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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aroy" data-source="post: 504571" data-attributes="member: 16090">My last build was over 7 years ago - dual quad core Xeon. Still going strong. In the ensuing years I have been upgrading HDD, from 160GB initially to 2TB now. I have 6 HDD of various sizes.Initially I used Nvidia graphics card, but soon change to ATI 6800 series, as there was a lot of software problems. Later I acquired another ATI - 5400 series initially as a backup, but lately as an additional card (I have 3 monitors).If you are going to build your own PC and want stable hardware, then I suggest Xeon based MB, as these are server grade, designed to work 24x7 for decades. Here is what I would assemble today. Dual Hex/Oct Xeon MB with at least 8 RAM slots (mine has 16). There is no need to go in for expensive higher clocked processors as parallel processing of many cores will speed up the tasks, of course if the software supports it. For RAW processing, I use Nikon Capture NX-D which uses all available cores. For Satellite Image processing I write my own parallel code.. Two ATI graphics cards. 16-64 GB RAM (I have 8). Depending on the MB and memory controller, you will need to have either sets of two for 2-way interleaved and sets of 4 for 4-way interleaved memory access. Again getting slower ECC RAM is better option than having expensive higher speed RAM with only parity check.. 1000 to 1200W PS. The current graphics cards consume a lot of power, so it is better to be prepared. In my case I have 1000W. I have monitored the input power and found that the modern PS are quite efficient and if the system used 500W, the input is rarely more than 700. With three monitors and 2 graphics cards I peak at 800W in GPU intensive processes.. 1 or 2 SSD, and 1 2TB HDD in the system for OS, scratch files and local storage. For large storage I would use an external RAID array or 4-16 HDD depending on my requirement. This is better than local storage, as you can access well designed storage on your local network, no need for the computer to be on. In my case as my son and I work from home access to secured storage all the time over the home network would be a definite advantage. Another plus point is that the storage is now independent of the computer, so it can be upgraded and/or modified with ease.Though I have not used RAID personally, but in corporate environment, using RAID 10 (0 +1), or if added redundancy is required RAID 10+10 gives the ideal performance boost with redundancy. If you invest in dedicated RAID cards (and better still stand alone REID box), the storage will normally be OS proof.</blockquote>

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