New build advice (update)

[Opusbuild]

Approximate Purchase Date: Assembly should be completed by Mid August

Budget Range: £600

System Usage from Most to Least Important: Numerical and computational analysis, engineering software (CAD, FEA, etc), Work, Gaming, expected to be running most of the time.

Are you buying a monitor: No, using my current monitors and hd tv via hdmi connection.

Do you need to buy OS: Yes, Windows 7 64 bit

Preferred Website(s) for Parts: ebuyer/dabs (UK based)

Location: UK

Parts Preferences: None

Overclocking: Not initially, but maybe in the future

SLI or Crossfire: Maybe

Additional Comments: It is really important that the system can manage numerical computations, efficiently. Currently for example I have an 8 GB RAM PC and there is not enough memory to run some analysis. For my analysis, I can select the number of CPU cores and amount of RAM to allocate, the more CPU cores/speed and the more RAM, the faster the analysis gets done.

I have two builds, one if based on the i5 processor and the other is based on the amd fx processor. Still not sure which way to go?

I have detailed the specs in a spreadsheet https://dl.dropbox.com/u/47274064/P [...] latest.xls

I have also listed the builds below:

AMD BUILD
Corsair Memory 600W Builder Series CX V2 ATX PSU
Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
AsRock 970 Extreme3 Motherboard
AMD Bulldozer 3.1 Ghz 8 Core
Coolermaster Hyper 212 EVO CPU Cooler
Kingston 16GB DDR3 1600MHz XMP HyperX Memory
LG DVD R
Sapphire HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue 7200RPM 16MB SATA 6Gb/s
Crucial CT064M4SSD2 64GB M4 SSD
Total Cost: £595

INTEL BUILD
Corsair Memory 600W Builder Series CX V2 ATX PSU
Antec 300 Three Hundred Case
Asus P8H77-V S1155 Intel Z77 DDR3 ATX
Intel Core i5-3570K S1155 3.4GHz 6MB
Kingston 16GB DDR3 1600MHz XMP HyperX Memory
LG DVD R
Sapphire HD 7750 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E Graphics Card
Western Digital 500GB Caviar Blue 7200RPM 16MB SATA 6Gb/s
Crucial CT064M4SSD2 64GB M4 SSD
Total Cost: £631

I would really appreciate your
1) feedback and suggestions
2) Which one would you go for, based on my requirements
3) Any changes you would make
4) Thoughts on the cost

Thanks, I am learning lots and getting more experience before finalising my build.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

How many cores will your computation software use?

 

[Opusbuild]

It can use as many as is available, i.e. if I have 8 cores, I am select to use 8 cores when running this analysis

Same case with the RAM, the more RAM you have, the more you can allocate to the analysis which speeds up the run times. Also, if the analysis is very complex, it will need more than 8GB in some case. I currently use 8GB and in some cases it's still not enough.

Thanks

 

[ATMINSIDE]

I would have to suggest the AMD platform then, for the 8 cores.

If it was an i7 instead of an i5, it would be a tough call because of the hyper-threading.

 

[Knufire]

But Bulldozer isn't a true 8 core either.

What really matters is whether his calculations are integer or FLOP.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

But Bulldozer isn't a true 8 core either.

What really matters is whether his calculations are integer or FLOP.

Right, but there's still the same (4) modules as the i5 and more (8) cores.

That is very true.

 

[Knufire]

And what's the difference between a module and an 8 core? That in a normal core, each one has a integer and a FLOP scheduler. In the module, there's still one integer scheduler per core, but only one FLOP scheduler per module.

If his calculations are FLOP, then the Bulldozer is going to perform like quad core. If they're integer, it'll perform like a octocore.

FLOP - Intel
Integer - AMD

 

[Opusbuild]

Wow, this is really going deep To be honest I don't know much about FLOP, all I know is that the computations involves computations of very large stiffness matrices and lots of equations. Hope that helps answer the questions. For example one of the software is a finite element analysis software (mechanical enigneering).

 

[Knufire]

It's probably FLOP then. Integer is more like whole numbers, while FLOP is scientific notation (gross oversimplification). You'd probably want to stick to Intel.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

What program is it? If you don't mind me asking.

 

[Opusbuild]

Yes, definitely don't deal with whole numbers. Ok... I am running out of reasons other than cost to go for the AMD FX8120.....

 

[Opusbuild]

Sure no problem, its programmes like ANSYS (http://www.ansys.com/) and ABAQUS (http://www.3ds.com/products/simulia/overview/)

Hope that clears it up?

 

[Knufire]

What CAD program? You might (very likely) want to go with a NVIDIA card for GPU acceleration. Probably also want 8GB sticks (you didn't specify ) so you can upgrade to 32GB in the future. Also, you can't overclock on a H77 board, defeating the purpose of the K CPU.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

You could go to a 2500k for cheaper than the 3570k in most cases, FWIW.

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Ansys appears to be integer based, and Abaqus I'm not sure about.

 

[Opusbuild]

Thanks for mentioning it, I was planning on 4 x 4GB RAM for cost reasons. Also, which motherboard and graphics card would you recommend in its place?

Thanks.

 

[Opusbuild]

ATMINSIDE, looking at the costs in the UK, it was only a few more pounds to for the 3570k instead of the 2500K which I found strange?

http://www.ebuyer.com/251596-intel-...b-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80623i52500k

http://www.ebuyer.com/349029-intel-...b-cache-retail-boxed-processor-bx80637i53570k

 

[ATMINSIDE]

Yeah, I was going by the US prices as I didn't read where you were at (my fault). Here it is ~$20 difference. (At the price difference, it is personal preference. Most people seem to get better clock speeds out of the 2500k, but the 3750k uses less power.)

Knufire, feel free to chime in here, but I think he could get by with a 500W version of the same PSU (430W version is doubtful) and save some cash.

Also, you will probably want a CPU cooler (such as the Hyper 212+ or 212 Evo) since you'll be running the CPU hard for long periods of time.

And if you want the GPU Acceleration like Knufire mentioned, you could grab a 550Ti for about the same price depending on the model. (Off of ebuyer) While keeping roughly the same performance.

One last note, you could save ~8 euros by going to a 60GB OCZ Agility 3, which is roughly the same performance of the M4.