Once a month, I get together with friends for sushi. We call it ‘Sushi-Con’ and we descend on Sun-Sushi, on Reseda Blvd. in Northridge. (It’s an open invitation, check my Facebook wall for the next one. Or follow DavidGerrold on Twitter.) The conversation is generally free-spirited and meanders through such territory as favorite movies, science fiction books, ebooks, rock music, classical music, anecdotes about people not present, interesting scientific advances, current and future technologies, and whether or not the perfect cucumber roll includes oshinko.
A few weeks ago, one of the folks asked for advice on a new computer. Several folks made immediate recommendations, based on previous experiences both good and bad, but I, playing the part of wise-old-pundit, simply looked across the table and asked, “What do you intend to use it for?”
“You know. The usual stuff.”
“Ah. The usual stuff. Okay, what’s usual stuff?”
That’s when the fun began. Everybody at the table had a different definition of ‘usual stuff.’
At the table, we had a dozen people. Most use Windows, but two use Linux. Three were Mac users. One had an iPad.
Most used Word for writing, but several also used Final Draft. Three needed processing power for editing videos and artwork, they use Flash, Avid, Photoshop, and Illustrator. Several people at the table were avid gamers and needed high-end video cards and powerful processors. One or two needed large amounts of storage space for large media collections. The professional programmer wanted compile speed and multi-tasking. The two people who hosted websites were concerned about broadband speed. Someone else who kept in touch with her grandchildren via Skype wanted clear pictures going both ways, so she talked about camera quality and internet connections. The composer wanted a high-end sound card with MIDI plug-ins. And that was just the beginning. Everybody uses their computer differently, everybody self-mods, and everybody has a different set of ‘usual stuff.’
The conversation then wandered into, “Well, what’s your ‘usual stuff,’ David?’ and ‘What would you build for yourself?’” Good question. Always a head-scratcher. While my current machine is pretty much keeping up with my needs, I’ve noticed that I’m already designing my next one in my head.
First, the case. I want a tower case with lots of room inside and two hot-swappable drive bays in front. One of the bays will be for my music collection. When the 2tb drive is no longer sufficient to hold my music collection (and I am rapidly approaching that point), I want to be able to clone it onto a 3tb drive and keep going. (By the time the 3tb fills up, there should be 4tb drives available.) Just as important, I want to be able to pop an extra hard drive into one of those hot-swappable bays so I can clone my data drives and store backups safely offsite.
Still on the case, I want it big enough for a heavy duty video card, and roomy enough that ventilation will not be a problem. I want all the components to be as quiet as possible and wherever possible, soundproofed, because I don’t like an audible background hum, unless it’s me humming along like Glenn Gould playing the Goldberg Variations. I recognize that adequate ventilation and silence are mutually exclusive conditions. Nevertheless, I shall dream.
Motherboard and chip? Sandy Bridge motherboard with USB 3.0. Something that will stay in the zone for a while, even as the zone moves forward. Intel hasn’t announced a 6-core CPU for Sandy Bridge yet, so I’ll settle for a 4-core CPU and keep my fingers crossed. Sandy Bridge promises a faster system architecture, so that has to be the deciding factor.
Water-cooling and over-clocking? Well, sure, okay, that would be nice, but not essential. I know my own habits—it’s more important to me that my machine be as silent as possible. I have to ask myself, am I shooting for raw speed and power because high numbers give me geek-cred—or am I shooting for overall usefulness? Obviously, usefulness. Your mileage may vary. As effective as the Bose noise-reduction headphones are, I want to wear them on the airplane, not in front of the computer.
RAM? In my current machine, an i7-920, I’ve discovered that 9gb of RAM is insufficient. 90% of what I do in life is research and it’s not unusual for me to have over a hundred tabs open in Chrome, at the same time puttering around in Photoshop with 6 or 8 large multi-layered files, and three humongus Excel spreadsheets, and 3 or 5 large files that I’m editing open in Word, and an assortment of additional utilities as well. To say that uses up a lot of memory is an understatement. 12gb would be my absolute bottom end for RAM, but ideally I’d shoot for at least 16gb of the fastest RAM I could find, I’d max out the motherboard.
Hard drives? Obviously, I want the operating system (Win7) to run on a solid-state drive, at least 160gb, but 250gb looks like the sweet spot to me, and then two inboard 3tb drives for data. I have more than 2tb of music in my collection and another 1tb of video files I’m editing. I’m tired of having them scattered across four or five smaller drives.
Video Card? I play Starcraft II. My old GTX-260 can run a 30-inch monitor with all the effects turned up to eleven at 105fps. So almost any of the current crop of video cards will likely suit my gaming needs. But more important, I also do a lot of video editing and photo-processing so video power is a consideration. I have a 30-inch screen. The HP ZR30W is a great display, especially where color accuracy is critical, such as in photo-editing or video-processing. But I want to run a second monitor next to it, another 30-incher? Or maybe a triptych of big screens, so the video capability has to be there for that eventuality. I want some serious RAM on that video card (or cards).
Sound Card? Most motherboards include pretty good sound capability these days, but I’ve always gone for the top-end Sound Blaster in the past and w ould want to do that here. I teach writing workshops and occasionally some organization or other asks me to give a speech. I record those courses and speeches and occasionally edit them for distribution. A couple times, I’ve recorded musical presentations as well, so I want a professional-level ability to record and edit and reproduce sound accurately. When I listen to music, I like multi-channel surround, so I want a sound board that will let me run 5.1 channels—and a speaker system good enough to do it justice.
Keyboard? I use an ergonomic board. I’m currently using a Northgate Evolution. It’s out of production, but it’s a great keyboard with old-fashioned clicky-style keys. The Avant Stellar also has the same clicky-feel, but it’s not an ergonomic design. I’ll stick with my current board for now, despite some of its quirks.
Mouse? I don’t need a gaming mouse that looks like the Batmobile. I do need one with good sensitivity, but almost any of the high-end Logitech or Microsoft mice will do.
Webcam? I don’t Skype very often, but when I do I want a good video signal going out. I do like the Logitech webcams that have HDTV capability.
And finally…the big question. Do I want a special case-mod?
Oh, absolutely.
I’ve always admired the graphic design that Mike Okuda did for Star Trek. (Remember the DS9 tribble episode where they recreated the look and feel of the original Enterprise? Thank Mike Okuda for taking the point on that.) So as long as I’m dreaming, let me dream of a case mod that looks like it belongs on the Enterprise, something that feels like the classic tricorder. For me, classic Star Trek is the real Star Trek. That’s the starship I grew up on.
This is my own particular dream machine—not necessarily yours. In my thinking, not every component needs to be a bleeding edge, screaming-fast, state of the art, next generation, wet-your-shorts, bust-your-wallet technology. I want a machine that is powerful enough and versatile enough to keep up with the demands of the next few years of software. For the kind of investment this machine would represent, it should have a projected lifespan of at least five years of usefulness. More if I’ve dreamed well.
This is the real point of the ‘David Gerrold Dream machine.’ It’s cost-effective to build for longevity. The usefulness of a computer should not be measured in months. And when a machine finally does get replaced, it should still enough life left in it that it can be used as a backup machine or a server. The machines we build today deserve to be more than boat-anchors tomorrow. That’s what I believe.
Okay, now I throw it open to you, the readers. What have I missed? What would you recommend?
—————
David Gerrold is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author. He has written more than 50 books, including "The Man Who Folded Himself" and "When HARLIE Was One," as well as hundreds of short stories and articles. His autobiographical story "The Martian Child" was the basis of the 2007 movie starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet. He has also written for television, including episodes of Star Trek, Babylon 5, Twilight Zone, and Land Of The Lost. He is best known for creating tribbles, sleestaks, and Chtorrans. In his spare time, he redesigns his website, www.gerrold.com
Comments are closed on this article
RaptorJohnson
November 14, 2011 at 6:59am
There is more then 1 Terabyte of recorded music? Why would anyone want more then that? That is (about) 1,000,000 minutes of music (just under two years).
bah
tdhayes1
July 07, 2011 at 4:09pm
I won a lottery scratcher in Jan this year and decided to spend some of it on my first build. I had to wait 2 months for the mobo due to the recall. But, it was worth it.
Here's what I built (below). It posted on my first attempt-JOY! Any comments on the configuration are appreciated. I'm still learning.
New Rig
CPUIntel Core i7-2600K 3.4Ghz Sandy BridgeMoboAsus P9p67 DeluxeCaseCooler Master HAF 932 Black EditionPSU Cooler Master 1000W Silent Pro GoldGPUAsus ENGTX 570 Direct CU IICPU CoolerCooler Master Hyper 212 PlusRAMCorsair Dominator GT 8GB PC15000Optical DrivePlextor Black Blu-Ray px-b940sa OS Drives2- Corsair F60 SSDs in RAID 0Data Drives2- Western Digital Caviar Black 1Tb HDDs in RAID 0Back-Up DriveWestern Digital My Book 2 Tb Speakers Corsair 2.1 w/ SubMonitorAsus VE276Q 27" HD LCDUPSAPC Black UPS-ES 750OSMicrosoft Windows 7 Professional 64 bit OEM
Cooketh
July 07, 2011 at 3:09am
You say you don't want a bleeding edge machine, but that's exactly what you describe building.
Let me sum up what you said you need.
AT LEAST 12 GB of RAM, but you want 16GB or more. ( Bleeding Edge)
The ability to do moderate gaming, photoshop, and video editing on atleast 1 30 inch monitor but likely 2, even 3. Resolution unknown. ( Enthusiast)
Motherboard supporting Core i Generation 2 platform with USB 3.0 Capability (Enthusiast)
Obviously a Corei Gen 2 CPU (Enthusiast - Bleeding Edge, depending)
250 GB SSD, along with multiple 2-3 TB HDs. (Bleeding Edge)
WATER COOLING, you've got to be kidding me (Bleeding Edge)
A sound system, from what you're implying especially considering your headphones, that will be miles away from what even the most bleeding edge hardcore PC users have (Super Bleeding Edge)
The only thing you don't want that's bleeding edge is your mouse and keyboard...
You couldn't build a PC right now, to those specifications, with dropping serious money and not be called bleeding edge.
You, sir, want a bleeding edge machine. You very well know that what you do isn't "the usual" (100+ tabs in chrome? Yeah, ok very usual for the rest of us).
He asked a simple question and the answer to his question is also simple. The usual stuff is Word Processing, HD video playback, effective web browsing that implies capable GPUs for GPU enabled browsers, hard drive (not SSD) of atleast 1TB, USB 2.0 support (maybe 3.0).
That is "the usual" and that can be trimmed down or scaled up if the person describes what their usual is (wether is being gaming, or video editing, or sound editing, you can reccomend ATIxxx, Nvidiaxxx, X-fixxx, etc) What you're talking about is the most bleeding edge PC that his community won't be seeing until the dream machine rolls out this year. Pop out of your world.
DDRDiesel
April 15, 2011 at 8:27am
-Core i5-655K OC'ed to 4.34 GHz
-8GB of Kingston HyperX DDR3-1600
-1TB of storage (250GB main drive, 250GB video drive, 500GB backup/priority drive)
-nVidia GTS 450 (ASUS TOP version, factory OC'ed to 925MHz)
-Samsung 22x DVD burner (SATA)
-EVGA P55 SLI motherboard
-Corsair H60 with additional 120mm fan for push/pull configuration
-Antec 900 (modded for cable routing)
-Rosewill 700W Green Series PSU
Those are just the main components. I know it's a bit overkill, but this thing runs F@H (CPU and CPU clients), encodes video, and runs other programs at the same time with incredible ease. I also have:
-Linksys WMP54GS PCI wireless adapter (The router is downstairs, I'm not running any cable)
-AVerMedia AVerTV HD DVR (PCI-e x1)
-Acer 17" LCD monitor
win7fanboi
April 15, 2011 at 8:54am
17" LCD monitor ?? Sounds like you have a pretty decent gaming card and a TV tuner. I wouldn't use anything less than a 22", preferably dual monitors.
DDRDiesel
April 15, 2011 at 12:21pm
Trust me, I would LOVE to. But I don't have the room for anything bigger than the 17". Where it is, there is a lip on the entertainment center's shelf edge that goes down about two inches, blocking a bit of the top of the screen anyway. Makes me a sad (albeit back-pain-suffering) Panda.
win7fanboi
April 15, 2011 at 6:09am
After years of reading MPC I pulled the trigger on building my first computer couple of weeks back. The process was thrilling/nerve wreaking. Especially when I didn't find the backplate for Hyper 212+ right away. I am telling you... sweating bullets. This is what I picked :
- Corsiar 600T (it was between this and NZXT H2. The H2 would have problem fitting a long video card.)
- i7-2600K
- MSI P67A-GD65
- Cooler Master Hyper 212+ cooler
- XFX HD 6850
- OCZ Vertex 2 SSD & 1T Samsung & 1T Segate drives
- 4gb RAM (planning to upgrade to 8gb)
Thats it.. spent less than 900$ for it since I had got SSD for a laptop. No next gen parts but decent enough for light gaming, video editing and programming.
Spoondle
April 14, 2011 at 7:55pm
What would I reccomend? An assistant.
From what I read, you either need to switch the brand of coffee you're drinking or invenst in a clone. :D
OMG... no wonder you want all that.
Other than that, all I can think you would need is a decent office chair.
Sediket
April 14, 2011 at 7:21pm
I just find it interesting that you posted your whole conversation you had with your friends about your likes and dislikes of building a computer while eating sushi when I was under the impression that MaximumPC actually posted interesting articles and news.
Nyarlathotep
April 18, 2011 at 3:22pm
I find this article relevant. My friends, family, and co-workers come to me for computer advice all the time. When someone asks me what computer they should buy my first question is always "What do you want to use it for?". I hear others give advice without asking this and they usually end up suggesting the person spend more than the really need to.
I'm not saying your opinion is invalid just that I disagree.
aarcane
April 14, 2011 at 5:10pm
the one thing that, while you didn't miss it, is sorely lacking from your build is ZFS. Of course ZFS is only widely available as a network filesystem in the windows world right now, which is sad, but it provides data reliability and scalability that I've yet to see provided by any other NAS solution or in any windows machine. it's kinda depressing to think about all the silent corruption that could be occuring at any point on any of your single drives.
someuid
April 14, 2011 at 4:21pm
I find most discussions on what someone should get usually dissolve into "I want it all and here are my justifications - back me up and tell me I'm right."
I would frame the questions this way:
1. Do you need it portable? If yes, laptop, if no, desktop.
2. How much do you have to spend? Get the most powerful machine you can find for that amount.
David, as for your list, I see you've managed to dream up the best in just about everything except the keyboad, the mouse and the graphics card.
What are you missing? You need to take the RAM to 24GB, get RAM drive software, and put the Windows swap file on the RAM drive. See this for an explanation of why:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ram-memory-upgrade,2778.html
Next, it is time for RAID for speed. Stripe that 2TB, 3TB, 4TB. Hard drives are probably one of the cheapest components in our computers these days.
You also need to get on the 3 screen bandwagon. If you're doing all that you claim to be doing on a single screen, you are no longer deserving of sushi!
aarcane
April 14, 2011 at 5:14pm
according to your own article, disabling swap is ideal, and should be done with 12GB or more. additionally, placing swap in RAM is absolutely stupid. you'd have to be a real rocket surgeon to think that was a good idea.
Slurpy
April 14, 2011 at 4:13pm
David, what part of your build isn't bleeding-edge? The lack of water cooling?
meangenedrlove
April 14, 2011 at 4:09pm
When people ask me what I recommend for building their computer, the first two questions I ask are: 1. What are you going to use it for? and 2. What is your budget? Once they can tell me that stuff I go to Newegg and put together a wish list for them so they can see what their options are, and so they can get spousal support/permission (if needed) to proceed with the build. The budget (and spousal support) are ALWAYS the big limiting factors, so often times I take a look at what they currently have to see if anything can be re-used...the case is almost always re-usable (and is usually the ONLY thing that can be recycled without crippling a machine made with newer components), ugly as it may be, it's an easy way to trim from the budget.
As for my personal machines, I am always thinking of what to put into the next build as soon as I have completed one. I keep an up-to-date wish list of the components I'd use if I were to build today and I swap out components on the wish list as new items come out or prices/availability change.
I currently have a HTPC and a Home Server that I have built and I am working on a small-form factor near-silent PC for controlling my guitar effects board and for portability.
I put together the HTPC in July of 2009 with a Phenom II quad-core, 8 GB of RAM, a mid-range ATI video Card, the Soundblaster X-FI Pro and a 320 GB hard drive. Since I am a less than casual gamer I didn't need a high end video card. This machine has served extrememly well and I only recently upgraded the processor to a Phenom II Hexa-core which drove my video encoding times down 50-75%. All new parts for this machine ran about $1,800.00.
I also put my Home Server together in July of 2009 with parts from my old desktop--an Athlon 64 X2 and 4 GB of RAM, I bought a micro-ATX board with onboard video since my old ATX board required the use of a video card. I've got 7.5 TB worth of storage. Since I recycled so many older parts for this machine I ended up spending about $250.00 on new parts/software for this one.
For my current project I am going with a Lian Li PC-Q07 case, a mini-ITX board, a Phenom II hexa-core, 8 GB of RAM, a 64 GB SSD for Windows, and a 2TB drive for storage (if it wasn't going to be portable I'd just rely on the MHS for all storage needs). I am going with a SeaSonic fanless PSU and the Scythe Shuriken CPU fan/cooler (using that same cooler on my HTPC which went a long way to dramatically quieting that machine). I should be ordering the final components in the next week, so I'm really looking forward to getting this machine up and running to see what it can do. When is all said and done, this machine will have cost about $800.00.
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