Finally had to upgrade the computer

[Datawiz]

My monster tower, with the 18 monitors has some newer components in it, like the OS drive and some of the storage drives, but the physical guts of it are now 7 years old, and failing fast. My machine has physically shut off twice today alone, and it's happening more frequently as of late. As such, it's getting a complete overhaul on the inside. I'm keeping the CoolerMaster tower case, as you simply cannot purchase one as big as it is in today's market. It holds 8 internal hard drives currently.

New products purchased:

3 - AMD Radeon Pro W6800 Workstation-class video cards (18 ports total)
1 - Intel Core i9-13900KS - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core processor
1 - ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero (WiFi 6E) LGA 1700 motherboard
4 - 32 GB DDR5 6000 memory chips (128 GB total) (sad MB didn't have 8 slots like the current one, otherwise I would have done 256 GB)
1 - Fresh copy of Windows 10 64-bit Pro
1 - Fresh copy of Windows 11 64-bit Pro (only to be installed on a VM. I'm not ready to upgrade to 11 yet without evaluation)
1 - ASUS ROG Strix LC II 360 ARGB Liquid CPU Cooler with 360mm radiator
1 - WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe M.2 2280 4TB SSD


Hopefully this investment will carry me another 7 years, which is an eternity in computer years. Ironically, the entire price of the order ($8,300) is what I would have paid JUST for the 3 video cards 1 year ago when they first came out. And I planned on buying them way back then, so to get all of the go fast parts for just the cost of the 3 cards was an added bonus.

These video cards are world-class workstation cards. Look 'em up. :yesnod: Also, that M.2 SSD drive is insanely fast, with insane speeds up to 7,300 MB/s throughput. :willy: My current SSD is more to the tune of 550 MB/s, which "was" insanely fast.

[cptlo306]

Nerd alert!

:D

That's going to be a killer machine.

[Datawiz]

Nerd alert!

:D

That's going to be a killer machine.

I just bought a 2nd motherboard. Same brand, but I noticed that the one I ordered didn't support enough SATA devices. New one is a couple hundred more, but has more ports. I'll try and return the first one, if not, I'll build a lower end computer with it and give it to family. :yesnod:

[Louie Detroit]

Why does one tower need 18 monitors?

[Bill]

I'm concerned you don't have enough monitors. We just worry, is all.

[JRD77VET]

Why does one tower need 18 monitors?

It's faster for Craig to glance at a different screen than open or close windows.

[Datawiz]

Why does one tower need 18 monitors?

Because insanely complex computer geek who's uber capable of multi-tasking.

[Datawiz]

It's faster for Craig to glance at a different screen than open or close windows.

Yes, that sums it up.

[JRD77VET]

Yes, that sums it up.

If I need to explain exactly what you do it's "he preforms magic" :yesnod:

:leaving:

[cptlo306]

I'll build a lower end computer with it and give it to family. :yesnod:

Hey...long lost cousin! I just realized we're related. :D

[markids77]

I may have to upgrade soon myself. This old thing still runs Windows 8.1 and Google just disowned me because I don't have at least Windows 10.

[theandies]

Look like it's going to be a nice rig.
Can't go wrong with ASUS motherboards but I think I would have gone with an AMD chip. I've always liked them better than Intel and I've been building computers since the '80's.

[Grey Ghost]

Started back in the day with an IBM 5150, 5.25 FDD, mono screen, parallel port and a serial port.

They did have killer keyboards though. Heavy spring action and built like a truck. Indestructible.

Our IBM Sys8100 mainframe lost a HDD one time (located in huge external cabinets). It weighed 70lbs and took two IBM CE's to replace. Probably 20mb or so.

[ZipZap]

Has that i9 come down below 700 bones? I want to build a new gaming/media computer and I just can't see that kind of money for a CPU. Hoping I can drive 8k. Some of the newer video cards can handle it.

[dvarapala]

1 - Intel Core i9-13900KS - Core i9 13th Gen Raptor Lake 24-Core processor

No threadripper? :shrug:

[ZipZap]

I've never done more than a single GPU. I found this video that you might find helpful:D:leaving:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSp0_ssUOc

[higgyburners]

i get more than 7 years :D

[Frankie the Fink]

Well apparently the resident Harold Finch better review Moore's Law if he thinks any current day setup will still be competitive in 7 years; "you are being watched"....:D

[sublime1996525]

Damn. You could buy a console and games for the price of just the i9

[ratflinger]

Yeah, just upgraded my 7 yo machine also. I don't make money with mine so it's less substantial. Only a Ryzen 7 with 64 meg & a 1Tb M.2. Did move to Win11 though, had to do a clean install as I never could get the network to come up with the old boot drive in the system. Old system was some 4-core Intel, 4790k I think. Well, moving to Win11 with the clean install wasn't as painful as I imagined, managed to to get everything that was there back. I don't even mind Win11, anything that bothered me was easily fixed with a D-D-G search.

[Datawiz]

Look like it's going to be a nice rig.
Can't go wrong with ASUS motherboards but I think I would have gone with an AMD chip. I've always liked them better than Intel and I've been building computers since the '80's.

I've been building PC's since the 80's too, and have always been an Intel guy. I realize that AMD leapfrogged Intel in the past few years, but the chip I bought is damn near the top of the heap, and the price is WAY less than I've paid for any high-end chip in the past. Compare the $835 (I paid $729) to all of the chips above it. Also, Intel still supports faster memory than AMD per my understanding. I included the graph, including the performance of my old chip, which I paid $1,200 for it new.

The new one is 2nd from the bottom on the first graphic, but that's only part of the graphic. There is at least 600+ processors on that list, and for the one I bought to be in the top 28 is fine by me. I'm not doing gaming, and I'm not doing engineering, but I do do a ton of vector graphics and video editing. This should serve me well.

[Aerovette]

Why does one tower need 18 monitors?

Have you ever seen how many categories pornhub has? :lol:

[Craig]

A quick read through this thread...I understand almost none of it.

(I'm kidding...I understand absolutely none of it.)

[cptlo306]

A quick read through this thread...I understand almost none of it.

(I'm kidding...I understand absolutely none of it.)

Just a bunch of nerds seeing who has the biggest pocket protector.

[Datawiz]

A quick read through this thread...I understand almost none of it.

(I'm kidding...I understand absolutely none of it.)

Computer technology pays my wages. This purchase is a necessary expense, even though my employer won't pay for it. My ability to deliver world-class consultancy experiences for Fortune 100 companies is because I choose to spend my own money to equip myself with the right tech. :yesnod: Small price to pay for the wages that come with this gig.

[Craig]

Totally get it...you're sharpening the axe...

Back in the "486" days, I built computers as a hobby. It eventually got too much for me to keep up with the evolving technology.

[Datawiz]

Totally get it...you're sharpening the axe...

Back in the "486" days, I built computers as a hobby. It eventually got too much for me to keep up with the evolving technology.

I started in the 286 days, and an upgrade from 512KB to 640KB of memory was over $200. My first 80MB hard drive was $3,000. :yesnod:

[Norm]

Way way way above my paygrade, I'm happy with my one 32" monitor.

[Datawiz]

Has that i9 come down below 700 bones? I want to build a new gaming/media computer and I just can't see that kind of money for a CPU. Hoping I can drive 8k. Some of the newer video cards can handle it.

Close. My price for that chip was $729

[ratflinger]

I started in the 286 days, and an upgrade from 512KB to 640KB of memory was over $200. My first 80MB hard drive was $3,000. :yesnod:




Bah, slackers - I started on RS Color Computer, 16k of ram. Knew a guy at Mostek & got 16k reject ram chips for next to nothing. Soldered the chips on top of the other ram except for the RAS, which we soldered to the unused upper address control on the memory control chip. Early 80's, company I worked for built huge data processors and until the mainframe was ready we used Apple II to dump test data. TI TTL Data book was our bible (Still have it). I do believe the 80Mb price. My 1st IBM PC had a double sided floppy, 64k of ram, a graphics card with an amber monochrome monitor, and a 300 baud modem. Damn thing cost $5400. I took a bunch of programming classes, but never much cared for it.

[ZipZap]

Totally get it...you're sharpening the axe...

Back in the "486" days, I built computers as a hobby. It eventually got too much for me to keep up with the evolving technology.

I started in the 286 days, and an upgrade from 512KB to 640KB of memory was over $200. My first 80MB hard drive was $3,000. :yesnod:

Bah, slackers - I started on RS Color Computer, 16k of ram. Knew a guy at Mostek & got 16k reject ram chips for next to nothing. Soldered the chips on top of the other ram except for the RAS, which we soldered to the unused upper address control on the memory control chip. Early 80's, company I worked for built huge data processors and until the mainframe was ready we used Apple II to dump test data. TI TTL Data book was our bible (Still have it). I do believe the 80Mb price. My 1st IBM PC had a double sided floppy, 64k of ram, a graphics card with an amber monochrome monitor, and a 300 baud modem. Damn thing cost $5400. I took a bunch of programming classes, but never much cared for it.

Y'all are high tech! Heathkit H8 8080 for me in 1979 as part of an industrial electronics course. Thing probably cost me $400, which was a boatload of quarter beers.