Custom PC case study
A custom workstation for an architect
A purpose-built professional PC combining workstation graphics, fast primary storage and mirrored capacity for project data.
The requirement
Professional graphics and resilient working storage
The architect needed a system built for professional design work rather than a generic office desktop or gaming-led specification.
The final build was specified and invoiced in December 2021. It combined a 12th-generation Intel platform with professional NVIDIA Quadro graphics, fast primary storage and a separate higher-capacity storage tier.
The design needed a capable workstation graphics card, current processor and memory platform, fast storage for Windows and applications, and substantial project-data capacity. Mirrored drive pairs were used for both the operating environment and data storage.
Those mirrored pairs improved availability after a single drive failure, but they were not treated as backup. Separate protection is still needed for deletion, corruption, malware, theft and wider system failure.
Core specification
- Intel Core i5-12600K processor
- NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 graphics
- 32 GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5 4800 MHz memory
- Gigabyte Z690 UD motherboard
- Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240 mm liquid CPU cooler
- Corsair RM750x 750W modular power supply
Storage design
Separate mirrored pairs for system and project data
Operating system and applications
Two Samsung 980 Pro 500 GB PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives were configured as a RAID 1 pair for fast mirrored primary storage.
Project data
Two Seagate IronWolf Pro 4 TB drives were configured as a separate RAID 1 pair for higher-capacity mirrored data storage.
The recorded package also included separate portable backup drives, system-recovery software and a UPS. These measures provided recovery and power-protection layers beyond drive mirroring alone.
Watch the build
See the workstation being assembled
The JM Restart build video provides a visual record of the project. It opens on YouTube rather than loading a tracking-heavy video player automatically on this page.
What this example demonstrates
The component list followed the customer’s professional requirement at the time. A new architect workstation would be designed again around the current applications, vendor guidance, project sizes, displays, availability, budget and support expectations rather than copying this historic specification.
Privacy note: The customer remains anonymous. No project files, customer systems or confidential architectural work are shown or described.
Planning a workstation for specialist software?
Tell us about the applications, files, displays, resilience needs, budget and timescale. We can help turn the requirement into a reviewed specification.
