Fastest workstation for £1200?

countchocula

countchocula

countchocula

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Joined
7 May 2021
Posts
8
Hi all,
I'm looking to build (or buy assembled) the fastest workstation possible for £1200. It will be used for processing UAV imagery with Pix4D. So, CPU speed is the most important thing, with single thread speed being more important than number of cores (though the latter is helpful). Thinking Ryzen 7 if I can fit it under budget. I could live with 64 GB RAM, but 128 GB would be ideal. 1TB SSD would do it for storage, and I won't really need a graphics card (can just use one laying around work here). I'd be happy to go with used/refurbished stuff. Hoping someone here might be able to point me in a good direction? Many thanks in advance...
 
Thanks for your reply. I didn't say I wouldn't put a GPU in there, just that I don't need to buy one. The level of the GPU doesn't really matter that much though, as long as it supports CUDA and OpenGL. See https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Pix4D-207/Hardware-Recommendations for an example. I have plenty of personal experience with this. The GPU only plays a relatively small role in one of the steps. So, we could get into a long debate about this, but I'd prefer to just skip it (please), and get to the question about building the system above, without GPU, for £1200... thanks!

also, looking at that link I posted, it seems the Ryzen 9's really crank. Not sure if that's out of the question for £1200...

EDIT: oh boy, ryzen 9's *so* out of the question...
 
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Built yourself the best you are going to get for a 5900X + 128GB RAM is ~£1500, drop it down to 64GB you can save ~£270, and still leave the other two slots open for an upgrade but with a photogrammetry rig depending on the projects you are doing that extra RAM really helps.

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 3.7 GHz 12-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 4 50.5 CFM CPU Cooler
Motherboard: MSI MAG B550 TOMAHAWK ATX AM4 Motherboard
Memory: Patriot Viper 4 Blackout 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory (2x kits of this)
Storage: Western Digital SN750 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive
Case: be quiet! Pure Base 600 ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: be quiet! Pure Power 11 CM 600 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply

~£1500

Probably want to get a few extra fans to keep it very cool, and very quiet.
 
 
Yeah, I'll push for the 128GB, I agree. It's me controlling the budget, but under the gaze of grant administrators, so... :)

Thanks @mickyflinn! I think i'm going to have to spend £1500 to get that 128gb...
 
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countchocula said:
@mickyflinn - your total there comes out to £1179.95, unless I'm mistaken... 128 GB of the Viper 4 that @Journey suggested on amazon (can't find it on overclockers) runs a bit over £500. So, that'll take me over £1200 (alas), but I think still close enough for me to go for it...
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No my total is exactly that My build only has 64gb of ram using overclockers .

Jounreys build if 128gb Is good but cant talk about competitors pricing as its against the forum rules.
 
countchocula said:
yep, sorry @mickyflinn, i wasn't adding in the 2nd RAM module, edited my post to reflect that (and also to conform to forum rules - sorry!). Thanks for all the help!
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I always find it worthwhile e-mailing the sales team and getting them to do a price for a whole basket of goods for you, I am sure they'd be happy to help if it means you'd be buying things elsewhere. :)
 
My university has a license for windows 10 upgrades, but only for machines that already have windows installed. Anyone know where I can buy a cheap legit Windows 7 or 8 key?
 
countchocula said:
My university has a license for windows 10 upgrades, but only for machines that already have windows installed. Anyone know where I can buy a cheap legit Windows 7 or 8 key?
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You want windows 10 for a new build as for keys they can be brought oniLine for around £10 , you just need to download windows 10 and put it on a usb drive .

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Students get windows 10 education free apparently its something you should look into as it offers more features.
 
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