Help building HIGH-END Workstation

[TechJeff]

Here lies the problem: Where are the links, articles, reports, etc showing that there's a noticeable performance difference with both ECC and lower latency RAM with the exact software you're using? I'm talking about the actual software you're using, not the synthetic benchmarks you mentioned earlier (CineBench, 3DMark, etc). Are those techs you're talking about basing their recommendation on the actual software or the synthetic benchmarks that's might be related to that software? What platforms? (i.e Intel LGA 1366? Sandy Bridge? AMD Phenom? etc_

GPU companies do it all the time: They use synthetic benchmarks such as the 3DMark you mentioned earlier to show off their "high" real-world performance. RAM companies use synthetic benchmarks to demonstrate how fast their RAM are. Yet when real world tests are done, they rarely match what the synthetic benchmarks say. We get guys here on the forums all the time claiming that their CAS 7 RAM gave them a huge performance boost in gaming and video encoding but can only back it up with synthetic benchmarks and not the actual software itself.

So in other words, I'm a bit skeptical of what you've said so far. Here are the articles I've read which have formed the basis of my skepticism of claimed :
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/memory/2011/01/11/the-best-memory-for-sandy-bridge/1
http://techreport.com/articles.x/20377
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3

Just in case you're wondering why I'm making a big point of this: We get quite a few people every week who do much of the same work you've described albeit with a significantly lower budget and maybe not at the same time. Around here we try our best to make sure that OP gets the best performance possible from his budget. If there are articles showing that a specific setup/layout or piece of hardware helps immensely, it would be good to have them so that we can justify our recommendations to the OP. If there aren't any emperical data or proof to show, we're not going to recommend such configuration.

While I understand what you are saying, it is coming across as though you are the main expert or "know-it-all" and everyone else is not. I point this out because my point has already been made in stating this is what most tech support reps at software companies like Maya, Vue, etc. suggest when asked about "the best memory" to use with their software. Rather or not they have done the testing you suggest I can not say and is something you would need to specifically ask them. What I do know is they typically inform their users to stay away for a lot of these forums, like this, because you end up getting answers and conflicting reports from people that don't know what they are talking about for best recommendations with their software. All I am going by is what I have been told by them when asked and they should know since it is their software specifically and not general advice.

Thanks for the input, but I will stay with what they have said. At worse, it's a few extra hundred that may be overkill to spend, but when at this price point it doesn't matter for me.

 

[saedrin]

I would trust the word of Danny Bui considerably more than the CSR working in a call center for a software company, FWIW.

 

[Dangman]

While I understand what you are saying, it is coming across as though you are the main expert or "know-it-all" and everyone else is not.

I apologize if thats the way I come across. That is not my intention. I know I'm not an expert in this field but I know enough about computer hardware to ask relevant questions, not to automatically assume those working for the company actually know what they're talking about, and to provide data backing up whatever I've said, which I've done. All I'm trying to do is actually get solid data and proof backing up what you/their tech support have said so that I can make better recommendations to others in the future.

In any case, good luck with the build.