Need advice for a new cruncher

[DrBackJack]

Hi Teamies !


Do you guys like this computer here ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2198428&Sku=T71-12003

My budget is $1,000 for the box.

I'm more interested in putting money into a fast CPU not only for crunching but so 5 years down the road, it will still keep up.

Any advice would be great even if that means building one at home.
It would be crunching for the team most of the time.



DrB

[zombie67]

Talking with DrB, he is not intending that this be a gaming machine. He is most interested in a long-term CPU cruncher. But it will need a GPU of some kind anyway, so it should be capable of crunching. Probably nvidia to have the widest project scope, over max performance. Also, assume 2gb RAM per thread.

[John P. Myers]

Hi Teamies !


Do you guys like this computer here ?

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2198428&Sku=T71-12003

My budget is $1,000 for the box.

I'm more interested in putting money into a fast CPU not only for crunching but so 5 years down the road, it will still keep up.

Any advice would be great even if that means building one at home.
It would be crunching for the team most of the time.



DrB

Are you open to building your own? Just for crunching, a 2TB HD is a waste of money. So is the GT 545 :)

[zombie67]

Are you open to building your own? Just for crunching, a 2TB HD is a waste of money. So is the GT 545 :)

He is open to building, if that would be better than his OP. He is really looking to maximize his budget. I asked him to post here, since I was not familiar with the mid-range HW. I tend to buy only the stupid-expensive stuff.

[Fire$torm]

Are you open to building your own? Just for crunching, a 2TB HD is a waste of money. So is the GT 545 :)

++1

If you go the DIY route then maybe something like this

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 $299.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502))

MB: MSI Z77MA-G45 LGA 1155 $109.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130647))

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) $73.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233143))

SSD: OCZ Agility 4 2.5" 64GB $59.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227810))

PSU: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W $49.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200))

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower $49.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153))

Total (Before Shipping) $643.94 / After Rebates: $633.94

Optional

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N630-1GI GeForce GT 630 1GB $59.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125426))

Operating System: Linux is FREE / Windows 7 HP $99.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986))

If you shop around you might find better prices but Newegg has everything you need. And don't forget to shop through Fat Wallet (http://www.fatwallet.com/) or eBates (http://www.ebates.com/) to get another 4% or 5% off your total.

[DrBackJack]

Whoa !

Hey thanks Firestorm !

That is what I'm looking for right there..exactly what to buy.

That case is nice with all those fans. Good for the desert !

Two questions:

1) Is the heat sink and heat sink fan a separate item to purchase or does that come with the cpu or motherboard ? I have the cpu grease.

2) On that SSD, is that better for crunching as oppossed to a sata 7200 rpm drive ?

It looks like all the components are compatible ?
Ram sure is cheaper nowdays.

I'll try to catch up with you on teamspeak or team chat.

Thanks a bunch for the advice !

[Fire$torm]

The 3770 comes with a stock cooler that looks something like this

http://www.madboxpc.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Intel_stock_cooler-450x338.jpg

If you prefer an aftermarket cooler I would recommend the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065))

The SSD isn't really better in terms of noticeable improvement of crunching output. But it is immune to mechanical failure since it doesn't have any moving parts. And its COOL :D

[c303a]

Boy F$ you hit that build right on the head. Wish I had some spare change about now. :D:D

[zombie67]

The stock CPU heatsink/fan is usually very NOISY. For that reason alone, I suggest an aftermarket version.

[Slicker]

The SSD isn't really better in terms of noticeable improvement of crunching output. But it is immune to mechanical failure since it doesn't have any moving parts. And its COOL :D

I finally broke down and put an SSD into my new laptop. I had to reboot my desktop (without SSD) several times yesterday and I have to say, it took forever to boot up in comparison. It isn't slow either. The desktop has high-end drives in a raid config for speed. But, the SSD blows it away. If you aren't storing music or videos on it, you can probably get by with only an SSD. Otherwise, using an SSD for boot and applications and a HDD for data is probably the way to go. The SSD cost per gigabyte is still too high to store everything on them. Unless you had a rich uncle who left you a fortune.:D (Mine are all poor.)

[Fire$torm]

@c303a: Thanks. And I'm in the same boat! :(

@Z: True enough though they are still less noisy then Radeon GPU fans...

@Slicker: I feel ya. As often as I reboot my desktop, an SSD would save me a LOT of time. One of these days I'll move fully into the 21st Century.

[John P. Myers]

If you go the DIY route then maybe something like this

CPU: Intel Core i7-3770 $299.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502))

MB: MSI Z77MA-G45 LGA 1155 $109.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130647))

RAM: CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) $73.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233143))

SSD: OCZ Agility 4 2.5" 64GB $59.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227810))

PSU: Rosewill Green Series RG630-S12 630W $49.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182200))

Case: Rosewill CHALLENGER Black Gaming ATX Mid Tower $49.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153))

Total (Before Shipping) $643.94 / After Rebates: $633.94

Optional

GPU: GIGABYTE GV-N630-1GI GeForce GT 630 1GB $59.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125426))

Operating System: Linux is FREE / Windows 7 HP $99.99 (Link (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116986))

If you shop around you might find better prices but Newegg has everything you need. And don't forget to shop through Fat Wallet (http://www.fatwallet.com/) or eBates (http://www.ebates.com/) to get another 4% or 5% off your total.
++1

You mentioned a $1000 budget. If you'd like to get a little closer to that, you could get this EVGA GTX 660 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130826) ($229.99 + free shipping) instead of the Gigabyte 630. Would give you a bit more oomph and you still come in under $1000, even after paying for Windows :)

[c303a]

By all means go with a SSD. I put one in 2 of my boxes and the difference in boot time is significant. I have 1 more that I am going to change over as soon as I get a chance. I did do a complete reload of the computer but if you are building a new one you won't have that problem.

[DrBackJack]

++1

You mentioned a $1000 budget. If you'd like to get a little closer to that, you could get this EVGA GTX 660 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130826) ($229.99 + free shipping) instead of the Gigabyte 630. Would give you a bit more oomph and you still come in under $1000, even after paying for Windows :)


Thanks ! That was my next question on bumping up the vid card.
That 680 gtx looks good !

$963.92 is what all this comes out to so far.
It looks like a winner as far as I can tell.
Great advice guys !

If you were going with a 1 TB sata drive, which one is good ?
That size is fine for movies, camera pictures and videos with plenty of open space always.

Also, any advice on a mouse ? I like the trackballs, wired if fine.
I don't see the one I have now on newegg but those are really kool.

Lastly, any suggestions on a monitor or on anything else before the order is placed ?

One order all from newegg will be just fine and simple.

[c303a]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104407

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126076

These are the mouse and keyboard I use. If you go to the Eggs site the also have both in a refurbished state. You would save close to $15.00 on each one. Also both are wireless and work great.

[John P. Myers]

1TB hard drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533)

Also something i didn't know about:

WD Acronis TrueImage, available as a free download on the WD Support site, enables you to copy all your data to a new drive so you don't have to reinstall your operating system to get all the benefits of a new drive.

[Mumps]

1TB hard drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533)

Also something i didn't know about:

That's pretty common these days. I've used solutions like that with WD, Seagate and Maxtor. Free download, but only works if at least *one* of the drives is from that manufacturer. Even though, in one case, I was using the tool to get data *off* the vendor in questions drive. :)

[John P. Myers]

1TB hard drive (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533)

Also something i didn't know about:

! This hard drive is currently on special for the Shell Shocker deal which will not last very long. It's now only $80. Hurry if you want it :)

[Duke of Buckingham]

Men I would like very much to know what are you talking about.

Because I really wanted to be of some help but go for it, seek and you shall find...

[Pwrguru]

Men I would like very much to know what are you talking about.

Because I really wanted to be of some help but go for it, seek and you shall find...

Shell Shocker deals are from Newegg and only last a couple of hours or less if they sell out quickly.... They have deals that start different times of the day so you have to check on there site several times a day to see what they are offering... very smart on their part...

[Duke of Buckingham]

Thanks Pwrguru,