Advice for new work rig

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Weaksauce
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Aug 12, 2013
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I'm buying a new rig in about 6 weeks and need some general advice. The machine will be used solely for programming and running some math computations. I'm looking for reliability and performance, so I do not care about overclocking, but I do need a fast CPU/RAM and need to be sure that I can run a simulation on it for a few days without anything blowing up. Current hardware choices are as follows:

http://pcpartpicker.com/user/eof/saved/29Jf

I'm especially interested in comments about the RAM, PSU and mobo, e.g. how reliable is the RAM with standard cooling at its rated speed? All my old motherboards have been from Abit (RIP)/Asus/Gigabyte, so I have no experience with ASRock, but it seems to be getting good ratings at many hardware sites. However, I'm not sure how well a quick test tells you anything about reliability when running it 24/7 for a few months (i.e. do I expect to get a hardware related crash every few weeks or so).
 
I'd get a Dell Optiplex 9010 with next-day warranty support.

The Optiplex's generally are reliable and next day support is fantastic. A stock clocked 3770 should be good enough. You should be able to spec it out nicely under $1200 after warranties are added.
 
One problem is actually that I need a Haswell for AVX2 support. I'm actually a researcher working from home and need this for some compiler optimization stuff we are working on. Dell doesn't seem to support Haswell CPU's. I'm also not sure how much of a difference DDR3-2133 makes in comparison to DDR3-1600. Most of what I do is very memory intensive.
 
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You want the Dell Precision range of workstations, not the Optiplex range. They use Haswell processors. The T1700 can take 16 GB RAM.
 
@OP

What kind of researcher are you? What is your field of work?

I am a developer and CFD engineer. So for me, both CPU performance and memory bandwidth are important, but I get more benefit from more memory than memory speed (ie going from 1600 to 2133).
 
I'm a mathematician and my work is mainly in cryptography. But we also do some formal verification related things. The formal verification stuff often requires huge search trees with lots of memoization for pruning which eats up tons RAM. The crypto side is often about loading huge tables into RAM and is more dependent on throughput.
 
You want the Dell Precision range of workstations, not the Optiplex range. They use Haswell processors. The T1700 can take 16 GB RAM.

I forgot about the Precision line. Strange that the optiplex is offered with 32GB RAM and the t1700 only goes to half that.
 
It looks like there are no options for choosing RAM amount on the Dell Precision. There is a 16GB model, but it has a Xeon E3-1220 V3, not an i7 4770. After googling some benchmarks, it looks like the Core i7 4770 runs circles around it.
 
It looks like there are no options for choosing RAM amount on the Dell Precision. There is a 16GB model, but it has a Xeon E3-1220 V3, not an i7 4770. After googling some benchmarks, it looks like the Core i7 4770 runs circles around it.

If you use the chat function or call in to Dell they can customize the PC however you want. Although it might be cost effective to get the lowest amount of memory and just add that yourself.
 
Does anyone know what the 1TB HDDs used by Dell in these machines are? The rig I compiled myself would have two fairly good 1TB drives and costs at least $300-400 less than the Dell (after adding The Asus 27" screens to a comparable Dell)
 
The price is not really that much of an issue though and I need to check the prices on Amazon.it and other Italian stores, since I will buy the machine in Italy once I move there in mid-September.
 
Dell's Optiplex and Precision lines are both generally excellent in terms of reliability. I cringe when I am called into an office full of HPs, but when I see Optiplexes or Precisions it is actually somewhat calming. One problem with them though is that they often have a hefty premium associated with incremental upgrades. If you do go with a Dell, I would suggest what others have suggested and just take the base memory package, then add some more yourself. A lot of the time it is much cheaper to do it that way.

The i7-4770 is not a significant upgrade over a 3770, but at the price you have listed and with the requirement for the advanced instruction set, I'm not going to talk you out of it.

I'm not so sure on the downdraft CPU cooler, unless your case lacks the space for a tower cooler. I stand by the Hyper 212+ as one of the best bang-for-the-buck CPU coolers. It should definitely fit in that NZXT case. I've been using them on everything from Core 2 Quads - Ivy Bridges and Athlon 64 x2s - FXs. Never an issue with heat unless there was some serious OCing and very quiet.

ASRock has been good to me with motherboards, so I don't think you'll see any issues there.

G.Skill memory has been hit or miss for me. Also, I'm not sure that DDR3-2133 will provide a significant performance bump over DDR3-1600. I know it does when factoring in integrated GPU performance, but from a general CPU performance standpoint, you see fractions of a percent increases with the higher speed modules.

If you can find them for the right price, WD RE4 drives are amazing in terms of reliability. The Caviar Black line is the next best thing, but I've had issues with them of late. One involved the firmware being set to shutdown the drive during idle periods that would make using my computer unbearable because it would literally pause every few minutes. Another involves the high bad-sector rate with increased platter density. I've had 3 or 4 1TBs fail within a year, but my enterprise storage drives are still going strong 3 years later.

The video card choice seems solid for general purpose computing and some gaming once in a while.

I cannot stress enough how much I love NZXT cases. I've owned quite a few and used a bunch of others for builds for customers or friends. The Tempest has a nice interior layout, which I think is identical to the Source 210 line. Solid performance at an unbeatable price.

The Rosewill PSU received a Silver Award on Hardware Secrets, so that seems like a decent choice. If you can grab a Seasonic or Seasonic-made Antec, Corsair, etc. for a similar price, great, but don't lose any sleep over your choice if not.

ASUS LCDs have been great to me. They work well and have held up for years in several different environments.
 
Thanks for the comments. I switched to the WD RE4's in my list, since this is a very minor change in price and took the recommendation about the cooler. I'm not sure if paying $50 more for the PSU is worth the investment.
 
I'm unfamiliar with Rosewill as a brand of PSU. I'll note that [H] reviewed their 500W model here and recommend against it.
 
Alright, maybe I should go with the SeaSonic PSU. A few people told me that this one should be good, but I guess going with a known quality brand is a better idea than risking it.
 
The case you chose isn't a good choice since you can get the more feature filled (more USB 3.0 ports and an extra fan) NZXT Elite for the same price:
$43 - NZXT Source 210 Elite White with Black Front Trim ATX Case

The Rosewill Capstone series PSUs are actually good PSUs. The only real problem is its customer support which may be shared with Newegg since Rosewill is Newegg's house brand. But outside of possible customer support issues, the Rosewill Capstone PSUs are good. With that said, the Seasonic SSR-550M 550W PSU costs around $80.

As for the RAM, you won't notice an iota of real world performance difference between DDR3 2133 and DDR3 1333 RAM. So don't spend the extra cash at all for higher-speed RAM.
 
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OK. I googled a few benchmarks and it does seem like even for memory intensive workloads the difference is around 1-2%. Can anyone recommend some high quality 16GB (2x8GB) kit?
 
I've updated the configuration in the link in my original post. I don't think it has any weak spots anymore, since GPU performance is not an issue. I have a hard time seeing why I should invest in a brand computer like a Dell workstation, except for maybe quick support. If anyone has any thoughts on that point, please enlighten me.
 
The main reason to buy a Dell is for the next business day support that comes with most of their Dell business PCs. So if you can't afford the PC to be down for long, Dell's NBD support is very useful. If you don't have spare parts on hand or have another PC where you can test parts in, the Dell starts making more sense. In addition, if you're not all that experienced in troubleshooting PC issues, then again, the Dell starts making more sense. Then again, if you don't mind the PC being down for a month while you RMA parts, then go DIY.

Also, you don't need such a high wattage PSU. You'll be fine with this:
$80 - Seasonic G Series SSR-550RM 550W Modular PSU

With that said, if you want a good reason to build the PC over getting a Dell and don't mind spending an extra $400, then get a socket 2011 setup. Socket 2011 setups are where it's more cost-effective to build the PC than it is to get a Dell, even without spare parts or troubleshooting experience.
 
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Looks like you have things sorted out, but I am a bit surprised that you're spending $90 on a keyboard. Do you have some great love for typing code/writeups on mechanical switches, or did you just buy it because it looks nice?

That is a gaming-oriented keyboard with features built to keep the pickiest gamer happy. If all you want is a quality typing surface, you could be satisfied with something simple like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126307

Membrane keyboards are what ALL OEMs use, and they are perfectly good for massive amounts of typing.
 
I used to love Keytronics from the early 90's, so I was trying to find a keyboard with a similar feel, which mechanical keyboards supposedly have. Regarding Dell's support, I don't have trouble troubleshooting issues myself. I do know how to put a computer together, having built my first one in the early 90's. After my teenage years I stopped caring about knowing every single component out there and overclocking them to the max, so I'm sort off clueless about brands when it comes to what to buy nowadays, but putting everything together and troubleshooting parts haven't changed.

Comparing what I have here to a Dell, it does still seem a hell of a lot cheaper. If it boils down to support, then building it myself is the solution, since there's much more room for expansion etc. My current rig has also been pretty stable, since I've often had uptimes of close to 150 days on it, before having to reboot it for some like updating the kernel. It has only crashed once a couple of times and every time because of buggy display drivers.

Thanks for the tip about the PSU. I'll switch to a smaller one.
 
Updated the configuration again. I think I have something final here unless I have the wrong impression about the keyboard.

Thanks a ton for all the help.
 
I'm unfamiliar with Rosewill as a brand of PSU. I'll note that [H] reviewed their 500W model here and recommend against it.

I have the 450W Rosewill Capstone (80+ Gold) Modular. It's been working steady for a year now, and it comes with a 5 Year Warranty. I can't speak of anything outside of their Capstone series though.
 
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