Hi All
1st post. Sorry to make it mundane. I was referred here by an active user, who thought I'd get great advise here...
I am building/buying a Win 10 workstation for the following:
• Powerful but somewhat affordable
• Heavy Photoshop/lightroom use with very large active image catalog and large RAW and processed files.
• VM, etc “Lab”
• Possible hosting of a few live Win 10 VM desktops
• Backup “server", i.e will run BU engine for 5-10 PC’s including dedupe, etc in a VM instance of winsvr16
• Significant storage and hardware raid (2xSSD, 8x3.5", possible MVME .M2) [I have most drives already]
• 6+ PCIe for GPU etc
• Likely hardware RAID
• 32-64G RAM
• GPU to assist photoshop load and drive 4k monitor
• 10GbE or higher (on-board or PCIe)
• Quiet (quiet fans or basic water-cool)
• Not huge: Preferably rack mount (2 post rack) =/< 24" depth, 2-4U. Otherwise mid-tower on rack shelf.
• "Reasonably" energy efficient
• 24/7/365 (but a day of downtime wont kill us.)
With infinite options, I'm having difficulty getting a baseline and don't know enough to separate fact from marketing BS. If anyone would care to jump in to fill in some blanks, that would be a big help. If specific questions are preferred...
- CPU: i9 or i7? Assuming i7 which? Processor power vs energy use @ 24/7 balance
- MOBO / CASE combo?
- Noise/cooling recommended approach
- What is an "appropriate" GPU
- Single vs dual power? What capacity?
- Unlike a server, I assume ebay doesn't get me too far on modern wk station. Maybe I'm wrong?? Some components??
- RAID controller?
Thanks in advance!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!