Having finally gained the financial backing to build a moderately high-end design station, I am weighing a few factors I'd like to open up for discussion.
I am not working with any particular budget number on this one but I'd like to say this machine will be a 3-tier system whereas an SGI system would be a four. I make that analogy to drive home this point- cost is not of ultimate concern here but each component will have cost in mind.
- Most critically I am considering the advantages of dual processor architecture over single- A dual p3 (266mhz bus) OR a single p4 (400mhz bus).
- I'll be using the industry standards in all areas of design- 2d bitmap: photoshop; 2d vector: illustrator, corel draw; 3d : 3dSMax, Maya; And of course InterDev, MX, and Livemotion.
- I'll definately be going ultra 160- though I'm not sure about RAID at this point- I don't what the performance increases would be with this kind of application.
- Another important variable to take into account is the dual displays I'll be running, most likely trinitron 17" CRT's, though a couple 15" lcds' wouldn't be out of the question. I havent found a dual-headed video card I absolutely love at this point, so I'm considering a ti-2000 and a secondary PCI adapter, but once again I'm not sure about the performance differences.
- I'd like to overclock the bus if I go the p3 route, I'm looking at data on the tolerances of pc2100, pc3200, etc.
- I'm also looking at data on overclocking a ti-500 and saving some coin.
- I'm looking for comments, reccomendations, dreams, and general discussion of the building of a true design station with this thread.
Have at it! :)-