Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Determining Functional Requirements
We began by sitting down to think through the project. Here's the list of func-
tional requirements we came up with:
Extreme processor/memory performance
Video editing/rendering and scientific number crunching are both largely
processor-bound operations, so raw processor performance is critical. That
means we'll want a processor with as many cores and threads as possible,
running at the highest possible clock speed. For both of these primary ap-
plications, memory performance is also critical. In fact, within reason, the
amount of main memory is less important than its performance, so we'll
want the fastest memory we can get, with the lowest possible latency.
High-performance, high-capacity mass storage
Scientific number crunching, at least of the sort Robert does, is not disk-
intensive, but serious video editing and rendering requires not just ex-
treme disk capacity but extreme performance as well. The fastest current
high-capacity SATA hard drives have sustained transfer rates of about
100 MB/s, so reading or writing a 3 GB video file might take 30 seconds,
a significant amount of time when you're working interactively. We need
something better than individual hard drives.
Top-notch 2D video
Although 3D graphics performance is a nonissue, we'll need a large, high-
resolution display—at least full 1080p for viewing and editing HD video,
and 1920
×
1200 or higher would be better. We also need a video adapter
capable of driving that display.
Hardware Design Criteria
With the broad-brush functional requirements determined, the next step was
to establish design criteria for the extreme system hardware. Here are the rela-
tive priorities we assigned for the extreme system.
Price
★★✩✩✩
Reliability ★★★★✩
Size ★✩✩✩✩
Here's the breakdown:
Noise level ★✩✩✩✩
Price
Price is important for this system only in the sense that we don't want to
spend money needlessly. Our goal is to build, within reason, the fastest
system possible without getting into workstation-class components (and
prices). We'd like to keep the cost of this system to $3,500 or so, excluding
software and external peripherals, but we'll go higher if necessary.
Expandability ★★★✩✩
Processor performance ★★★★★
Video performance ★✩✩✩✩
Disk capacity/performance ★★★★★
Reliability
Reliability and stability are very important for this system, but we don't
need to do anything special to guarantee them, since no extreme system
is built with cheap components. We'll use only top-quality components—
particularly for the motherboard, memory, and power supply—which to-
gether will ensure high reliability. We'll also make sure the case we use is
