A Look At My New SFF Work PC :)

By NextGen_Gamer
in Hardware Hangout

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NextGen_Gamer

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I've been at my current job for almost one year now and have been quickly regarded as the "tech guy" (no doubt a lot of you know how all about that). Even though I was provided with a pretty nice Dell OptiPlex for my office, I decided I needed something a little more worthy of being my work computer. After all, I technically spend more time on my work PC than I do on my personal machine at home (a now aging 2009 MacBook Pro - don't worry, that will be upgraded soon enough ;) So, here is what I just got done building over the weekend:

Lian Li PC-Q12A Mini-ITX All-Aluminum Case (with 300-Watt FSP Group Micro-ATX PSU)

ASUS P8H77-I Mini-ITX Motherboard (Intel H77 Express Chipset)

Intel Core i7 3770S Processor (3.10GHz, "Ivy Bridge," 65-Watt TDP)

8GB (4GB x 2) DDR3-1600 Crucial Ballistix Tactical Memory

128GB OCZ Vertex 4 Solid State Drive

Noctua NF-R8-1800 80x80x25mm Case Fan

Total Price ~$850 (doesn't include the cost of Win7 Pro since I already had a spare copy)

Before I get into the performance, I gotta say a few words about the Lian Li case. I have come into contact with Lian Li before, but this is the first time I have owned one myself. In a word, it is pure perfection. Lian Li cases have a such an absolutely beautiful quality to them that it is impossible to describe in words. You have to see and feel one in person to truly appreciate it. At $155 for this particular case, Lian Li is obviously not cheap, but once you have one unboxed in your home you will realize that it is worth every last penny. For those that have the money, I cannot recommend Lian Li enough.

So, how fast is it? Ridicuously fast. I really wish I had recorded the entire Win7 install process to show you guys. From the moment I first pressed the power button to typing in my account name and password, the entire process took just 4 minutes and 33 seconds!!! The Lian Li case has no optical drive bay, so I installed Win7 from a Patriot Supersonic USB 3.0 drive. Between that, the Vertex 4, and the "Ivy Bridge" processor I feel like this must be close to the limit of how fast you can install Windows 7. Boot-up performance is equally impressive. Windows 7 starts up in roughly 20 seconds. I actually posted a YouTube video showing me doing a shutdown/restart (see video here). I also installed PCMark 7 and got a score of 5643 PCMarks.

All-in-all, I am very pleased with the build. It is dead silent with the side panels on, very fast, and gorgeous to look at. If anyone here was looking at building a computer that includes any of the parts listed above, I highly recommend all of them. If anyone has any questions about the build or parts in it, feel free to ask me. And finally, if anyone has any benchmark requests, please let me know - I love testing out computer performance :)

Here are a few pics of the build:

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post-58800-0-09425800-1338160876_thumb.j

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They let you build your own PC and use it at work? That would be cool, I'd replace mine immediately as well :)

I'm curious, how is IT Support provided, if anyone can bring in their own machine and nothing is standard anymore? Do they do it on a best effort basis and the rest is up to the user?

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NextGen_Gamer

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I'd turn on nogui boot in msconfig to see if that makes it a shade faster (almost no point but it could a fraction of a difference)

Also, nice monitor :shifty:

haha - It's my old Samsung 19" LCD from 2004. I use it when building new PCs/working on other people's computers. Back then, it was a top-of-the-line LCD and cost $399. Nowadays, 24" LED LCDs cost like $200 lol

They let you build your own PC and use it at work? That would be cool, I'd replace mine immediately as well :)

I'm curious, how is IT Support provided, if anyone can bring in their own machine and nothing is standard anymore? Do they do it on a best effort basis and the rest is up to the user?

Wow, very nice setup!

My office PC has remained the same IBM Thinkcentre system since starting at the company over 5 years ago!

Just out of curiosity, what line of work are you in, and do your daily tasks require such a powerful system?

I'm assuming the guy is providing his own support ;). And if he's regarded as the tech guy, I doubt anyone else will be building their own haha

I'm in the oil/gas leasing business. There isn't necessarily a need for all this power - I kinda just wanted to have the fastest computer in the office. However, all this speed does come in handy once you start doing some serious multi-tasking. We use FileMaker Pro for our lease database along with a huge array of Excel spreadsheets. Once you get FileMaker Pro open, a couple 1000+ line Excel spreadsheets, multiple IE/Chrome tabs, some Word docs, etc., you'll understand why the SSD and Core i7 were important for me to have. Even under those circumstances, everything operates buttery smooth, whereas before on the Pentium Dual-Core Dell machine I had it would start to choke-up. Could I have gotten by with less? Of course. But when you have the means to go all-out, why not do it?

Although my primary job there is data entry/lease analysis, I am also trying to fill the role of computer support guy along with server maintenance. So although it's okay for me to have my own PC, the rest of the employees will have to make-do with their Dell boxes ;)

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