top-end PC for serious work

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dimmy8

n00b
Joined
Nov 30, 2008
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15
Hi everyone,

haven't been here for a long while, even forgot my previous account, but I'm in urgent need of a PC upgrade, which will mostly be used for heavy multi-tasking & huge databases stuff ...

As of now, the system looks like this:

Decided:
Case: Antec P182 (supposedly it's an excellent case if you want to build a quiet PC)

Almost decided:
Hard-drive(s): 2 x VelociRaptor (need a really fast hard-drive; for now I don't trust SSDs that much)

Deciding:
Motherboard: P6T Deluxe or Rampage II Extreme?
CPU: i7 - 940 or i7 - 965?
Power supply: Corsair TX650W or Corsair HX620?
Ram: 6-8GB of which one?

As for graphics card, I'll just get an average one with passive cooling, probably GeForce 9600 GT. I really don't need more.
OS: I'll run Vista Ultimate x64 on it.

Thanks in advance,
Dimmy

P.s.: Money is basically no-object. I mean, I don't like throwing it away, but I'm willing to pay more for quality ... as it'll pay dividends in the future anyway ...
 
Again Raptor is waste of money... if you want ready speed, get SAS SCSI Hard Drives...
 
lt_shiro said:
Again Raptor is waste of money... if you want ready speed, get SAS SCSI Hard Drives...
Click to expand...
That all depends. In terms of read/write speed, the velociraptor was considerably faster than my 147gb 15k Fujitsu SAS drive. Seek times will of course be lower on a 15k drive, but not everyone needs that.

For the power supply, I would go with the HX620 personally. Working in a smaller case like the P182, you'll appreciate modular cabling even more. Also, I wouldn't get 8gb of RAM. You want either 3 or 6 sticks for triple channel, so that gives you the option of 6, 9, or 12gb.
 
If this is for serious work, you might want to use Raid 1 to protect your data
 
Yeah, that's why there's 2 VelociRaptors. :) I plan on having them in RAID 1.

Haven't really thought about SAS SCSI drives. Will start now. :)
 
might help to tell us what kind of work man, then we can suggest hard drives for that purpose.
 
Hmmm, how to explain. Mostly I'll be dealing with databases up to 100GBs that'll contain all sorts of data which will quite often be "filtered" (meaning I'll select certain parameters then the software will find all the data from whole database that suit those parameters) ...

I'll also be doing heavy multi-tasking, but I don't think other stuff influences hard-drive performance at all ... (only a tiny bit of course)
 
Update:

I'll probably order this system tomorow:
Case: Antec P182
Power Supply: Corsair HX620
Motherboard: ASUS P6T Deluxe
CPU: i7 - 940
Ram: Corsair DDR3 1600 MHz 12GB
Hard-drive(s): 2 x VelociRaptor
Graphics card: Gigabyte GeForce 9600 GT 1GB (the best one with passive cooling I could find, I don't need more)

Any opinions?
 
it looks like a good rig, although im not sure you need a gpu that powerful.
 
I was gonna tell you to go with 12GB of memory since they are 6GB pack triple channel. Looks like your latest build has that. Looks good in my eyes. Your going to be doing MsSQL work? That i7 should be able to overclock nicely too. I just installed vista 64 with 8GB of ram this weekend, and it is extremely fast.
 
Mostly PostgreSQL.
And yeah, I'll probably overclock it a lil' bit. ;) First I didn't plan to, but with all the OC features on this board it would be a sin not to. :p
mnewxcv said:
it looks like a good rig, although im not sure you need a gpu that powerful.
Click to expand...
I'll be running 2 x 30" on it and although most todays cards should be able to run it, I just think it's wiser not to get a really cheap one, perhaps it comes in handy later.
This GPU is only a little over 100€ anyway ...
 
dimmy8 said:
Hmmm, how to explain. Mostly I'll be dealing with databases up to 100GBs that'll contain all sorts of data which will quite often be "filtered" (meaning I'll select certain parameters then the software will find all the data from whole database that suit those parameters) ...

I'll also be doing heavy multi-tasking, but I don't think other stuff influences hard-drive performance at all ... (only a tiny bit of course)
Click to expand...

Top end PC and DB work? RAID5 or 6 with a hardware RAID card like a Dell Per5/i or Per6/i, would be a better choice than RAID1 w/ VRaptors.
 
Hmmm, is hardware RAID card needed with this motherboard for RAID 5? (it supports RAID 0, 1, 10 & 5 I think; it doesn't support 6 though)

So, your suggestion is having 3 or 4 VRaptors (or some other hard-drives?) and running RAID 5 for example?
 
Cheaper drives than VRaptors. RAID5 using onboard uses the CPU, making it slower than if you had a hardware solution. I'd go with some 'cuda.11's and a Perc 5/i for around $150 from ebay.
 
Seriously, get a real workstation like a dell T5400 or an HP xw8600 with dual xeons and 15K SAS drives.
 
enginurd said:
Cheaper drives than VRaptors. RAID5 using onboard uses the CPU, making it slower than if you had a hardware solution. I'd go with some 'cuda.11's and a Perc 5/i for around $150 from ebay.
Click to expand...
The problem is that I really need VRaptors' speed. That's a very important thing.
That's also one of the problems with RAID5. Supposedly especially small writes are very slow (and I'll be having lots of small writes, every minute or so).
 
Keiichi said:
Seriously, get a real workstation like a dell T5400 or an HP xw8600 with dual xeons and 15K SAS drives.
Click to expand...
As I mentioned, it's not only databases, also heavy multi-tasking is involved.

Example what I'm usually running/doing at the same time:
- DB software importing data every minute or so
- several running software that use that DB data and then calculate, show things
- several other programs (up to 10)
- other regular software (like few firefoxes with gazillion tabs ;) , office etc.)

DB is just the background thing that I want to be running smootly, the main thing are those front software programs that need to be running perfect ...

P.s.: I'm not really familiar with Xeons. Aren't they CPU for servers?
 
dimmy8 said:
As I mentioned, it's not only databases, also heavy multi-tasking is involved.
Click to expand...
And that is why you should be using Xeons and not a consumer grade CPU (albeit it a fast one.)
dimmy8 said:
P.s.: I'm not really familiar with Xeons. Aren't they CPU for servers?
Click to expand...

Xeons are for the workstation and server market. Most workstations use the 5000 series for dually action. They also can use more ram (up to 128GB.) With all that extra stuff you had mentioned. Those raptors are going to feel like you're crawling through molasses. Consider using a 15K SAS array in Raid5 at least, Raid6 if you're paranoid about losing data.
 
Do you know of any articles and/or charts comparing Xeons to regular CPUs? I've been googling for it for the past hour, but can't find anything really useful.
Haven't really thought before about this option, so I need to at least check it now ...
 
Xeons aren't any different from regular desktop processors. Some of them just allow you to use them in dual socket configurations (well, there are the 6-core quad socket chips too, but that's for another thread).
 
RAID5 small block writes will be faster than a single drive and a RAID1 array, yet slower than a RAID5/6/0 array. The reads will be much faster than RAID1. I'm simply saying you're choosing the wrong RAID level for your application.

Xeons are server grade chips. SAS, RAID, Xeons... all enterprise level hardware. Enterprise level hardware is designed to be fault tolerant. They're designed to be reliable, last longer and run stable 24/7. Core2 vs Xeon (Intel), Athlon vs Opteron (AMD), Barracuda 7200.11 vs ES (Seagate), Caviar vs RE2 (WD), etc.
 
I wouldn't even consider the consumer grade hardware your looking at for what you want to do. A Dell dual-Xeon worstation with 15k RPM SAS drives would be my only option.
 
And I was basically decided to buy that configuration ... :)
Now you guys gave me all new things to think about. :) Especially SAS drives. They really seem to outperform the VelociRaptors especially working with databases. So the only downside of SAS drives is that they're not that special for desktop applications?
 
Forgot to mention the 10K and 15K SAS drives are loud and small in capacity.
 
I'd have to agree with the others.... for what you are doing and for business and warranty reasons I'd also suggest a dual Xeon Dell pro workstation. Also - the guy above about SAS drives being noisy and small has apparently never used a true professional workstation.... :rolleyes:

I have a Precision 690 (the 1kw version) with dual quad core Xeon 2.66 procs, 32gb of ram, and 4 15K 146GB Fujitsu Max series SAS drives (they do have 300gb SAS drives also) (on a Dell Perc 5i raid controller). This system is considerably quieter than my home built Q6600 box and and order of magnitude faster. Plus the Dell warranty and support on their COMMERCIAL (I have no idea on their consumer class systems) products is first rate. Bad whatever - they will have a tech on site within 24 hours fixing it or will also just overnight the part if you art comfy replacing it yourself.

Check at Dell Outlet - you can find some incredible deals on scratch and dent, canceled orders, refurbs there and Dell Outlet sold systems include the same full warranty as a newly configured box from their main site. In fact - servers from Dell Outlet are running this very site right now and the box I'm typing this on. :D

In the end - for business - the commercial grade professional workstations are well worth it. They have put major time and effort into assuring the components all work well together, have proper cooling, etc.

 
I will also recommend a Dell 690 or HP XW6600/8600, as I have used both, and they are defintely up to snuff; both Dual-Socket Xeon machines, well capable of what you are looking for. If money is no object, something like this will have what you need, plus support. The system you are looking at will be expensive and replacement parts will not be cheap if something shits the bed. For business, you need something that will be back up with minimal downtime.

Dell Precision 690 is huge by the way, go with the HP...
 
BTW, I think the Dell Precision 690 has been replaced by the T7400.
 
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