Workstation build

disco28

disco28

disco28

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Joined
18 May 2014
Posts
13
I am a programmer not a gamer, I'd like to update my old LGA 1366 i7 920 setup.

I want an Intel based bundle with 4 cores and hyperthreading, and 12+ GB RAM.

My case is full tower and supports upto ATX form factor.

I do not require overclocking so possibly H97 chipset ?

I'd like on board sound but will be using a discrete graphics card.

Bit out of touch with whats about so was hoping for some pointers.

many thanks

David
 
I have an existing Samsung 22 inch LED monitor, I am planning to maybe upgrade it to a 4k one though.
I have a GTX 295, but plan on replacing it with a GTX 770 because I will need a DisplayPort for my new monitor.
So I just need a graphics card capable of 4k resolutions and GPGPU/CUDA capable is a bonus.

I have Windows 7, 8.1 and Server 2012, I will probably stick with Windows 7 until Windows 9 arrives.

Got the usual extras, 1000W PSU, ATX tower case, Sata SSD, Sata HDD, mouse, keyboard, scanner, printer, router, etc.

Budget, £400-£600, for mobo, CPU and RAM, maybe more if theres a good reason, funds not really a problem.
 
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Here is a spec on the low end of the budget. You said you won't be overclocking so you may as well go for the 4790 (Haswell Refresh) and a H97 board as you previously stated. I haven't specced a cooler though you may wan't to invest £30~50 even if you aren't overclocking.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £221.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G1600HC9DC01) £99.95
1 x Gigabyte H97-HD3 Intel H97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £74.99
Total : £406.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Ideally, with a budget of £600 you would get the Asus Z97-WS, 4770K, H100i/H110 and 16GB of some kind of high speed memory (I favour Corsair Pro Red as it's 2133Mhz AND CL9). However, the WS is not currently stocked by overclockers and since you don't plan on overclocking, the 4790 is fine and will outperform a 4770K at stock speeds.
 
Thanks! Is the stock intel retail cooler really that bad at standard voltages ?

Will a H110 generate less noise ? Does it require servicing ?
I don't really want be checking water levels etc

I'd prefer a quieter machine that draws less power rather than an overclocked one.
 
The all in one water coolers require no maintenance but form a quick dust now and then as with any cooler.

A after market cooler will help to keep things quiet when the system is being stressed.
 
I have a Silverstone Fortress FT01 case, its got single 180mm top fan, not dual 120mm, so looks like H110 is out.

Any other coolers guaranteed to make the system quieter, given that the case fans and possibly GPU fans will be generating noise anyway ?

Ok so it might be worth going Z97 for higher memory speed, but I still don't intend to overclock, is Asus Z97-WS the one or does Gigabyte do something decent cheaper ?

Anything else I need to think about to attempt to 'future proof' mobo like Sata Express etc ?
 
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Well, with the Asus Z97-WS you don't get any frills but you get extremely high quality components. That said, you can get a board that supports great overclocking, SLI, high speed RAM and aggressive aesthetic for a lower price.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £249.95
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £107.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H80i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £74.99
Total : £552.52 (includes shipping : £8.00).



Here's a nice option if you change your mind about overclocking. The H80i can be mounted in the rear single 120mm fan mount. If you really don't want to overclock, go with something like the Alpenfohn Matterhorn Pure. It's only £30 and performs excellently for the price. It's currently out of stock but I'm sure you can find equally good heatsinks in-or-around that price point.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4790 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £221.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan RED 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLD316G2133HC11ADC01) £107.99
1 x Alpenföhn Matterhorn Pure Edition CPU Cooler £29.99
Total : £479.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).



disco28 said:
Anything else I need to think about to attempt to 'future proof' mobo like Sata Express etc ?
Click to expand...

The WS supports Sata Express. As I said before, the WS would be ideal but it is expensive.
 
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I'm not that impressed with ASUS mobos, I bought top of the range £200+ P6 Deluxe V2 mobo, It had serious issues, both in design and in construction, I should RMA'ed it but there was already a delay on my order so kept it. (The V2 is because of design issues, not because V1 was so great they did a sequel, also two of the Sata ports were dead on arrival.)

I'd rather have a simpler mobo thats rock solid, than a flaky one with million features.

I've decided to go with this :-

1 x Intel Core i7-4790 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £221.99
1 x Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £59.99
16 GB Corsair Pro Red 2133 MHz

So I need to do a mild overclock on the memory I gather ? Can I do this while leaving the processor stock ? Will the XMP profile sort it out ?
 
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I've come round to the idea of cheaper more frequent upgrades on lower end kit, rather than big bucks on stuff that goes obsolete.

Is there a clear benefit to Socket 2011 at present ?
Will it become obsolete pretty quick like 1366

A hex core would be great, but the clock is lower and the price is pretty steep ?

If I spend over £200 on a processor I'd like it to support TSX, seems the Xeon does which is good.

The PassMark for 4790 is lot higher, also I'll never run the Xeon in SMP as its too costly for the mobo and extra processor. So I'd be better of with a consumer i7 even if I went with a socket 2011 system surely ? Socket 2011 also seems to mean I'm stuck on IvyBridge, isn't Haswell a better bet ?

I also might skip the GTX 770 initially and use the intel graphics if I can get a decent price on a mobo with displayport output ?
 
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Ok this seems to be the final pick :-

Intel Core i7-4790 3.60GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £227.99
Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-17100C11 2133MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY16GX3M2A2133C11R) £139.99
Asus Z97-A Intel Z97 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
Corsair Hydro H60 V2 High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler £59.99
 
You could save some money by purchasing a H97 chipset as you mentioned your not into overclocking.
 
Yes, but I noticed I can only run 1600 Mhz memory sticks with H97 ?

I'd be interested in mildly 'overclocking' the RAM maybe to 2133 MHz ?
(It will be running at a supported rating as it will be 2133 MHz RAM, so not overclocked, but mobo calls it overclocked. My main concern is the memory controller is on the CPU die, I don't want manual or XMP settings to exceed Intels specs.)

Can I do this while leaving the CPU stock ? I was hoping XMP would sort it for me, can someone confirm this ?

CMY16GX3M2A2133C11R is my current choice, I believe it can run reliably at 1.5v therefore meeting Intel specs.

Ruaille can't find any CL9 2133 MHz stuff at 1.5v, doesn't matter though as CAS latency is relative to clock frequency.
 
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Unless you know your work is heavily memory-bound you won't see any difference between 1600 and 2400 MHz dual channel memory. H97 and 1600 memory will almost certainly be indistinguishable from Z97 and 2400 memory.
 
Ethermaster said:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Xeon E5-2620v2 2.10GHz 6-Core with Hyperthreading & Turbo (Socket 2011) - Retail £319.99
1 x Asus P9X79 Intel X79 (Socket 2011) DDR3 Motherboard £184.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Beast 16GB (4x4GB) PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Quad Channel Kit (KHX24C11T3K4/16X) £139.99
Total : £654.58 (includes shipping : £8.00).

Click to expand...

That really is a terrible spec, I love xeons but a single E5-2620v2 @ 2.1Ghz will halve performance of the system. And a Xeon without ECC memory is also a waste. For the same money you can get a E5-1620v2.

I would go for something along the lines of the following:

E5-1620v2 - £240
Supermicro X9SRA - £230
32Gb (If required) Kingston Value Ram 1600Mhz ECC Reg - £260
Whatever cooler you require ie stock 2011 should be about £18, Supermicro 2011 should be about £35 or watercooler etc.

There you have a enterprise class setup. I will say though that those boards are a bit finiky with PSU and we use the genuine SM one.

Here is spec comparison of those: http://ark.intel.com/compare/75779,75780,75789,77780

If you are not bothered about enterprise spec but want solid workstation performance I would go for:

4930K
P9X79 WS
16-32Gb Memory
Corsair H80i.

That will give you a solid performing system that will overclock should you require it (I Use [email protected] 24/7)
 
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I'd only go Xeon for high core count and bigger cache. I don't need ECC ram.

I tend to find my systems are IO bound, I'll have a decent SSD, so the next bottleneck is RAM. However I agree the difference won't be huge.

Thanks for help, that spec comes in around £950, my spec is half that, but agree its higher end.

I think I'll wait for Haswell E and X99 for more cores and build a cheapish rig now.

Seems lot people say decent air cooler is better. Ideally I'd like a quiet low profile cooler thats better than the stock Intel one.
Maybe Zalman CNPS8900 Quiet Heatsink & Fan
 
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