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Alienraptor
Weaksauce
- Joined
- Dec 2, 2004
- Messages
- 117
So my roommate is looking to build a desktop, for primarily non-gaming purposes. It wouldn't hurt to be able to do some graphics processing, but it is certainly not the objective.
The key requirements are that it be stable, inexpensive, and fast for data processing (he works, among other things, with large volumes of data and does a lot of statistics work with Stata and R, and he works in the Baker Laboratory, which operates Rosetta@home).
My initial advisement was to start with a barebones and throw in a Quad-core and hurl RAM at it (4GB), but one issue is that barebones tend to have craptastic motherboards and thus hinder the build. The budget concern is a pretty significant one too; I think he is aiming for a target well below $1000 with the following required components:
PSU
Case
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
HDD (capacity is not important; external drives for mass storage)
Any method of video output, onboard is fine
Monitor (LCD)
He already has a mouse and keyboard and speakers, and the optical drive is trivial. I guess my main question is how to approach this build, and perhaps more specifically:
1. What are some inexpensive but reliable power supplies? I'm leaning toward the inconspicuous, very generic Seasonic models. High wattage shouldn't be an issue, basically any modern power supply should be able to power a build such as this one. Stability is much more important.
2. What are some inexpensive but sturdy cases? There are plenty of cheap cases for sure, but this should be unassuming and easy to work with. Steel is fine.
I'll start from there, since the PSU and case are the two areas where the main issue is stability and quality, and performance is essentially of no object. Thanks for any insight!
The key requirements are that it be stable, inexpensive, and fast for data processing (he works, among other things, with large volumes of data and does a lot of statistics work with Stata and R, and he works in the Baker Laboratory, which operates Rosetta@home).
My initial advisement was to start with a barebones and throw in a Quad-core and hurl RAM at it (4GB), but one issue is that barebones tend to have craptastic motherboards and thus hinder the build. The budget concern is a pretty significant one too; I think he is aiming for a target well below $1000 with the following required components:
PSU
Case
Motherboard
CPU
RAM
HDD (capacity is not important; external drives for mass storage)
Any method of video output, onboard is fine
Monitor (LCD)
He already has a mouse and keyboard and speakers, and the optical drive is trivial. I guess my main question is how to approach this build, and perhaps more specifically:
1. What are some inexpensive but reliable power supplies? I'm leaning toward the inconspicuous, very generic Seasonic models. High wattage shouldn't be an issue, basically any modern power supply should be able to power a build such as this one. Stability is much more important.
2. What are some inexpensive but sturdy cases? There are plenty of cheap cases for sure, but this should be unassuming and easy to work with. Steel is fine.
I'll start from there, since the PSU and case are the two areas where the main issue is stability and quality, and performance is essentially of no object. Thanks for any insight!
