Why do you need that much storage in your computer, you weird person". Second, "Get a NAS" without any actual suggestions on what kind of harddrives to buy for that NAS or how to easily find which ones to get.

    Seems I was accurate with prediction #2.
  • Aria told me he posted this. After I read it, I made 2 predictions. First, "Why do you need that much storage in your computer, you weird person". Second, "Get a NAS" without any actual suggestions on what kind of harddrives to buy for that NAS or how to easily find which ones to get.

    Seems I was accurate with prediction #2.
    If you get a NAS get an empty one and fill it with some $100 2TB drives like this one:

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148910
  • lol 2bay NAS is way more affordable.

    may be better off just buying 2 2bays =/
  • edited March 2013
    lol 2bay NAS is way more affordable.

    may be better off just buying 2 2bays =/
    Rym's 2-bay broke, or he is just dumb.

    If you really want to save money on a NAS, just buy a computer. Get any motherboard you can find that has 4 SATA ports. The rest of the specs don't matter much. It just needs a CPU, maybe a gig of ram, and a network card. No video card necessary. Then just put the drives in there and install FreeNAS. Done and done.

    http://www.freenas.org/
    Post edited by Apreche on
  • Rym's 2-bay broke, or he is just dumb.
    Oh, Scott...

    One of the drives went bad. It just so happens that that particular brand of NAS has an awesome problem where if a drive dies in a certain way, the NAS fucks itself and won't boot.

    I un-fucked it an RMA'd the drive.

  • I was considering using an old PC, but I'm also trying to save space and power.

    Is there a good reason why these 4bay NAS enclosures are so expensive?

    They're practically minicomputers that only does one thing. Which is crazy when you could spend the same amount of money on an actual PC that does many other things.
  • Here you go. As you said, an actual PC that does many things and is cheaper than a NAS. Run your Counter-Strike server on here along with your local DNS cache, and DHCP. If you want to use it as a router or firewall, add more network cards.

    I'm not sure if this computer will actually work with the power supply included with the case. I would definitely check on that before purchasing.

    http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=16842349

    There are a few reasons an actual NAS costs more. One, it has software that the NAS company wrote. It also usually uses some proprietary hardware RAID compared to the open source software RAID. Also, it has a proprietary case that takes up a lot less space and has hot swap brackets for the drives. It also has fancy stuff that detects when drives are bad, turns on a red light, automatically rebuilds, etc. Using an open source software RAID solution, that part is not nearly as easy.

  • I figured that much, but still seems crazy to me.

    I may resort to using my old pc parts, instead of burning a hole in my pocket on a 4-bay thinga-ma-wotsit. (may need a new PSU though).

    April is coming.... ( new PC =D)
  • I had a thought, could probably go in a separate thread though, that since with the next of consoles coming soon, Sony + Microsoft have been making all sorts of apps available to use on the console.

    The hardware specs aren't especially great in comparison to workstations, but in terms of power and what can be achieved, it's possible that if companies like Adobe and Autodesk had appropriate dev kits, they could essentially port their apps to the console.

    May not be great for full scale production apps, but at least amateur level apps.

    Adobe + Autodesk already have noob level apps for tablets and smartphones.

    Could consoles be the next thing?
  • I have a NAS. It's full, but I have 7 empty slots in my desktop I plan on filling first. Deciding on a new NAS isn't what I'm worried about, it's which HDD to put in it. But I see you actually linked one, so that's good. Though I did specifically mention I can't buy from Newegg. Just about any other website should be fine. Walmart I know doesn't ship here, but they probably don't stock hard drives anyway.
  • I have a NAS. It's full, but I have 7 empty slots in my desktop I plan on filling first. Deciding on a new NAS isn't what I'm worried about, it's which HDD to put in it. But I see you actually linked one, so that's good. Though I did specifically mention I can't buy from Newegg. Just about any other website should be fine. Walmart I know doesn't ship here, but they probably don't stock hard drives anyway.
    It really doesn't matter all that much which drive you buy. Just get some 2TB disks that cost about $100 US from a reputable brand. Even if you can't buy from Newegg, use their search to show all the disks with 4 or 5 golden eggs and try to buy that model from elsewhere.
  • Western Digital has been reliable for me
  • Western Digital has been reliable for me
    It's all the same these days really. I buy Seagate only because I've always bought Seagate.
  • 16GB or 32GB?

    Going for 32GB means having to upgrade to Win 7 Pro

    I have Win 7 Premium, which means my max is 16GB

    I would spend the extra bit of money for W7 Pro, if the difference is worth it. Otherwise I will just save and get 16GB instead.
  • Western Digital has been reliable for me
    The reason I stick with WD is that I've personally experienced that they're very good about their warranty.
  • edited April 2013
    16GB or 32GB?

    Going for 32GB means having to upgrade to Win 7 Pro

    I have Win 7 Premium, which means my max is 16GB

    I would spend the extra bit of money for W7 Pro, if the difference is worth it. Otherwise I will just save and get 16GB instead.
    RAM? Unless you can tell me why you need more than 8, get 8.

    (If it's easier or cheaper to get more, obviously do that instead).
    Post edited by Bronzdragon on
  • I need lots of RAM, because I work with big files, hence building a workstation.

    I want the highest specs for what my budget can afford, but that's still flexible at the moment.

    I just want to know what's most important to spend more/ less on.


    8GB ram is probably minimal

    64gb is excessive
  • Just saying "I work with big files" doesn't mean much. Any semi-intelligently written programme will not load the entire file into memory. The only place I can think of that more than 8 gigs would be a significant upgrade is video editing. 3D modelling, intense calculations, even image processing and animation don't benefit much from excessive RAM. Sure, it might help a bit in edge cases, but spending your money in storage will be a much larger time-saver.
  • I have a scratch disc for my programs, but I still need more RAM.

    Having more RAM means less time copying to/ from the scratch disc. No?
  • It depends on how the programs use the scratch disc and how you've configured them. Sony Vegas uses it for prerendering files for use with editing. Adobe Audition uses it as a recovery area for the files in use, but does everything else in RAM. Some programs don't even have a facility for scratch disks and operate only in RAM. It's not like the swap partition in Linux, Windows ReadyBoost, or even virtual memory.
  • I run 8GB of RAM and I've never tapped its full potential even running ARMAIII or any CAD programs. What I am noticing is that using an HDD sucks. So while I'm gonna keep one for archival purposes, I'm looking to buy a dedicated SSD for working directories as it seems to improve CAD by a few imperial fucktons.
  • Is a Trusted Platform Module worth getting?
  • Is a Trusted Platform Module worth getting?
    Depends on what you're doing. Are you handling highly sensative documents, for which dire consequences could follow should they be lost or shared, and are they highly sought after?

    If yes, then 'possibly'. If no then 'probably not'.
  • edited May 2013
    Current 'workstation' setup

    120GB Intel 520 Series, 2.5" SSD
    Intel Core i7 3820, S 2011, Sandy B
    Asus P9X79, Intel X79, S 2011, DDR3
    8GB (4x2GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance x2

    My old Asus Geforce GTX 460

    200TB of scratch space (old hdd)
    3 TB of storage (old hdds)

    Things yet to buy: new GPU - preferably nvidia geforce 780
    some IPS monitor which is at least 98% sRGB


    but so far O M G

    the prices of SSD need to come down. The performance is amazeboobs, forget all spinny disk drives (despite their high capacity)

    Haven't played any games yet, so i don't know what the performance is like, might still need a gpu upgrade for that reason.

    But everything else, Autodesk Inventor, Alias, Maya, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator etc. all run perfectly and I can know edit my raw compositions without running out of memory.


    I am so happy.
    Post edited by Dazzle369 on
  • You have a 200TB scratch drive? Is there a datacenter in your closet? WTF.
  • LOOL typo, *GB
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