Need advice on 24/7 OC 4.5ghz build for dev

[shelakel]

Hey guys,

I am trying to create a replicatable build for a 24/7 4.5GHZ OC. The parts are pretty high (consumer) end - price is a factor but negotiable, because this build is purely for development purposes.

The reason why I'm opting for the hexa-core CPU is because the IDE's, database and web services are becoming more multi-threaded and thus benefit from parallelization. Typically, on the .NET ASP.NET MVC project you might build up to 60 times a minute - hence, 15 second build times aren't acceptable.

Which of the following motherboards are preferred? (I'm looking at the Formula but I have read some people suggest the extreme instead - are there any tangible benefits?)

Asus Rampage iV Formula Intel X79 Socket LGA2011 ATX Motherboard
Asus P9X79 Deluxe Intel X79 Socket LGA2011 ATX Motherboard (P9X79D)
Asus Intel X79 Express Rampage IV Extreme Extended ATX Motherboard
Asus SABERTOOTH X79 Intel X79 Socket LGA2011 ATX Motherboard (SX79)

Here are the other components:
4x Corsair Dominator Platinum 2 x 4GB 2133MHz DDR3 Memory Kit (CMD8GX3M2A2133C9)
Intel Boxed Core i7 3930K 3.20GHz Desktop Processor (BX80619I73930K)
Corsair H100 Hydro Series Processor Cooler
2x OCZ Vertex 4 256GB Solid State Drive

Will using a H100 be good enough to support a 24/7 OC? I'm also looking to use these 3 IPS monitors (central 24" is rotated 90 degrees for coding):
3x Dell U2412M 24" IPS LED LCD Monitor

Any other suggestions regarding the monitor? IPS is a requirement for wide angle view and rotation. It's quite common that the client may sit with a developer to make quick small adjustments or that the developer demo's the application. Crappy LCD's don't make for a nice viewing angle for 9 people.

Given that the requirement is 3 monitors, what graphics' card is suggested that can handle all 3? This is not a gaming rig, but some UI's (Like IDE's) are graphic card-accelerated - I was considering something like the Asus NVIDIA GeForce GTX560Ti DirectCU II Graphic Card (ENGTX560 Ti DC2/2DI/2GD5).

Given a graphics card in that range, what kind of PSU should I be looking at? Will a 850 90% efficient PSU be sufficient, if so - any suggestions?

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

(PS. Anyone know of companies/individuals who custom build and OC these kind of systems in South Africa?)

 

[Knufire]

You could probably drop the motherboard down to an ASRock Extreme6. You still get the 8 RAM slots, but don't need the extra OCing features, as a 4.5GHz OC isn't a enormously high OC for those chips. The Forumla and Extreme specifically are designed for benchmarking and subzero cooling, not exactly for typical users.

Fast memory also doesn't make a difference in 99% of tasks. I'd go with some DDR3-1600 CL9 sticks.

RAIDing SSDs isn't a good idea, you lose TRIM support and access times may increase slightly. Stick with a single SSD drive. If you're not planning to run them in RAID, two is fine.

My suggestion for monitors would be a Q270 from Ebay. Similar price to the U2412M, but the same panel as the 2711M or the Apple 27" Cinema Display. These displays require the use of a dual-DVI port though, and most video cards only have one.

850W is way overkill. This is more the 500-550W range. Efficiency doesn't make it a better PSU persay, just means that it draws less power from the wall.

Anybody building this for you is probably going to rip you off on component price and build charge. Not to mention if anything goes wrong, shipping stuff back to them, etc. is going to result in longer downtime. I'd build/OC it yourself.

My recommendation:

• 3930K + H100
• ASRock X79 Extreme6
• 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5V (This gives you 32GB of RAM but leaves you room to upgrade)
• GTX560Ti
• 2 x Radeon HD 6450s or any cheap GPU with a dual-link DVI port (To run auxillery monitors. Displayport to Dual-Link DVI adapter cost more than cheap GPUs do)
• OCZ Vertex 4 512GB
• 3 x Korean 27" 2560x1440 (They sell under several brands, Catleap being the most popular. Might have to search a bit for one with a rotatable stand)
• 550-600W PSU, not sure what's available in your country.

 

[shelakel]

Thanks for your feedback Knufire.

The extreme6 seems good enough, but I'm worried about the availability in South Africa ( I could only find 1 supplier ).

The Formula is probably the next best option in terms of price and availability.

Following your advice for looking at cheaper GPU's, I have stumbled across the Club3d Radeon HD6450 Noiseless Edition which are pretty cheap, offer HDMI, VGA and DVI and according to their website uses 20 Watt under maximum load.

I reckon 3 of them would be sufficient.

In regards to the RAM, 32GB seems reasonable, but I don't see that we will be requiring more than 16GB of RAM. The 2133 is ideal because of other factors - perhaps not in terms of web development, but if you're doing app development it's like launching a game every few minutes. Can you recommend any CL9 8GB 2133MHZ RAM? I don't think there are 8GB modules in the Corsair Dominator Platinum 2133 range.

The SSD's definitely won't be put into RAID - we usually have enough fail-overs including cvs and nas. We also prefer having 2 SSD so we can put the OS and non-dev software on the one and our dev software on the other.

I'll definitely consider the Q270 if we can import it into South Africa. Will we be able to run one Q270 vertically (dev setup -> horizontal, vertical, horizontal)? If not, can you suggest a grip or similar?

Thanks again for your advice.