My new i7 workstation

If you're just interested in what the configuration of my i7 workstation is, see below. Still reading? Now for some history and introduction.


Recently i've gotten sick of my old computer getting sick, so i gathered my options. I decided to get myself a new system, the old setup served well for over 5 years. That's a lot for any geek. I liked my system, it was good.

Now that i've ordered a new system - carefully picked each component by hand - i decided to share the configuration with anyone who cares. I normally wouldn't care at all what kind of system some other person has, that is until i would have to go shopping.

So this article is for those currently looking for a sexy workstation.

Recycling my old workstation
This setup (Intel Pentium 4 3.2Ghz, 4GB DDR2) would be ideal to join my fileserver (Intel Pentium 4 3.06Ghz, 1GB DDR2) in a yet to be created GlusterFS setup. Its videocard issues won't bother me there, and i have some spare 478 socket motherboards to boot. (pun intended) More on that subject in the following weeks.

The i7 workstation configuration
For those interested - i ordered all parts unassembled at Alternate. The following column lists order#, piece name, price, and months of guarantee.

Or in human readable format:

• Shuttle Barebone SX58H7
• Intel Core i7 920 @ 2.67Ghz
• Kingston SSDNow V Series 64GB
• 3x 2GB SDRAM DDR31333
• Asus EN9400GT 1GB 
• a Samsung DVD rewriter, a terrific Brother printer, and a powercable i ended up not needing.
  

I will motivate each part in a future post using references and experience, but for now its fair to say each has its perks - except for the videocard. I just got a cheap one that doesn't occupy two PCI-E slots which the shuttle case only has two of.

This system will be a fine home server when retires. Server perks:

• i7 has 8 cores (of which 4 actual cores and 4 virtual by means of hyperthreading)
  
• 6 SATA (of which 3 ESATA) devices in RAID,
• two Gigabit pots,
• 2 PCI-E x16 slots (to facilitate RAID controllers)
  
• easily allows for homemade air filtration (= tape + some hospital-ish paper cloth on inside of case), 
• effective cooling,
• tried and tested components.

But until then my workstation sits on my desk, so add:

• Small, portable, fast, quiet,
• and (very important to me) plenty of multimonitor possibilities.
  

If you are looking for a workstations with fitting demands, i suggest this configuration. You might want to add a big HDD for storage capacity.