Number cruncher spec - opinions please

Vicky

Vicky

Vicky

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Joined
4 Mar 2009
Posts
14
As your knowledge was so invaluable last time I needed to spec a computer I thought I would ask opinions on my latest creation :p

It's a number crunching machine for work (mainly using MATLAB), and the scripts I've written dont seem to want to split across multiple cores too often (hence the 3.33GHz Intel with TurboBoost to 3.6GHz). As its a work machine I cant really OC it :(, as its not mine to mess around with and any damage would be a major problem!

I dont really need a super graphics card for anything, as you can no doubt tell from the spec below!

Any comments/ suggestions appreciated :D. Budget is about what I've spent (suprise suprise).

Thanks in advance!


Intel Core i7 975 3.33Ghz (Nehalem) Extreme Edition (Socket LGA1366) - Retail [BX80601975] £829.98
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £15.99
Asus P6X58D Premium Intel X58 (Socket 1366) DDR3 Motherboard [90-MIBAB0-G0EAY00Z] £239.99
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Triple Channel (TR3X6G1333C9) [TR3X6G1333C9] £139.99
Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB SATA-II 64MB Cache - OEM (WD10EARS) [WD10EARS] £68.98
XFX ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card [HD-545X-YNH2] £39.99
Antec 300 Three Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black [0761345-08300-3] £42.99
Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) [CMPSU-650TXUK] £78.98
LiteOn IHAS324-32 24x DVD±RW ReWriter SATA - (Black) Retail [IHAS324-32] £19.99
Dell IN2010N 20" Widescreen LCD Monitor [858-10178] £99.99
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) [GFC-00599] £80.99

Total cost £1,674.03 inc. VAT
 
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2 CPU Cooler (Socket 939 / AM2 / AM3 / 775 / 1156 / 1366) £15.99 is ok but i wood use the h50-1 onthe 975
 
What about this?

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Figured its an alternative as you stated the programs you use dont split across multiple cores well, this i5 has higher base clock and more aggressive turbo mode, included 8 gig of RAM for the boost, and the mobo uses integrated gfx which will be fine for your uses, Ive included 2 better HDDs, theyre faster and by using 2 you can run RAID1 which adds redundnacy in case of a HDD failiure, prob something work would appreciate, works out a damn site cheaper overall too. Whether you go this route or your route you dont need a 650W PSU, 450W will be fine for both using integrated/low end gfx
Add in your monitor and OS, again for work would they benefit from bigger monitor? higher version of win?
 
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If its for a wok machine, maybe you convince them to go for this pre-overclocked bundle. It will be much faster than the 975 (if left at stock) and the entire kit costs less that the 975 on its own.

Also, if you are going for this kind of budget - you may find an SSD to be of use. This would be my suggestion. However, if this is too much, then stulid's suggestion of a Samsung F3 is a good one, it is much faster than the WD Green.

Also, you may want to consider a bigger monitor for some more screen real-estate. This one is far bigger and not much more expensive.
 
Thanks for the rapid suggestions!

Would water cooling be necessary/recommended even tho I'm not OCing it. Would it just be a bit overkill? Also I'm not convinced by supervisor would go for it:rolleyes:
It's definitely a potential upgrade if I find its running too hot, and might be easier to get past him/'people in charge of the money' then!

Why the Samsung drive over the WD? Is it rpm, cant find the WD rpm anywhere at the mo.
 
the green drive you included is an economy one, its quieter and uses less power but spins lower, they donr release the rpm as they claim it uses intellispin between 5400 and 7200rpm but its thought to be much nearer the lower, if you like WD look at the black versions, as above 2 in RAID1 is probably a good idea for important data protection
 
95thrifles said:
~i5 spec~
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, so I went back to check out benchmarks for single threded performance of the Clarkdales. This is what I found. So even in a single threaded app, the i7 still wins clock-for-clock.

I agree that the i5 is pretty good value for the performance you get, but for the best performance in this task I still think the i7 is the best bet.
 
Thanks for all the replies!!

I was also thinking maybe another smaller fast HD for the OS and MATLAB, leaving TB drive for starage. What would you recommend there?
 
What about the 40GB version? I could maybe stretch to that! Any good, or not big enough? BTW Thinking I might dual boot the system Win7 and linux (dont have to both be on the SSD, unless I'm wrong to think I can do that)
 
Yeah you can dual boot with OSs on different drives, 40GB might be big enough but I don't know how much Matlab takes up really so you might want to check this on the current machine.
 
Thank you all for your replies :D they are much appreciated and very useful as I have always found on here!

I have now submitted the spec to my supervisor, and he has said its within budget. Since he also said the +£1000 Dell nearest spec -but far inferior- system was within the acceptable range I have cheekily gone for the 80GB Intel SSD instead of the 40GB!:p

Now it just has to pass the next rounds of approval! Cross your fingers and hope you don't hear from me with a long list of construction problems if it gets through!

Thanks again, you guys are great :cool:

Vicky.
 
Don't put a H50 in a workstation. It performs on a par with a good heatsink but offers a greater risk of leaks than a large piece of metal does.

I can't get matlab to span multiple cores effectively either, it's frustrating having one or two under load with another 6 threads idle. Such is life I suppose.
 
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