1.
juxtaposer's 'money and computer both go fast' build
2.
Processor: The
first and
second vendors sold out and don't show the price!
Newegg has/had it back in stock and still shows a price even if an item sells out:
Intel Core i7-3930K Sandy Bridge-E 3.2GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor BX80619i73930K $599.99
3.
Motherboard: Just in case
the same vendor sells out of this too (at higher $399.99)... Newegg got the motherboard in stock again, and sold out again:
ASUS P9X79 DELUXE LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS $379.99
4.
RAM: Changed [strike]
32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3 1600[/strike] to improve speed at cost of using more memory slots to:
G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (8 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9Q2-32GBZL $249.99 {8-module quad channel kit, CAS latency: 9, Timing 9-10-9-28}
5a.
ASUS Graphics Cards: in stock at
this site, but to make sure price shows...
ASUS EAH6970/2DI2S/2GD5 Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card with Eyefinity (2) x $369.99 =
$739.98 {The card size is 11” x 5”. It requires two slots and space for the fan to circulate air.}
5b.
AND {Thanks
jacquith!}
XFX CrossFire Bridge Model MA-AP01-CF1K $9.99
6a.
SSDs:
Corsair Force Series 3 CSSD-F60GB3-BK 2.5" 60GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (3) x $109.99 =
$329.97
6b.
drive bay adapters XIGMATEK 3.5" to 2.5" Hard Drive Adapter(2) x $14.99 =
$29.98 {Two needed to accommodate a total of three SSDs.}
6c.
HDD:
Seagate Barracuda ST1000DM003 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive $139.99 {Latency 4.16 ms; average transfer
156 MB/s (reference, page 11)}
7.
Case: [strike]
Rosewill THOR V2-White[/strike]
If I use the cooler, I need a case that can accommodate the 120mm fan. The case I chose in Round 1 does: [strike][URL=http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153]Rosewill CHALLENGER [/strike] ... but that case doesn't look like it will fit the graphics card... Time's running out... This case looks bigger inside and the description says 'full length graphics cards':
COOLER MASTER HAF 922 RC-922M-KKN1-GP Black Steel + Plastic and Mesh Bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $89.99
Whew! Remove the original rear fan and put in the H80 cooler fan+radiator+fan assembly in its place.
8a.
Power Supply:
COOLER MASTER Silent Pro Gold Series RSA00-80GAD3-US 1000W ATX 12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.92 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply [strike]$189.99[/strike]
$209.99 {price dropped and went up... and down... (yo-yo)} This PSU has 9 SATA (SSDs, HDD), 8 PCIe (GPUs), ... and in case these are needed:
8b.
Rosewill 12" Fan power Y cable Model RCW-310 (2) x $0.99 =
$1.98
8c.
Rosewill 12" Fan power supply cable Model RCW-308 (2) x $2.99 =
$5.98
9.
Cooling:
CORSAIR H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler [strike]$103.99[/strike]
$93.99
10.
DVD Burner:
ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk 24X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 24X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS - OEM $19.99 (low of [strike]$18.99[/strike])
Total: $2901.80 (margin $98.20)
Remaining margin might allow improvements, but I don't want to risk exceeding the budget!
*Edits: Prices changed, some more than once. (Some years back I used different browsers on one computer and two different computers to check RAM prices--it seemed the prices changed between my checking different browsers.)
I adjusted for vendors not displaying the price, and I changed components to try to improve the overall speed.
So...with this build are options:
+ to configure a
RAM cache and a
RAM disk*,
+ to apply one SSD to
SSD caching for the HDD, and
+ to use a the remaining SSDs in
RAID0...
+ ... AND use the GPUs (for benevolent purposes!) for
fast integer computations as were mentioned in
Wi-Fi Security: Cracking WPA With CPUs, GPUs, And The Cloud.
Jacquith noted that the motherboard has been booted from OCZ SSDs, but he didn't have info about it being booted from other SSDs in RAID0, so... try these boot options in this order: Plan A: boot from a persistent RAM disk; Plan B: boot from this RAID0 SSD pair; Plan C: boot from the SSD cached HDD.
Generally we want 'enough' of the fastest memory nearest the processors, and I guess we want to get 'enough' of the data closest to the processors too. (I would have used the largest RAM modules possible, so that a later upgrade won't waste the cost of smaller RAM modules; but, I'm trading off that for a little better speed.)
The
'8 DIMMs ... make full use of modern 64-bit software' suggests the advantage is to use the full width RAM--a byte from each of eight slots makes 64 bits. Worst case is RAM would work as fast as the slowest module.
It may depend on the
P9X79 DELUXE's Digi+ Power Control that allows for some differences between the AB and CD quad-channel RAM banks. Probably eight matched modules would be best. This is confusing because the
Intel Core i7 Processor Family for the LGA-2011 Socket Datasheet, Vol 1 indicates access to 4 DIMMs (apparently a 256-bit data bus).
ASUS' motherboard webpage shows the ASUS SSD Caching feature that 'combines solid state drive speeds with mechanical hard drive capacities, providing up to three times faster storage performance'. (I think that was a quote from Asus' page, but I couldn't match the text exactly when I went back to check.)
These two ASUS videos discuss speed improvement features:
(1)
ASUS X79 - SSD Caching and
(2)
ASUS X79 - RAM Cache / RAM Disk