SDD drive

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

U can pay me and I'll build n ship u proper rig ! =D

[muoto]

well, do you offer support next-day ?
i've had several crashes, had to replace motherboards, videocards, HD's etc etc. luckyli there is support.
I used to build my own workstations, but now i rather pay some more to be sure everything works and if there is a problem, there is a guy fixing it the next day...

And for the gtx680, i've read here and there that there are problems with max, can anyone confirm?

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Next day, nop not rly. My rigs run 4 years without dying, except for damn hdds if u get unlucky

In any case GTX 680 is a bad news, they are cut or got bad drivers for the moment, dont buy any graphic card if u can for the moment...

But if u mast waste 7k go with boxxx, they atleast OC to the curtain points they righs...

[muoto]

Not sure of Boxx's support in France...
and even when i config a workstation on their site, it costs quite more than on dell, but again, difficult to compare really...

[trick]

Just a few of my 2c:

SSD drives are the biggest improvements for general working speed in the last decade. It drastically sped up my workflow when loading files, photoshopping (especially when scrolling through the huge amounts of textures and clips), texturing, etc. I can test render my images with low settings on my slowest 8 year old workstation really fast, but hard drive speed is more of a bottle neck than graphics and CPU-speed when push comes to shove. Be sure that you always have the latest drivers and firmware: there have been issues with the energy saving features, especially in cases when the disk is woken up (or even addressed while AWAKE!!!) over a network after which it could hang your whole system...and this has been with 1st and 2nd generation SSD's.

Regarding DELL: the ONLY REAL reason to go with them - if you are a BUSINESS!! and can have premium support - is the 4hr response time. That alone is worth more than the price of the workstation, because it makes me really LOVE creating beautiful images/movies and not worry about the SH*T that sometimes happens - but then again I HATE fiddling around with machines

[muoto]

About support, that's why i have 2 dell T-5500 and had 2 HP's workstations. I cannot afford to be down, even for more than 1 day. That's why i also have more than one workstation to be sure to have a backup workstation. And really, i rather pay 20% more not to worry and be sure that when i call support, they come over and fix the problem

About SSD, i will for sure go for it. Do they come also in raid ? (is there any advantage except mirroring?) edit: propably speed...

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Raid 0 = 2x more speed and so on...

[MoonDoggie]

Yes, you can raid SSD hds (your system sees them the exact same as normal hds), there's no surprises with them that I've encountered. Just make sure you update drivers once you're up and running.

[trick]

...I cannot afford to be down, even for more than 1 day...

I guess you mean "for LESS than 1 day"

[Dariusz Makowski (Dadal)]

Also with SSD u need to be sure to disable disc defragmentations...

[Franx]

About support, that's why i have 2 dell T-5500 and had 2 HP's workstations. I cannot afford to be down, even for more than 1 day. That's why i also have more than one workstation to be sure to have a backup workstation. And really, i rather pay 20% more not to worry and be sure that when i call support, they come over and fix the problem

About SSD, i will for sure go for it. Do they come also in raid ? (is there any advantage except mirroring?) edit: propably speed...

Just curious here, but what does a support guy do that you couldnt do yourself? And without having to wait for him too? I'd be very surprised if support guy would get to your place with his soldering kit and started repairing faulty parts. He's just gonna open your box, remove the culprit and put a new component (or most probably refurbished) in there and that's about it. And you're paying more like 40-50% more.

[lukx]

I was also checking SSD drives recently and so far people say that if you want reliability get INTEL SSD/320

[muoto]

Indeed, he just comes over to your place, open the box, replaces the broken parts, and leaves. I don't have to start running around shops to get the right components, try to see if it they have have warranty or not...(usually 1 year no?)

I will check what kind of SSD Dell offers, and i am not even sure if they can do raid ssd (at least it's not an option on they configurator...) waiting after easter to get in touch with a resseler.