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In Search of: The Ultimate Designer PC General 2A

Thursday, August 30, 2007 Posted 06:43 PM

There’s probably not a day gone by over the past eight years without someone asking us about the systems and/or software that we use here at the Studio… And strangely, there still seems to be a huge amount of shock from those fighting the ongoing “PC vs. Mac” war, when we inform them that 98% of our systems are PC Based. In fact, 2Advanced has only one Mac in the Studio which has been tucked away into a dark and desolate cubicle, only to get dusted off and used periodically for testing related purposes.

But admittedly, it hasn’t been a very easy road to find the ‘perfect’ PC systems that will feed our obsession for speed and performance. Over the years we have tried nearly every mainstream provider such as Dell, HP, Compaq, and Sony (just to name a few). We have even gone as far to try some of the specialty builders such as Alienware and VoodooPC (whom have now been swallowed up by the monsters at Dell and HP respectively). But, they all have fallen short by our standards, generally slightly behind the curve in terms of adopting the bleeding edge stuff that makes us all drool.

So with that, we came to the conclusion long ago to invest countless hours building and tricking out our own systems. In fact, some of the more anal-retentive of us at the Studio (i.e. Tony), have latched onto the whole computer modding and system overclocking scene in an effort to squeeze out that last drop of performance from our systems.

Today, we have just completed a long overdue total workstation system upgrade effort here at the Studio (which actually started six months ago). And though it was somewhat of a nightmare, we can confidently say that we have raised the bar in our quest for the “Ultimate Designer PC”:

	Eric Jordan’s Workstation	Brad Jackson’s Workstation
CPU:	Core2 Extreme 2.93GHz (Quad Core)	Core2 Extreme 2.93GHz (Dual Core)
Motherboard:	NVidia nForce 680i SLI 775 (EVGA)	NVidia nForce 680i SLI 775 (EVGA)
Memory:	8GB RAM	4GB RAM
SATA RAID:	(4) 750GB – RAID 5 (Data Drive) (2) 500GB – RAID 0 (OS Drive)	(3)750GB RAID 5 (OS & Data Drive)
CD-ROM:	Sony Bluray RW/DVD Drive	Pioneer CD RW/DVD Drive
Chassis:	Thermaltake Armor Series Tower	Thermaltake Armor Series Tower
Video Card:	NVidia Quadro FX5500 1GB	NVidia 8800GTX 768MB KO ACS3
Cooling:	Water Cooling Koolance System	Oversized Fans & Thermal Monitor
OS:	Windows Vista 64-Bit	Windows Vista 64-Bit
Floppy:	Floppy Drives Bite… But Yes	Floppy Drives Bite… But Yes
Power:	1200 Watt PSU	1000 Watt PSU
Card Reader:	Silverstone 17 in 1 (CF / SD Etc)	Silverstone 17 in 1 (CF / SD Etc)
Audio:	Onboard HD (MAudio Lags on Vista Drivers!)	Onboard HD (MAudio Lags on Vista Drivers!)
Key Apps:	Adobe CS3 Master Collection, Cinema 4D, Sony Soundforge 9, Particle Illusion 3, Maya	Adobe CS3 Master Collection, Sony Soundforge 9, SEPY AS Editor
Performance:	Vista Aero Rating Index of 5.9	Vista Aero Rating Index of 5.7
Appox. Cost:	$9,250+ (Hardware Only No Monitor)	$4,700+ (Hardware Only No Monitor)

So, if you can swallow the price tag (which we are still trying to do on my computer), it’s best to keep in mind that the increase in productivity very easily makes up for the overall expense.  Unfortunately, we have found that the best overall performance comes from the CPU (which the new 3.0GHz Quad Cores are coming in around $1,250) as well as the Graphics card (NVidia Quadro FX5500 is a ridiculously priced $2400 card).

But, the real trick to building your custom system involves a whole lot of hours testing, researching, and various troubleshooting failures.  In fact, as you play with the bleeding edge products, and particularly if you decide to do a little CPU and Memory overclocking, there will be several times that you will openly curse the computer gods and crappy driver programmers (who are basically all located in China and Taiwan just in case you want to hunt them down and make them pay) – You may even throw your hands up and regroup to purchase a nice Dell System.

However, if you are game for investing what is left of your valuable free time…  We’ve thrown together a few considerations that you may want to review before finalizing your component purchases:

• Windows Vista is quite new and still very quirky, but if you want more than 3GB of memory to be actually seen and usable by the computer you have to choose a 64-Bit Operating System.  So, it’s either XP 64-Bit or Vista 64-Bit.  (Sorry, but neither Vista 32-Bit or XP 32-Bit versions will address over 3GB of memory).
• SATA RAID is hands down a total nightmare.  Definitely arm yourself with fast SATA II Drives and appropriately rated SATA II cables in order to get full bandwidth throughput, but also keep in mind that many of the drivers out there have serious “blue screen of death” issues.  Our experience has been that the Intel SATA RAID chipset performs the most stable with Vista.  Data protection is paramount in our business, but don’t discount a designer’s need for performance.  A 3-Drive RAID 5 setup will outperform the typical 2-Drive Mirrored configuration (RAID 0) by a huge margin.  Just note, hard drives fail often, so make sure you give special attention to your drive configuration and have a replacement standing by.
• Memory Modules vary widely, so be careful to stay clear of “cheap memory”.  You really need to understand the basics on memory timing (i.e. CAS 5-5-5-12 Memory for example) and bus speeds, as this will have a very huge effect on the system’s performance.  Also if you go the Vista road, consider buying a fast and sizable USB Memory device because you can get a noticeable speed bump if you configure the thumb drive using the new “ReadyBoost” feature in Vista.  Our preference has been Corsair’s XMS2 Modules, and while they are a little pricy, the performance is well worth it.  Just make sure that you use “matched pairs”, and try to get memory that matches your CPU’s bus speed (which really isn’t easy as CPUs continue to edge ahead).
• Choosing a Video Card can be a little tricky, particularly if you get sucked into all the NVidia SLI or ATI Crossfire hype.  In short, the SLI and Crossfire stuff is great for gamers but doesn’t do much for a Designer.  In fact, neither of our Studio’s 3D Apps (Maya and Cinema 4D) will gain any benefit from SLI or Crossfire technology.  When you are considering 3D performance, or even performance for Adobe AfterEffects, the name of the game is still OpenGL 2.X.  With video cards, you should really focus your concern on the drivers to make sure you are always staying current and if you are going to eventually add a Bluray or HD DVD drive, your video card must be HDCP compliant.  We prefer the NVidia cards put out by EVGA (as opposed to MSI, Asus or XFX), and their support team are local and very helpful.
• When it comes to choosing a CD/DVD drive, we all have our preferences and the specs are pretty straightforward, but in terms of the emerging technologies the Studio is definitely going Bluray (BD) over HD DVD.  First of all, Bluray made it to the PC faster than HD DVD and as of today they can tout several vendors producing drives, the data recording densities are currently greater than that of HD DVD (Bluray can hold 50GB of data as opposed to 30GB on HD DVD), and finally the cool ‘blue’ cases that their movies come in are much more aesthetically pleasing than that awful puke brown color that HD DVD adopted.  Of course, it can be argued that movies such as The Matrix and Dune are only on HD DVD currently, but we are willing to hold out!
• Having finally cleared out the last of the massive 21” CRT monitors, everyone in the Studio is currently equipped with LCD monitors.  For most of the people here, who have long since given up on constantly correcting their gamma, the most important considerations have been screen real estate, actual DVI connections and having a fast (8ms or <) response speed.  Having searched high and wide, we found a company called Digital Tigers which has the ultimate in multi-panel displays and has basically chosen Samsung Panels for their offering.
• Last, but not least, you need to find the right Motherboard.  Basically, this is a monumental pain in the ass to do.  Anybody who has been at this stuff long enough knows just how difficult it can be, as companies like Asus, MSI, Gigabyte, Abit, etc. are all located in either China or Taiwan and they put out the worst documentation and barely functional drivers a great deal of the time (Not to mention they seem to discontinue a motherboard 3 hours after it is released, thereby killing the whole idea of ongoing support).  Again though, we have had amazing success with the recent EVGA Motherboards (and they are located nearby in Brea, CA, making RMAs a breeze).  However, the Intel brand motherboards have been a very close second.  In either case, you need to evaluate all the cool connectors and features of your motherboard, because as new standards are coming out every day (i.e. eSata Interfaces, Consumer Infrared support (CIR), HDMI Interfaces, etc.) it is very easy to get confused.

 

Of course, this is by no means an exhaustive list of considerations, and it probably became dated as quickly as it was written, but hopefully someone will find at least one somewhat useful observation to take away.  Also note, if you are considering overclocking, keep in mind that this is a very slippery slope that should be traversed with extreme caution (we have fried our fair share of components!).

So with that said, we have a bunch of photos that were taken this time around, for those who may be curious as to the level of detail we have invested here at the studio.  The pictures here probably don’t do our systems much justice compared to other extreme modded system, so if you want to get some serious inspiration going we highly recommend watching some of the ModNation segments over at Youtube, such as this one here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n79fsJ5sQ4

If after all of this, you agree that the Ultimate Designer PC is the way to go, we will simply end on the note that it can be fun and extremely rewarding.  Here’s a bunch of links for the various companies that we have used for parts, information and whatnot.

• Newegg.com - http://www.newegg.com/  - Excellent prices and comprehensive availability of parts and components.
• Directron.com – http://www.directron.com/  - Our fallback supplier that we use, particular when availability of the “in demand” items is low at Newegg.
• Performance PCs - http://www.performance-pcs.com/ - For modding and customization parts and tools.  Performance PCs may be a bit on the expensive side, but they have an excellent selection of stuff such as UV cables, custom connectors, and water cooling components.
• EVGA - http://www.evga.com/ - Our current preferred manufacturer for NVidia chipset based motherboards and video cards.
• Digital Tigers - http://www.digitaltigers.com/ - Our current preferred manufacturer for Multi-panel video displays.
• The Mod Nation - http://www.themodnation.com/  - Our source of inspiration and new ideas to keep trying when everything seems to be going to hell with our modding efforts.
• I Love Egg - http://www.iloveegg.com/eng_home/main.htm - A very freaky concept site that has absolutely nothing to do with this article and was placed here to be entirely random.

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