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workstation rig for simulation purposes

N

nikosl7

n00b
Joined
Sep 23, 2009
Messages
11
Hi i want to build a PC for fluid simulation purposes. So i need 16-32 GB memmory, 4-6 cores and 100% linux compatibility.

Because of linux limitation, the motherboard has to be equipped with intel LAN. A cheap nvdia gpu recommendation would be nice also.

I was thinking about intel 2011 chipset and a 6core i7. But do you think that a Xeon build (with ECC RAM) would be more suitable to my needs?

Should i invest in a SSD? (A lot of code compilations will have to be done)

My budget is about 1000-1400€.
 
While you did cover most of the questions, some you haven't so can you please check the sticky topic and answer those questions. Thanks.
 
Are you going to be using GPGPU accelleration? That can improve performance signifcantly for CFD.
 
1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Research/fluid simulation/code development- compilation
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
1000-1400€, i dont care about precise prices, just an estimation of cost
3) Which country do you live in? If the U.S, please tell us the state and city if possible.
E.E
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. The word "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
Case, fans, cpu, vga, ram, ssd/hdd,psu, motherboard
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
none
6) Will you be overclocking?
Not an option, since arithmetic mistakes are not accepted
7) What is the max resolution of your monitor? What size is it?
Full HD
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
This month
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? USB 3.0? SATA 6Gb/s? eSATA? Onboard video (as a backup or main GPU)? UEFI? etc.
linux compatibility, Intel LAN and if possible onboard intel video
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? Is it 32bit or 64bit?
64bit linux
 
whitewater said:
Are you going to be using GPGPU accelleration? That can improve performance signifcantly for CFD.
Click to expand...

Not parallel processing. My code is single threaded. I will run though multiple instances of the code at the same time, that is the reason i need many cores.
 
If it's separated enough for you to be able to accomplish something through multiple instances, you can multithread the code very easily, unless you want 6 Interfaces or are outputting x86 binary where each instance is limited to 4GB. GPU acceleration can be added too...depends on your budget/achitecture/planned performance/etc, if you're not getting enough performance from 6 cores, then you're either going to have to network multiple PCs or go to GPU acceleration.
 
For now code performance is not the biggest issue for me, i just want to make sure that it represents accurately the physical problem i have to solve. So i will compile and run multiple instances of the single threaded code. Because though a full single run takes about 30days of simulation, a performance bump from a quick processor would be nice.

Is an intel xeon solution justifing the extra cost? Or should i go to plain commercial solutions?
 
30 Days of simulation? that's a very long time- how sensitive are you to errors? you're going to want a very stable system with ECC RAM and high end parts to make sure it stays stable.

Modern GPUs are compliant with the same standards for floating point calculations as CPUs, but they do not use ECC RAM - professional verions might, not sure - so though calculations can usually be trusted to a very high degree, it's not fully guaranteed.

Honestly, I'd be looking at the costs of running this program on a supercomputer, you're literally talking about doing calculations on the petaflop scale on a PC, it's likely going to be a lot cheaper/faster to rent a supercomputer for a few minutes, and they'd have much better guarantees of results than anything you do.
 
The amount of data input and output is actually pretty big. Im working on modelling large scale atmospheric pollution, and there are millions of d.e. to be solved, so this is the slowing factor ;p.

My lab has access to a farm of 60 xeon cpu's, but its a pain to prepare all the input files and start simulation on a remote pc, and then just get an error.

When im going to finalise the code, of course i'll be using the farm, but for now i need a fast workstation for compiling, debugging and "draft" simulations, just to be sure that i dont get trash results.
 
I'd guess closer to trillions or quadrillions than millions lol. If you're just doing small samples, does it matter if it's 6 core or 4 core? because you probably don't care about how parallel the simulation is running on your PC, it might improve compiling speed slightly though, regarding SSD- yes that helps with compile speed quite a bit, I doubt you need ECC, personally with large amount of IO I'd probably get a very large SSD and a quad core i5 3570k, 32GB of RAM and overclock it so my single threaded code gets done as quickly as possible
 
Have you considered multiple workstations?

Like 2, 3, or even 4 mobos, running i7 3770?

4 would give you 32 threads, and, get a switch and network the suckers.

Then with 8GB of DDR3 would not be as important to get ECC.

Just an idea.
 
whitewater said:
I'd guess closer to trillions or quadrillions than millions lol. If you're just doing small samples, does it matter if it's 6 core or 4 core? because you probably don't care about how parallel the simulation is running on your PC, it might improve compiling speed slightly though, regarding SSD- yes that helps with compile speed quite a bit, I doubt you need ECC, personally with large amount of IO I'd probably get a very large SSD and a quad core i5 3570k, 32GB of RAM and overclock it so my single threaded code gets done as quickly as possible
Click to expand...

I guess number of cores is not my top priority now. I just considered a 6 core cpu just as an overhead (4 simulations and 2 free cpus to continue with my programming duties). From what i saw from anand there is not any noticeable difference in single thread performance between i7 3820 (4core) and 3930K (6core), despite their difference in their clocks.

I think though i'll go for 2011 socket, because of the 8 dimm slots for future memmory upgrade. More memmory is always welcome :D

Could you suggest me a high capacity SSD?


SpeedyVV said:
Have you considered multiple workstations?

Like 2, 3, or even 4 mobos, running i7 3770?

4 would give you 32 threads, and, get a switch and network the suckers.

Then with 8GB of DDR3 would not be as important to get ECC.

Just an idea.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your interest, but your solution doesnt suit my current needs :)
 
That's because both an i7 3820 and the 3930K both turbo boost to 3.8Ghz. Hence why single threaded applications run similar between the two systems. Although it would be worth it to go with an 1155 setup on an i5 3570k or i7 3770k due to the fact that it's a LOT easier to overclock those to stable speeds, thus increasing the performance of your single threaded applications.

However for the kind of work you'd be doing, ensuring you have a rock solid stable overclock might not be worth your time. Therefore I'd probably spend the money on a 6 core 2011 setup OR MAYBE even a 6 or 8 core AMD setup, since you need the cores to do what you intend to do.
 
Read: 4Gb/24h .bin files
Write: 70Gb/24h .bin files

The post-processing of these .bin files is also an issue, thats mostly the reason for the ssd.
 
I'd prob just grab a Crucial M4 512GB SSD for ~450euro so you don't need to worry about it. Much smaller is prob going to be annoying to organise, larger will prob be too expensive.

But....3930 + mobo + 32GB RAM is at least ~1000 Euro
A 3930 + mobo + 32GB ram + SSD + PSU + case + GPU is going to stretch your budget, going to 64GB RAM is going to be even harder to fit in.
 
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