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| Derick's Workstation |
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Page 7 of 8 Cooling/Power: Often overlooked by those not into hardware for its own sake, these areas play a critical role in system usability and stability. This is truer than ever in a design workstation spending the majority of its time at full CPU load with disks churning away and video boards pumping out complex OpenGL previews. Cooling: Internally, the case is cooled by a pair of 80mm Thermaltake SmartFan II's running at the lower end of their range (around 1200RPM). At full speed these move huge volumes of air (second only to the evil-sounding Vantec Tornado) but they move enough to keep the system cool even at low speeds. On the CPUS rest a pair of Supermicro OEM heatsinks and 60mm fans spinning at around 2000RPM. This is also very quiet and keeps the CPUS around 55C under prolonged load on the very hottest of days. With faster Xeons in there, these won't cut it without high speed fans making a ton of racket so they'll be upgraded accordingly if necessary. Coolermaster makes a large passive heatpipe-based Xeon sink that would be tall enough to get fully in front of the rear 80mm's that is supposedly rated for 3.6GHz+. This is high on my list, should I need an upgrade. The hard drives sit in a cage sourced from an extra Antec SLK 3700 Case. I'd like to swap the SCSI's for 80 pin variants and get a proper SCA/hot swap rig going for them, and put the P-ATA disks in carriers of some sort too but this would be purely for show and as such, I can't justify the expense now. In front of the drive cage sits an Enermax 120mm spinning at around 800 RPM. A Vantec Nexus handles the speed-control duties for fans lacking their own controls. Power: I run an Enermax 651P-VE Combo Power supply (combo meaning it contains adapters for AMD-GES & ATX 12V boards as well as the EPS 12V connection I use). It's rated at 550 Peak watts. This, or an Antec True550 watt PSU will do you proud for most any workstation setup these days. If you want the ultimate in PSU prowess, secure yourself a PC Power & Cooling TurboCool 510. While rated at a lesser 510W, it maintains this over far broader a range with peak numbers deep into the 600W range. It's the best PSU on the market...just make sure you need it before you shell out the better part of $300 for a fully optioned specimen. Aside from the PSU, one must take into account what's being fed to it. Here, I'm covered by a pair of 1000VA APC Smart UPSs. Together, these bear the electrical load of my workstation, monitors, and audio gear for nearly an hour (about 40 minutes with everything on and fully loaded). While not everyone needs this much runtime, I recommend a UPS of some sort as a necessary item, not a luxury accessory. Smaller units can be had for under $100 and can make the difference between a knowing smirk and a hair-ripping curse-fest during a brief brownout in the middle of a huge render. You will always be reaching for CTRL-S right as the power goes out...trust me. Just build one into your budget from the beginning. |
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