Need a database cruncher for a grand

Nippletweaker · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:40

I have a £1000 pound budget to build a machine for running Access and SQL server databases and crunching large amounts of data. I am after any hints or tips on what to look for when specifying my hardware. Obviously fast hard drives and loads of memory but which processor is going togive me most bang for my buck.

All help greatfully recieved

Andrew

Brian8bit · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:47

2600k and clock the nuts off it. It'll chew through anything you throw at it at a fraction of the cost of Xeons and the i7 x9 chips.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html

Redmint · 24 Mar 2011 at 12:40

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE Shogun 2 Game £249.98
(£208.32) £249.98
(£208.32)
Gigabyte P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P67 Chipset (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - (Sandybridge) ** B3 REVISION ** £104.98
(£87.48) £104.98
(£87.48)
2x G.Skill RipJawsX 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9D-8GBXL ) £71.99
(£59.99) £143.98
(£119.98)
Antec 100 One Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - Black £43.99
(£36.66) £43.99
(£36.66)
Corsair Builder Series CX 430W ATX Power Supply (CMPSU-430CXUK) £35.99
(£29.99) £35.99
(£29.99)
Titan Fenrir Evo CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1156//LGA1366/AMD K8/AM2/AM2+/AM3) £32.99
(£27.49) £32.99
(£27.49)
MSI ATI Radeon HD 5450 512MB SILENT GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £29.99
(£24.99) £29.99
(£24.99)
Samsung SH-S223C/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £13.99
(£11.66) £13.99
(£11.66)

Sub Total : £546.57
Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £11.25
VAT is being charged at 20.00% VAT : £111.56
Total : £669.38

I left out the storage as I'm not sure what would be best for large databases, I'm guessing SSDs might not be the best idea as you'd run down their health reasonably quickly doing mass read/writes all the time so raptor drives maybe?

JonJ678 · 24 Mar 2011 at 12:50

How big are the databases expected to be?

Overclocking increases probability of data corruption. How critical is this?

Nippletweaker · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:04

Access databases are regularly hitting the 2gb limit and I have to archive off or split out big tables. This is why I'm moving to SQL server. The SQL databases could easily hit 30GB although by then I'll probably have invested in a grown up server.

I was thinking small SSD as main drive and databases on striped raptors? all on SATA 3 should be fairly nippy?

Redmint · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:08

Yeah something like that should be fine.

Redmint · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:12

Actually scrap my previous PSU suggestion, you might want to get something like this to make sure you have plenty of SATA connectors: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-007-XF&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1497

Nippletweaker · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:23

I am nervous about heavily overclocking the system as the data is fairly key. I am sure a mild overclock would be OK....

Redmint · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:24

Yeah personally I wouldn't go mad with overclocking any serious number crunching machine.

pcAnywhere · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:28

Nippletweaker said:
I am nervous about heavily overclocking the system as the data is fairly key. I am sure a mild overclock would be OK....

I'd be nervous at using Raid 0 raptors!

Raid5 and SSDs for the databases

Nippletweaker · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:39

why not Raptors?

pcAnywhere · 24 Mar 2011 at 13:56

SSDs are faster, quieter, use less power and have fewer (no) moving parts.

Admiral Huddy · 24 Mar 2011 at 14:03

iSeries

Nippletweaker · 24 Mar 2011 at 14:21

pcAnywhere said:
SSDs are faster, quieter, use less power and have fewer (no) moving parts.

Do they not wear out with repeated writes?

dewi · 24 Mar 2011 at 15:44

It sounds very similar to the server that I just bought:

Fractal Design Define R3 case
Antec TruePower New 650W PSU
Asus P8P67 Pro motherboard
Intel Core i7 2600K CPU
Noctua NH-U9B cooler
16GB (4x4GB) Corsair XMS3 memory
Asus GT 240 Silent graphics card
Adaptec ASR-5405 RAID controller
2x WD RE4 1TB drives
Pioneer DVR-S19LBK DVD writer
Intel PRO/1000CT Ethernet card
2x Akasa Apache Black case fans

For SQL Server, at least 3 spindles are recommended (one for the OS, one for the log files, one for the data). I'd recommend 6 x WD RE4 drives (3 pairs) in RAID 1.

pcAnywhere · 24 Mar 2011 at 16:00

Nippletweaker said:
Do they not wear out with repeated writes?

Unlikely in the relatively short lifetime of a PC.