Budget build for mathematical/physics computations and data analysis

dimTK1

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Oct 1, 2015
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Hello, I'm building a system for working at home on mathematical/physics computations and data analysis for my PhD. This is the build I came up.

Case:
Hec 6au6 Mid Tower
(H x W x D) 46cm x 20cm x 43cm
Price: 0€ (used from older PC)
PSU:
EVGA SUPERNOVA 750 G2 750W
Price: 145.90€
MB:
ASUS Z170-K RETAIL
Price: 159.00€
CPU:
CPU INTEL CORE I7-6700 3.40GHZ LGA1151 - BOX
Price: 349.90€
RAM:
2 X RAM KINGSTON HX421C14FB/8 8GB DDR4 2133MHZ HYPERX FURY
Price: 74.90€
STORAGE:
1 x SSD SAMSUNG 850 PRO SERIES 128GB
Price: 0€ (used from older PC)
2 x HDD HGST H3IKNAS30003272SE 3TB 3.5'' on RAID 1
Price: 0€ (used from older PC)

Total: 804.60€
Estimated purchase: 1-2 days as I have some very strict deadlines for the end of October.

My budget is 800€ (±50), peripherals such as mouse, keyboard etc will be used from older PCs. The system will be used on a dual monitor configuration of 2x(1680x1050 with DVI and D-sub inputs) and a UPS of 1000VA, 600W also from an older rig.

The system will be running on a Linux Distro, are the components compatible with Linux Distros? Is the above configuration OK? Will the integrated graphics of the CPU or the MB suffice for my setup? Do I need to upgrade my UPS? Does the i7-6700 come with a cooler? Will this cooler be capable of keeping the cpu in between acceptable temperatures for a long period of time under heavy load (100% usage for several hours to days), or should I get a better one? The RAM will be upgraded in the near future.

Thanks!!!
 

kanewolf

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Depending on which Linux distribution, you could have some issues with Skylake. It is still early in the development cycle.
You might want to consider a 5620K (6 core) and X99 motherboard. The Linux support should be more stable and you get 2 more cores.
 

dimTK1

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It will be a modified version of Ubuntu, I could possibly dual boot with win7 64bit Enterprise. (I think there is an option to upgrade to win10 but some software licenses we use are for older versions which I don't know if they cope well with win10).

Sure 2 more cores sound very appealing but the cheapest price for an X99 mobo is 120€ more, plus the difference in the processor price >95€. This added >215€ will blow me out of budget.

I went with skylake cause I think it will be more futureproof-upgradeable than the previous generations. Also the price in Greece (forgot to mention I live in the black hole of austerity) is very appealing opposed to other i7s.
 

dimTK1

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Oct 1, 2015
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Did that too, aside from some integrated graphics issues requiring to activate preliminary support in kernel 4.2 there seems to be no major problem. Kernel 4.3 will bring better and stable(?) skylake compatibility, fingers crossed and let's hope for a quick release.
 

kanewolf

Titan
Moderator


Any time I hear Linux, I am concerned about how "bleeding edge" of a build you will be using. You could have COTS software that requires RHEL 6.0 or something. You would have problems with an older kernel. If you are OK with the most leading edge builds, then you are probably OK.
 

dimTK1

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Bleeding edge, the bane of Linux hardware support. I think I can stand some minor issues with not optimal performance of the graphics drivers etc. As a last resort I will use a cheap gpu with my desired outputs and use only the computational power of the machine, unless the motherboard integrated gpu can operate independently of the CPU integrated graphics. So my problems now are:
Will this build work?
If so does this build worth it's money as secondary workstation and some typical home use?
Will the stock cooler be enough for a heavy workload lasting several hours to days? (Given the 6700 is not an unlocked cpu and won't be overclocked.)

Thanks for the feedback!
 
I'm both fascinated and confused here since a dedicated graphics card will have multiples of the computing power of a CPU for physics and math calculations - does your flavor of linux not support NVidia Cuda or Open CL or is there something else I'm missing? It seems to me that this should be centered around the processing power of a high end (not necessarily professional) graphics card and the rest of the build should simply support it.
 

dimTK1

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Nope you're not mistaken CUDA cores can help a lot. It's just the budget that is prohibiting it at this given time. A high end GPU will be installed later as well as a better case, hence the 750W psu. Also this system will be a secondary workstation (the reason I didn't go the Xeon way) and all the big models will run on a data center.
 
Ah, now it comes together in my mind.

In that case I think I would agree with Kanewolf's assessment about X99, since (IMO) the increased PCI lane throughput alone makes it valuable to futureproofing (assuming SLI support). It is your budget though so once I consider that, I think you've got a solid idea (providing program and kernel support as noted before)
 

dimTK1

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It's all about the Benjamins, or Euros in my case. The lack of shopping options (few sellers in the Greek market, capital controls and cost of shipping) plus the ridiculous taxes makes PC building a ripoff. Added the deadlines this is the best system I could come to. Only problem being the dubious OS support.

In a different place X99 could be the way to go. For example http://pcpartpicker.com/p/DQc6WZ at 932.90$ which is about 831€<850€ max budget, note the better PSU, more memory AND the added aftermarket cooler. Not forgetting the CPU upgrading options for the 2011-3 socket going all the way to 18 cores Xeon. As for graphics a cheap graphics card would suffice for the time.



Following your suggestion and going for an aftermarket cooler I think I will change my 6700 box to cpu only (+10€) and get an NOCTUA NH-U9B SE2 for 56.90€. I know it's a discontinued product but I want to be into budget and NOCTUA has some pretty incredible reviews for their products as googling showed.