New build - speed & RAM for business not gaming

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ozaru

ozaru

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Apr 5, 2013
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I'm looking for a PC to do big multitasking (e.g. 20 apps open at once, some with multiple tabs/windows, containing large DTP/graphics files), some database-crunching, very occasional video editing.

From past experience I'm placing top priority on lots of RAM, a fast multi-core processor, and a fast C drive if/when paging starts to slow things down. I'm aiming to migrate current storage across (5TB of mixed SATA/USB3 drives etc.).

So far this is what I've got... Any suggestions/comments?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£409.98 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.48 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£158.98 @ Dabs)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£348.30 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£72.37 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X Video Card (£158.00 @ More Computers)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£57.98 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£48.38 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£29.99 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1357.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-04 09:36 BST+0100

Approximate Purchase Date: this week
Budget Range: say GBP 1500 (US$2500) but not critical - if spending more means it will still be working well in 5 years, I'll do so.
System Usage from Most to Least Important: multitasking, databases, DTP/graphics, video editing
Are you buying a monitor: maybe - considered touchscreens for Win10 but can't easily identify them on PCPartList and don't want to get "gorilla arm", so for time being probably sticking with existing monitor
Do you need to buy OS: probably not (aiming to transfer Win7/Ultimate then upgrade to Win10/Home)
Preferred Website(s) for Parts: none (but probably UK-based Amazon etc.)
Location: UK - but PCPartPicker can easily convert to US$ for comparison
Parts Preferences: Intel CPUs said to be faster/better (although more expensive); I did consider Xeon and e.g. i7-4790K 4.0GHz (faster?) but Xeon's expensive and i7-4790K compatible mobos don't seem to support 64GB+ RAM
Overclocking: Maybe, never done it before
SLI or Crossfire: probably not important
Your Monitor Resolution: not that important - not used for leisure (games, watching movies, etc.)
Additional Comments: quiet would be good. Main apps = Adobe CS3~6, MS Office, Maxthon/Chrome/Firefox, translation tools (Trados/memoQ/Okapi), Sibelius, SketchUp...
Why Are You Upgrading: current system 5 years old, lack of memory means constant slow disk paging

TIA
 
Solution
jmsellars1
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pHB8cf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pHB8cf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£298.74 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.48 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£166.63 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£348.30 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£158.39 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified...
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Everything looks pretty solid to me other than the motherboard and the PSU.

The motherboard lacks quality assurance.
The PSU lacks quality as a whole.

If you want a proper workstation motherboard: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-x99ews
Something along the lines of what you originally had but better: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/asus-motherboard-x99ausb31

With you using USB drives, USB 3.1 might come handy in the future.

As for the PSU: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/part/antec-power-supply-hcg620m
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
The i7 5820K is £150(EDIT: Sorry, it is £100) cheaper than the i7-5930K and the only difference is 200Mhz and fewer PCI-e lanes. You shouldn't even notice the difference really as you're not running multiple GPU's.

Is there any particular reason you went for an AMD GPU? I know that Nvidia ones support CUDA so if the program you are using also supports it, it can massively speed things up. I don't know a huge amount about it but I think it means the program will also be using the processing power of the GPU even if it isn't a graphical program. NVidia cards tend to be more efficient at the moment as well so saves on heat and power.

I would get a higher quality PSU for something this high end as well. That one would be OK for a £500 gaming build or something but for a high end workstation I'd go for a Seasonic or something.

I'll look at a full build for you now.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pHB8cf
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/pHB8cf/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£298.74 @ Aria PC)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.48 @ Novatech)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£166.63 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£348.30 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB Video Card (£158.39 @ Aria PC)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£118.39 @ Scan.co.uk)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£48.38 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£24.99 @ Amazon UK)
Total: £1356.59
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-04 11:44 BST+0100

Same price there but allows you to take advantage of CUDA where the software allows, gives you a much faster SSD and an absolutely top notch PSU. Only thing you would lose is 200Mhz on the CPU, not really something you'd notice. In terms of quietness, that PSU and GPU are both 0DB at idle, the cooler is very quiet too so I'd just buy a fan controller to turn the case fans down and it should be very quiet.
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Solution


Get this, http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZLPMHx (2166$ apparently the gbp currency is very innaccurate) - you really really don't need 64 gb of ram, 34gb is more than enough, check this post http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1715836/difference-16gb-ddr3-2133-ram-64gb-ddr3-2133-ram.html
and since you wanted it to last I got a the great gtx 980ti, and for the cpu i7-5920K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor which you can hopefully overclock to at least 4 GHz - more details in the link :)

 
Upvote 1 Downvote
I suppose with the RAM you could try 4x8GB and if it isn't enough, just add another 4x8GB.

I wouldn't recommend overclocking on a workstation build, no matter how stable it is you are unlikely to get it as stable as it is at stock and stability is more important than a 10-20% performance boost for this kind of build in my opinion.

With the GPU I don't know enough to know whether the GTX 980Ti would be worth it or not. I do know though that my girlfriend does some pretty huge commercial design work in Photoshop, AutoCAD and SketchUp etc. and a GTX 660 has been perfectly fine for that and the GTX 960 is much more powerful than a 660.
 
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well at least the price for my build didn't go over the budget :)
 
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Yes to the i7 5930.
OK, 64 GB's is what you want, get it.
But put it on a mid level board like the TUF Sabertooth X99
Your SSD should be 500GB's.
Add a GTX 970 4GB for overhead.
Power Supply - something like SeaSonic 650W 80+ Gold
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Thanks, everyone - some great input here. I'll try to summarize the options suggested, with the data I see, and leave my current preference as the bottom line in each section.

NG40> 32gb is more than enough
JS1> try 4x8GB and if it isn't enough, just add another 4x8GB

I don't really want to have to open the box at all in the next 5 years, and have never regretted having 'excess' RAM in the past (but often regretted having too little). This thread has lots of people saying "you don't need more than X" and others saying "actually I do" with evidence, FWIW.

CPU
Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor 5* £410
Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor 4.9* £300

JS1> Only thing you would lose is 200Mhz on the CPU, not really something you'd notice
FP> Yes to the i7 5930

I guess this is my option, do I want to spend £100 (7%ish) for a 6% increase (3.3->3.5) in speed, right? Unless other bottlenecks mean I wouldn't actually get the 6% extra speed.

PSU
Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze 4.7* £58
semi-mod, 2 PCI-ex
Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze = 4.8* £80
semi-mod, 2 PCI-ex
SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum = 4.8* £120
more Watts, fully mod, 4 PCI-ex

JS1> I'd just buy a fan controller to turn the case fans down and it should be very quiet

Any recommendation? e.g. Aerocool F6XT £18?

Mobo
MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 4.3* £160
128GB, 1 SATA-ex, 1 Ethernet, ?USB3.0
ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 = 4.8* £170
128GB, no SATA-ex, 1 Ethernet, ?USB 3.0
Asus (TUF?) SABERTOOTH X99 ATX LGA2011-3 = 5* £260
64GB, 1 SATA-ex, 2 Ethernet, ?USB 3.0
Asus X99-E WS SSI CEB LGA2011-3 = 5* £350
128GB, 2 SATA-ex, 2 Ethernet, ?USB 3.0
- does this even fit? different case needed? + significantly more expensive
Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 = ?* £210
64GB, 1 SATA-ex, 1 Ethernet, USB 3.1

USB 3.1 is only mentioned in the last one, so that swings it (over e.g. the Sabertooth's 2x Ethernet).

SSD
Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" 4.6* £72
SATA 6, no cache
Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 ?* £120
M.2(M), 512M cache

JS1> much faster SSD

Isn't M2 mainly for mobiles etc.? Will it fit? Is it the M2 that makes it faster or the cache (or something else)?

FP> Your SSD should be 500GB

If they're primarily for OS (Win10) + fast paging (I've loads of other drives to store apps & data), do I really need 500GB? If so, what's the best - same question as above really, should it be something with M2+cache?

Video
JS1> any particular reason you went for an AMD GPU?

Nope - just picked the cheapest 'compatible' one with lots of GB and several stars - as was my general approach throughout. 🙂

JS1> Nvidia ones support CUDA so [...] it can massively speed things up

Thanks, sounds good.

Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X 4.8* £158
4GB, 1.02GHz, 120W, Crossfire, DVI-D, 1DP
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB 5* £560
6GB, 1.18GHz, 250W, 4-SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
- much more expensive and power-hungry
Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB 5* £158
2GB, 1.23GHz, 180W, SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB, ?* £200
4GB, 1.25GHz, 120W, SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
- not suggested, but why not...?
MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB 5* £250
4GB, 1.08GHz, 145W, 3-SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP

FP> Add a GTX 970 4GB for overhead

"GTX 970" gives 46 options! :-( I chose the above one at random, based on the title being MSI but not "Gaming". 4GB must be significantly faster than 2GB, no? But the 4GB 960 is 1.25GHz and the 4GB 970 only 1.08GHz, so I'm unsure which is better.

WiFi
TP-Link TL-WDN4800 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 4.6* £25
doesn't have 802.11ac, up to 450Mbps -> apparently slower, so is this just saving £5 or some other advantage?
Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 4.5* £30
up to 867Mbs
.
 
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CPU
Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor 5* £410
Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor 4.9* £300

JS1> Only thing you would lose is 200Mhz on the CPU, not really something you'd notice
FP> Yes to the i7 5930

I guess this is my option, do I want to spend £100 (7%ish) for a 6% increase (3.3->3.5) in speed, right? Unless other bottlenecks mean I wouldn't actually get the 6% extra speed.
Click to expand...
Yes you will just pay £100 more for 6% more speed, as JS1 said, you won't notice the difference, and if it is really really really a concern you can always overclock it to 4ghz, but you don't need to do that..

FP> Your SSD should be 500GB

If they're primarily for OS (Win10) + fast paging (I've loads of other drives to store apps & data), do I really need 500GB? If so, what's the best - same question as above really, should it be something with M2+cache?
Click to expand...

You don't need 500gb of ssd, I would get 128gb of ssd or 250gb, where you put the os, and the os will function faster, and pair it with 2tb 7200rpm hdd for storage, and no cache is better (not sure though) look at this https://clientarea.ramnode.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=39

Video
JS1> any particular reason you went for an AMD GPU?

Nope - just picked the cheapest 'compatible' one with lots of GB and several stars - as was my general approach throughout. 🙂

JS1> Nvidia ones support CUDA so [...] it can massively speed things up

Thanks, sounds good.

Sapphire Radeon R9 270X 4GB Dual-X 4.8* £158
4GB, 1.02GHz, 120W, Crossfire, DVI-D, 1DP
MSI GeForce GTX 980 Ti 6GB 5* £560
6GB, 1.18GHz, 250W, 4-SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
- much more expensive and power-hungry
Asus GeForce GTX 960 2GB 5* £158
2GB, 1.23GHz, 180W, SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
Asus GeForce GTX 960 4GB, ?* £200
4GB, 1.25GHz, 120W, SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP
- not suggested, but why not...?
MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB 5* £250
4GB, 1.08GHz, 145W, 3-SLI, G-SYNC, 3DP

FP> Add a GTX 970 4GB for overhead

"GTX 970" gives 46 options! :-( I chose the above one at random, based on the title being MSI but not "Gaming". 4GB must be significantly faster than 2GB, no? But the 4GB 960 is 1.25GHz and the 4GB 970 only 1.08GHz, so I'm unsure which is better.
Click to expand...
VRAM is priority here, 4g 1.0ghz is better than a 2gb 1.2ghz, you can always overclock it, think of it like a cpu, where the cores is gb, some cpu run at 4ghz but have only 2 cores and others run at 3.5ghz and have 4 cores, the quadcore is better, (sorry using games) you need at least 4gb to run ALL games these days and the games are becoming more and more demanding in terms of vram, and thats why I suggested the gtx 980 ti 6gb, not just because it is the most powerful gpu out there, but also because it will last you long..

Hope this helped :)
 
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TBH a fan controller is a very simple device, they are all going to work and basically do the same thing. You could buy any.

M.2 is just a much faster port than SATA 3, SATA 3 can't handle any more than ~650-750MB/s but M.2 supports up to ~4GB/s. That means it can take advantage of that very fast SSD. (The ASUS board you chose does support it)

Any GTX 970 is going to be fine, the main differences are physical size (not a factor to you because you have a big case), cooling (not a big factor for you because you probably won't overclock), clock speed and general build quality. I'd get the ASUS Strix, decent build quality, decent clock speed and very quiet. It actually goes down to 0DB at idle.
 
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I think that might be confusion between using an SSD cache for a HDD (which is slower than raw SSD), as opposed to this pure SSD device incorporating a 512MB DRAM cache (presumably making it faster).



OK, good to learn the general principle that higher GB + cores do more for speed than mere Hz.
But what about 4GB 960 @ 1.25GHz versus 4GB 970 @ 1.08GHz where the VRAM is the same?
Does the 970 do stuff faster than the 960 even though the GHz are lower?



Yes, very helpful - thanks again... we're getting close. 🙂
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You don't want to be cracking it open again for another five years right?
Get the 5930 so you don't notice the passage of time.
Quality PSU with headroom lasts longer.
500 GB SSD means everything moves faster and can be backed up entirely to 2T drive.
NMVe and M.2 are just pretty to look at yet and don't beat an 859 Evo silly which can be bigger and cheaper.
3.1 is a major consideration unless you want a card for 20-30$ again re-opening to correct a lack you don't have to start with.
970 is the new standard unless you are going gaming or 4K. 4GB means more desktop, like big RAM means bigger workspace.
Big RAM confers benefits not detailed here but bigger CPU and more RAM are good and over time will
signal when you next need a new build.


 
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OK, here's the amended/final list. Price has gone up a bit but that's expected. I think this has taken on board most suggestions. Any final comments or serious criticisms before I hit "Buy"?

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5930K 3.5GHz 6-Core Processor (£409.98 @ Amazon UK)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler (£24.95 @ Aria PC)
Motherboard: Asus X99-A/USB 3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£205.39 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Kingston HyperX Fury Black 64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£348.28 @ More Computers)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£119.10 @ Scan.co.uk)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 970 4GB STRIX Video Card (£262.87 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£49.19 @ Aria PC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 660W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£129.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray/DVD/CD Writer (£48.38 @ Aria PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM (64-bit)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I 802.11a/b/g/n/ac PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter (£29.99 @ CCL Computers)
Fan Controller: Aerocool F6XT Fan Controller (£15.31 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £1643.43
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 13:03 BST+0100
 
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Obviously up to you but I'll just reiterate once more to make sure you're aware, the i7-5930K only offers an extra 200Mhz and a few more PCI-e lanes over the i7-5820K and costs £100 more. The extra PCI-e lanes are only really useful if you have multiple demanding PCI-e devices like 2-3 graphics cards and the +200Mhz is approx 6% extra performance.
 
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You should have a lot of fun with that build. Big, solid and thoroughbred. It's very balanced.

Any challenges can be met with doubling the GPU or an entirely new technology on a new card down the road a couple of years.

ps. final thought here....if you are going air maybe a Noctua dh-14 or 15 might be a more dynamic option.
 
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