Pieces to be chosen…

So, after decided I badly needed a new computer – a workstation, perhaps? Or a not-yet-identified “thing” that lately I knew be an HEDT (High End DeskTop)? I had to decide what I actually needed!

Let’s start with the CPU: it must be powerful, big, fast, with a lot of cores and threads, and be power hungry! 🙂 But mostly, it should be FAST…

…and when I write FAST, I MEAN IT!

Sure, the 4th generation Haswell that I used for two years was quite good, but it was a “mere” 4 cores/8 threads, not even unlocked; so, the only choice could be a multicore CPU (with at least 8 cores/16 threads) unlocked, so I could eventually overclock it, to unleash all its potential!

Cooler: needed the best one, ready to afford to cool a lot of power, due to my intention to overclock “to death” my CPU (read: get some hundred GHz more, stable 24/7); I love the idea of let not any liquid inside an electronic “thing”, but sadly most of the air coolers are not reccomended for overclocked processors, and I was not keen to spend big bucks for a complete liquid cooling, so a “simple” all-in-one liquid cooler was the smartest choice. I hoped.

Motherboard: some think that you should not spend a lot for it, because CPU is the most important thing; yes, sure, it is, still not all motherboards are created equal, so I thought to not go with the cheapest, but instead to find out one that let me overclock the CPU without fear, and with a lot of technical features – possibly not one of those “eye candy” type that many gamers love!

Then, time to have a real kick-in-the-a$$ GPU – it was time, really… even if I must confess I NEVER used a computer to play games – apart Solitaire, but this does not count, does it? So, I did not need a discrete GPU before; but, times change, and now with some video editing software that use wisely the big computational power of graphic cards, I decided I needed one. Again, big, fast, with a lot of memory, and again, power hungry… if sexy, even better! 😀

Memory, memory… yep, 16GB was a good amount, after I lived with only 3GB since 2007 (it was a respectable figure at the time, though, and, besides, Windows XP could not “see” more than 3.5GB, so…) – yet, I wanted to be not forced to add some any soon, so 32GB was the minimum…

Hard disks: I had quite some, but was time to go with the new (old) wave, SSD – a magic word, almost! Well, forced to buy one in a rush, because a “kind guy” in a computer shop decided to connect the old PSU cable to the new one – obviously not compatible – and he then fried my precious VelociRaptor (no, not the Jurassic Park one!). It is a very silly SATA 120GB, and, despite being at least 3x faster (on paper), I did not feel it… yep, a little bit snappier, but not so much in comparison… I missed a bit the sound of 10K RPMs, but only a bit!

Optical: ten years with a BD-R (I was a pioneer, no pun intended), but used just occasionally… then, two years with a simple DVD-R let me think that it’s better to have something that you may not use (frequently), than need to use something that you do not have; so, time to be back to the roots with a new BD-R – this time able to read also triple and quadruple layers…

PSU: one of the most underrated piece, where the CPU is the brain of the computer, the PSU is certainly its heart, and, without a good one, even the best brain will not work well… so, no more “Who-Must-Not-Be-Named” brands, but a known one, beefy, because, you know, it had to feed power hungry components, after all!

Case: I opted to get rid of old CPU+MB+RAM, and retain my old case… why, if there are quite some cheap AND good cases around? Well, because I wanted a clean look, lot of space, 5.25″ external bays, more than two or three internal 3.25″ bays, E-ATX compatibility, a lot of fans… and, hey, I got it already, so why looking for something else, when you have the right one for your needs?

So, forgot anything? No? Sure? Well, let’s start with the usual homeworks, looking for info, opinions, benchmarks – oh no, again…

Nope, but “genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration”

I spent the last two months searching on the net, improving my knowledge, making my opinion, restricted the decisions to few models for each piece of hardware I need, and then… well, speaking with a good friend about my intention to buy a new computer, I found out that he wanted to upgrade his own workstation – for no apparent reason but getting the last models, even if completely unnecessary – and incidentally those gears were (more or less) the ones I wanted; sometimes I am lucky, too!

So, if you simply want to know what hardware is inside the “guts” of “The ResolveR”, just take a look at this page; if, at the contrary, you want to know why I decided those gears were the “right” ones, keep reading!

 

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