For those of you who don't know... I run a media firm. We do work across a lot of different mediums, including:

• Audio: Music Production, Soundstage Design, Theater Design, Sound Reinforcement, Live Production, and more
  
• Video: Videography such as in music videos, advertisement filming, special effects, and more
  
• Photography: Fashion, Product Features, and much more.
  
• Web: Full website design, or graphical work for them.
  
• Backend: Programming, writing applications, designing infrastructures, etc.
  

Needless to say, my team is good. But they can only be as good as their equipment will allow. So that being said, they have the best for what they need. This is what my post will be about... some things we do can become extremely expensive. To give my team what we need, the costs can be astronomical. This includes Hasselblad and RED cameras, fully featured recording studios with the latest and greatest recording equipment, hundreds of thousands of dollars in software licenses, and more.

But the heart of using all that equipment is the computer. The connection between you and harnessing all of that power. Everyone has their own top-tier rig built specifically to their fortes (This may change with a render cluster depending on how much it will cost). That is, except for my rig. My background is very wide, because I never could decide what I wanted to be when I grew up. When I got to college, I knew I wanted music... so I went through and did it. Then... I wanted computer engineering. You can probably see where I'm going. So, now I have a masters in Computer Engineering and a doctorate in Music.

I spend most of my days in a recording studio, as it's my first love. But there are times I need to do some personal touches to put the work my team does into spec with what clients want. Hence the rig I have. It is absolutely overkill for any one job. I have it because there are times I will go from being on site with a company for a commercial, to working on sound design in the same day. Most people aren't stuck in the rut that I am where that goes.

So, my work rig, aka The Leviathan.

The whole rig is sealed in a custom box with a specially designed airflow to protect the sound isolation of the studio where it sits.

Inside, there are:

• Dual E5-2650v2 Xeon processors on:
  
• Asus' Z9PE-D8 WS Dual socket MOBO
  
• Dual Quadro K5000 gpus
  
• 64GB of Dominator Vengeance
  
• and an AX1500i, all packed in with a lot of storage locally and a very large internal server.
  

Here it is... the question that made me write this post... "Should I get one?"

For most people, myself included, a $4,000 to $5,000 workstation is more than sufficient. When I finish hiring a couple new members, I will be working in the studio full time, with the exception of business stuff, and this thing will not be needed.

I've been messaged a few times asking about my rig and if they think they should get one, and the answer is no. Mine is a custom machine that is out of necessity rather than want. You can build a VERY good workstation for less than 1/3 the cost, and will not need more for a while. It's not a play machine, it's not something for fun (even though it is fun to build), and it doesn't game.

I hope you all enjoy getting rigs for what you need, and this is by no means necessary for 99.99999% of you.

I hope you have any questions answered, and may your framerates be high,

-Prastupok