Scientific Computation/Photo Processing 2000 GBP Build

[Michaelgd]

Approximate Purchase Date: Within 5 days
Budget Range: 1500-2200 GBP
System Usage from Most to Least Important: Scientific Computation, Photo Processing, surfing the internet, light gaming
Parts Not Required: keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers, OS
Preferred Website(s) for Parts::Amazon.co.uk
Country: United Kingdom
Overclocking: Yes
SLI or Crossfire: / Maybe


I am building my first PC soon and was looking for advice/tips and just to check that the following parts are all compatible. It's not a gaming PC but more of a scientific computation/photo processing PC hence the CUDA GPU. The larger case is to accommodate as many Hard drives as possible. I will also hopefully expand memory, gpu, etc. The thing I am most uncertain of is cooling, number of fans, what extra fans I need to buy, etc. Also what leads, screws, etc will I need to buy or what will come with these parts? I would also like a 4k monitor with excellent colour but the markets seems pretty limited at the moment. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance and any help appreciated!

PCPartPicker part list: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Kg6yzy
Price breakdown by merchant: http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/p/Kg6yzy/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor (£299.00)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (£93.80 @ Amazon UK)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste
Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard (£290.97 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR4-3000 Memory (£137.78 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£132.00 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital Green 4TB 3.5" 5900RPM Internal Hard Drive (£108.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£164.98 @ Amazon UK)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 970 4GB Twin Frozr V Video Card (£272.16 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Cooler Master HAF X ATX Full Tower Case (£121.89)
Power Supply: EVGA 850W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£99.99 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/RSBS DVD/CD Writer (£18.99 @ Amazon UK)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional Full (32/64-bit)
Monitor: Dell U2414H 60Hz 23.8" Monitor (£0.00)
External Storage: Western Digital Elements 5TB External Hard Drive (£128.12)
Other: CSL 3.5" all-in-one USB 3.0 (Super Speed) card reader | 2 x USB 3.0 | Multi-function panel in black | SD / SDHC / Mini SDHC / Micro SDHC / USB / XD / CF / MD (£14.85)
Total: £1883.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-13 17:04 BST+0100

 

[Michaelgd]

Any opinions/suggestions? I am also wondering should I consider the i7 4790k and associated parts instead of the 5820k. My proposed alternative is here:

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/michaelgd/saved/hsmhP6

 

[g-unit1111]

I think a lot of your funds are mismanaged here. If you already have two 4TB hard drives, and you want a large case to accommodate several hard drives, what's the external 5TB hard drive for?

You also don't need the thermal compound - that's a waste of money. I'd also go for a stronger air cooler over liquid if you're going to be using this as a business machine, you want as little downtime as possible.

 

[Michaelgd]

Thanks for your response g-unit1111. The extra 5TB hard drive is for an offsite backup. The only reason I picked this one is that it is better value than the WD 4TB and I can also use it to back up another 1TB harddrive.

I was under the impression that the thermal compound was very important for effective cooling of the CPU and that water cooling was more suitable for high computational loads. Could you give me a little more info please?

I think a lot of your funds are mismanaged here. If you already have two 4TB hard drives, and you want a large case to accommodate several hard drives, what's the external 5TB hard drive for?

You also don't need the thermal compound - that's a waste of money. I'd also go for a stronger air cooler over liquid if you're going to be using this as a business machine, you want as little downtime as possible.

 

[bambiboom]

Michaelgd,

There is nothing far wrong with your proposed system, except I would point out that the i7-5820K provides only 28 PCIe lanes and this will mean that adding a 2nd GPU will be running it out of lanes. Also, I think an 850W PSU might be 750W- I have an HP 6-core LGA2011 workstation that can run 2X 200W GPU's and it has a 600W PSU. I also don't recommend overclocking in a scientific system for reasons of stability. As for cooling, liquid cooling is not a big advantage over efficient air systems and liquid cooling is also quite a bit noisier- not desirable in a workstation. As for GPU, if you're doing large computational projects- judging by the size of the stoage drives a GTX is not the best choice as you will want the highest double precision. Also, NVIDIA tends to separate their visualisation GPU's - Quadro- from the computational series- Tesla, so if you want to use CUDA coprocessing, you might consider a used Tesla coprocessor instead of a 2nd GPU:

NVIDIA Tesla M2090 6GB GDDR5 PCIe x16 GPU Computing Processor Card w/ Bracket > £94.81

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NVIDIA-Tesla-M2090-6GB-GDDR5-PCIe-x16-GPU-Computing-Processor-Card-w-Bracket-/371304731183?hash=item56737c922f

> but keep count of the PCIe lanes as these need x16 as for a GPU. If you're an intensive use of Autodesk, Adobe, Solidworks, programmes, it is an advantage to stay with CUDA but consider the alternative of an AMD Firepro as AMD integrates computational precision. This will be a matter of priority of use- computational or visualisation but a Quadro / Tesla combination would be my choice if you're for example using MATLAB.

But, in general, the performance should be reasonably good.

An alternative that seems to offer a much better cost / performance is possibly:

DELL PRECISION T7610 Barebone Workstation ! Build your own System !! > £224.23 or offer + £44 post
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/DELL-PRECISION-T7610-Barebone-Workstation-Build-your-own-System-/321567999837?hash=item4adef2475d

> to shich you need only plug in one or two Xeon E5-2600 v2-series CPU(s) , RAM- I'd say 64GB, a Quadro/Tesla or even Quadro / Tesla / Tesla- remember a dual Xeon E5 will provide 80 PCIe lanes, a good LSI SAS /SATA RAID controller, and the drives. f you're using mutlit-threaded simulation or custom algorithmic software, you can have a 20 core /40 thread system with 2000+ CUDA coprocessing cores and an amazingly robust disk subsystem- all at popular prices:


T7610 "Barebones"______________ £280
2X E5-2680 v2 _________________ £850 > CPU score = up to 25609 on T7610
64GB DDR3-1866 ECC____________ £320
Used Quadro K4200______________ £420
Tesala M2090____________________£100
LSI 9361-8i_____________________ £180 (used) Passmark DISK score up to 78465 !
Samsung 850 EVO 500GB_________ £132
2X WD Black 4TB ________________£330
______________________________________

TOTAL = £2612

The E5-2680 v2 is 10 core / 20 thread @ 2.8 /3.6Ghz:

http://ark.intel.com/products/75277/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-2680-v2-25M-Cache-2_80-GHz

Yes, far above budget in finished form. However, using the prices above, that system initially may be built with: one CPU, 32GB RAM, no Tesla GPU, and no RAID controller for £1752. In this way you can quickly assemble a system- plugging in components to the Precision T7610 that provide capabilities above the proposed all new system and then as demands increase, also significantly extend the system capabilities and capacities far in excess that the i7-5820K configuration would allow. The resulting system use could extend it's usefulness by years and as the components are already depreciated, when sold the T7610 would have a substantially higher value to apply to the next system.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

Pending upgrade: HP /LSI 9212-4i PCIe SAS /SATA HBA RAID controller, 2X Seagate Constellation ES.3 1TB (RAID 1)

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3490 / CPU = 9178 / 2D= 685 / 3D= 3566 / Mem= 1865 / Disk= 2122] [Cinebench 15 > CPU = 772 OpenGL= 99.72 FPS] 7.8.15