my computer is now more

[artemis8]

So my hard drive died yesterday and I am just going to get a new computer since the whole thing was about 5 years old.

I want to spend about $1000 but I do want to make sure I get a double precision gpu.
Any suggestions?

[Duke of Buckingham]

I know that feeling artemis8, Good luck on your quest to find a DP GPU.

[shiva]

Are you going to build it your self or going to one of the big computer stores there in KC.

[artemis8]

Well I went to Best Buy yesterday and they had a mac mini with 4gb (I would upgrade that to 8) with a HD 4000 ivy bridge ($799 plus memory upgrade cost) and an alienware i7 with a card that I wasn't sure was double precision for $999. I haven't checked out Microcenter.

I am not opposed to building my own, but obviously pre-built is easier. And all I have right now is my work laptop and I can't run boinc on it

[artemis8]

Looking at this one:
It's 3rd gen i7 so a little slower, but in the budget.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ideacentre-desktop-16gb-memory-2tb-hard-drive/1795225.p?id=1219064722726&skuId=1795225&st=catego ryid$pcmcat212600050008&cp=1&lp=39

[Al]

Looking at this one:
It's 3rd gen i7 so a little slower, but in the budget.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ideacentre-desktop-16gb-memory-2tb-hard-drive/1795225.p?id=1219064722726&skuId=1795225&st=catego ryid$pcmcat212600050008&cp=1&lp=39

I don't believe the HD 7750 this system comes with is double precision, according to the mway site anyway.

[artemis8]

hmm, ok, maybe I should build one then. I can salvage some things from my dead computer like the dvd drive.
I can head to Microcenter today or tomorrow.

[zombie67]

The Mac Mini is a great computer, and includes a lot of software. It will CPU crunch, but not GPU crunch. So if you want to GPU crunch too, go with a windows machine.

Do you want/need a laptop? Does that matter to you? We can help you build a machine, easily enough. But that would be desktop-only. Laptops are generally not build-it-yourself.

What will you be doing with this machine, aside from crunching?

We need a bit more information to help properly.

[zombie67]

Looking at this one:
It's 3rd gen i7 so a little slower, but in the budget.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ideacentre-desktop-16gb-memory-2tb-hard-drive/1795225.p?id=1219064722726&skuId=1795225&st=catego ryid$pcmcat212600050008&cp=1&lp=39

+ i7 ivy bridge (Great CPU. It will crunch 8 tasks at once, and will GPU crunch on the CPU too.)
+ 16gb (you really do need 2gb/thread to crunch all projects)
- GPU will not crunch milky way (not DP).
- I think the PSU is only 280w. That would limit the GPU if you wanted to upgrade it. But you could upgrade the PSU too, if necessary.

Also, it is windows 8, which can be a pain. But if you install Classic Shell (free), it makes it work like win7. But that is a personal preference kind of thing.

FYI, Micro Center has it for $50 less.

http://www.microcenter.com/product/4...sktop_Computer

In summary, it is a fine machine, if you don't want to build it yourself. But you could do better if you did. Better, but probably not cheaper.

[artemis8]

Apparently my husband decided he is going to go to Microcenter and he is going to surprise me (I have to work today and he has the day off). I told him dp gpu and he found a list of "approved" cards for boinc. So hopefully I will be back in business this evening. He plans to piece part it. Is ssd that much better than hdd?