The ideal workstation PC for any creative design or photo editing work, for example Photoshop, Lightroom, Indesign, Illustrator. Aimed at the serious PC professional or home user.

The Pixelstation

The Pixelstation offers a quieter way to edit and process your photographs, graphic designs or artwork using your favourite applications unleashing new levels of creativity and removing bottlenecks typically associated with less well specified computer hardware platforms.

With a choice of components as well as the option to go fully fanless if required, the Pixelstation is the ideal system for home enthusiasts or professionals working in the photographic or graphic/art design industries.

Intel Alder Lake 13th Gen Processor

The 13th Gen Intel processors offer a significant improvement over previous generations, thanks to the improved Performance-cores (P-cores) and/or Efficient-cores (E-cores). The processors P-cores are optimised for single and lightly-threaded performance, while its E-cores, are optimised for scaling highly-threaded workloads. That means gamers, creators, and professionals can harness both intelligence and power to enhance the experiences that matter the most. All processors on the list feature P-cores, but not all offer E-cores. To give you an idea of much of an improvement the 13th gen is over the 11th Gen processors, take a look at the table below that shows some PassMark CPU Benchmarks, the higher the number the better the performance the processors offers.

The figures above are as of January 2023. They do change over time.

For the Home User

Home users or enthusiasts can simply build on the base configuration, adding higher capacity SSD drives and a graphics card if required. Not everyone will need a graphics card as the processor’s own on-board graphics will be fine for most users and it supports up to three monitors running from the motherboard one of which (via HDMI) will work at a resolution of 4096 x 2160. If more graphics power is required, there are fanless cards on offer which would be perfect for most home users.

For the Serious or Professional User

With the addition of a discrete graphics card, the maximum supported number of monitors and/or resolutions will be increased. Photo editing programs usually take up a lot, if not all of the space on your Windows desktop so it is usually a good idea to use a large display like the ASUS 27” ASUS VG278Q 27in Gaming Monitor 1920 x 1080 Monitor or even the 28” ASUS TUF VG289Q 28in Monitor, IPS, 5ms, 3840x2160, HDR10, Monitor to expand your desktop. The more space you have available on your Windows desktop the easier it will be to work with your editing software.

Motherboard Features and Options

This particular computer utilises the ASUS motherboard, so expect connectivity like PCIe 4 speeds for all connected M.2 drives and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 for USB speeds up to 20Gbps. The motherboards also features RAID, multiple M.2 connectors, premium audio, HDMI and DisplayPort outputs and support for up to 128GB RAM. Below are images of each motherboard available in this system with a table that shows some of the specification each motherboard offers.

Z690-P motherboard

Z790-PLUS motherboard

Z690-P rear motherboards ports

Z790-PLUS rear motherboards ports

Storage Options

The system can accommodate three different storage types. The first and fastest option are the M.2 drives. These drives offer speeds around 3-4 times that of the SSDs we offer. We recommend selecting one of these drives as the boot drive. Other options include SSD drives up to a capacity of 4TB which will be large enough for most users. But if the speed of an SSD is not required please consider a conventional HDD to backup or store your work.

Many applications work better if they have a ‘scratch disk’ which they can use as a temporary workspace, (Photoshop being a good example of this). Of course adding any component with moving parts like a hard drive will make some noise but to keep noise levels low we recommend using 2.5in drives where possible as these are usually quieter in operation than 3.5in drives.

A better alternative would be to use 2.5in SSD’s as they are not only faster than conventional hard disk drives they are totally silent and SSD prices have fallen hugely in the past few years making them much more affordable.

Internal Card Reader

If a card reader is required then we offer the Akasa AK-ICR-14 Internal USB 3.0 or the Akasa AK-ICR-33 Internal USB 3.1 Type-C. The AKASA-AK-ICR-33 card reader would be a good way to add a fast USB C port to the front of the case two cases we offer with this system as neither has a USB C port on the case itself but both motherboards have a suitable internal header.

Please note: If the ASUS TUF Gaming Z690-PLUS WIFI D4 motherboard is chosen, that doesn’t have an additional USB 3 header required for either card reader so you would also need this USB expansion card which provides the additional USB 3 header.

Please note: The Define 7 Mid Tower only supports one 5.25” bay so you can have either an optical drive or a card reader fitted but not both.

If you require both a card reader and a DVD drive then please check the specifications for your chosen case as not all cases have the required number of drive bays (2 x 5.25”) needed for both.

RAID Storage

Users with more advanced storage needs may be interested in having two drives in a RAID array in order to increase data read/write speeds or to provide a higher level of resilience against drive failure. The two types of RAID offered on this system are RAID 0 (Striped) and RAID 1 (Mirrored) and they store information in completely different ways.

RAID 0 arrays stripe data and write information across two separate hard drives and are often used to increase the speed at which data is accessed and retrieved. For instance, Photoshop has the ability to batch process images and a RAID 0 configuration would help with faster image retrieval and storage after Photoshop has processed them. The downside is that if either drive fails then you lose everything, so it is important to make regular precautionary backups.

RAID 1 arrays mirror data and write identical information across both drives simultaneously without a speed penalty. So if one drive fails, no data is lost and the PC stays running. However, if both drives (or more likely the motherboard) fails then you lose everything, so it is still important to backup regularly.

Clean Build™ Promise

The price of many pre-built PCs these days is often supported by cash kickbacks from software companies who pay hardware manufacturers to pre-install limited or trial versions of their software and then hope that the customer pays to upgrade to the full version. The downside to this approach is that the new PC comes pre-loaded with a lot of “junkware” which bloats the operating system and can cause severe performance degradation.

Here at Quiet PC we believe that customers have every right to expect the best possible performance from a brand new PC, so every system we build comes with our Clean Build™ promise. We install the operating system (if you order one), motherboard drivers, OS updates and Windows Security - that’s it. You won’t be pestered by pop-ups and nag screens and you can get on with using your new PC immediately without having to uninstall lots of junkware first. Your new machine will boot in super-quick time and will stay running quickly for many months and years to come.

Free hardware support and fully inclusive warranty

We offer free hardware technical support for as long as you own the machine. This support covers any hardware query or problem, including advice on maintenance and upgrades. We regret we can’t offer software support or training so we would recommend contacting the software vendor in this instance.

Our hardware warranty runs for at least two years and is “collect and return” meaning that you don’t need to worry about getting the machine back to us - we will instruct our courier to collect it from you on a day of your choosing, then after we have checked and repaired it we will send it back to you by express courier at our expense. In addition, unlike many other PC suppliers, we have an “open-case” policy which means you are free to open the machine and perform your own minor modifications or upgrades without worrying that your warranty might be affected.