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Thread: Advice on getting a good desktop. |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 10
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hello all,
----------------------------------------I am going to be looking for a desktop computer, but I was wondering if I can get advice on good websites that sell a good variety of pcs, or if anyone knows some good specs that I can take a look at. My price range is going to be up to 2200$. I am going to use this desktop for crunching for WCG, but also a personal gaming laptop. I was curious about the one in the below link. Does anyone know if that a good company? http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Zeus_EVO_Thunder_3000 Thank you for your answers.  |
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ryan222h
Senior Cruncher Joined: Sep 4, 2006 Post Count: 425 Status: Offline |
$2200 is a lot of money anymore for a desktop PC. With that much you could easily get one with a 6 core/12 thread i7-4930k CPU which would be quite powerful.
----------------------------------------Otherwise you could consider two PC's each using an i7-4790k CPU for a total of 8 cores/16 threads. If you would consider building it yourself you could save money because you can put everything you want in there save money on everything you don't want or need. http://www.ibuypower.com/ is another website you could consider. My friend bought a PC from them and had good luck.  |
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Byteball_730a2960
Senior Cruncher Joined: Oct 29, 2010 Post Count: 318 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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$2200 is a lot of money!
Does that include the mouse, keyboard and monitor? Or just the desktop? I can understand wanting to go through a website as it is kind of easy but I have to agree with ryan222h. I don't know how to build my own computer as it is a bit daunting. However, I learnt enough to spec everything and buy all the parts online. Then I got a friend to build it. This meant I got something which was fit for purpose ( I don't game) and I was able to spec things with a view to improving it all later. |
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Thanks for the website ryan22h. It has some good desktops that I saw and will do more research :-)
----------------------------------------Yes 2200$ is a lot of money, but this is going to be a present and a portion is going to be subsidized by relatives, but I never had a desktop that was a power house so that is why I set my budget higher than I would usually. I did consider building it myself, but with the amount of research and time I would have to devote to it I don't think that would be feasible (or at least it would take me a while). Because of my work it would take me probably a good month to put it together once all the parts arrive. I am willing to pay a premium for the construction of it so that it comes ready to be used. Sorry if that explanation sounds like I am trying to be lazy. Thanks for your inputs, and yes I am probably going to get a machine with at least an i7-4930k. I would probably have to set BOINC to 60% than 100% just to see how much electricity cost I am going to incur. I currently have a laptop with an i7-3520m set to 100% so it does not use up too much power. Would you guys recommend getting an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card. It will be used for both cruching other projects and gaming. I heard that AMD's are better. |
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Jack007
Master Cruncher CANADA Joined: Feb 25, 2005 Post Count: 1604 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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A little late, but AMD is the way to go for GPU computing.
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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A little late, but AMD is the way to go for GPU computing. Don't worry. Never too late. Hmm, I am not sure about AMD cpus. I did not have good experience with them. I would prefer an i7. Do you know how AMDs are better than i7 for GPU computing? Thanks |
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Mamajuanauk
Master Cruncher United Kingdom Joined: Dec 15, 2012 Post Count: 1900 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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As mentioned AMD are likely the best (although it's a matter of opinion) but Xeon's are by far the best for crunching.
----------------------------------------One thing I've learnt over many years, is to put aside the option of upgrade, go with a system that fitx the requirements and is the best you can get for the available budget. The reasoning behind this is that you can upgrade every couple of months, and never get to the point where enough is enough. By getting a system that fits the requirements, be it gaming or crunching, and the best, fastest or what ever fits the requirements best within the budget you don't do upgrades and save loads of money. So to a machine... As mentioned your budget is a large amount of money and will likely purchase 2 really good machines. So here's what I would do. First look at priority and score the requirements out of 10, something like this: Usage Crunching - 6 Gaming - 4 Performance Crunching - 6 Gaming - 4 And so on, with whats important to you... The above indicates a 60% - 40% split, I would buy 2 machines with allocated budget as per the split, making the cruncher bigger, better & faster within 60% of your budget and the gaming machine for 40%... Advantage - you can game on the macine and crunch when not using it returning more work units for the projects!
Mamajuanauk is the Name! Crunching is the Game!
----------------------------------------  [Edit 1 times, last edit by Mamajuanauk at Jul 17, 2014 5:57:18 PM] |
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vlado101
Senior Cruncher Joined: Jul 23, 2013 Post Count: 226 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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As mentioned AMD are likely the best (although it's a matter of opinion) but Xeon's are by far the best for crunching. One thing I've learnt over many years, is to put aside the option of upgrade, go with a system that fitx the requirements and is the best you can get for the available budget. The reasoning behind this is that you can upgrade every couple of months, and never get to the point where enough is enough. By getting a system that fits the requirements, be it gaming or crunching, and the best, fastest or what ever fits the requirements best within the budget you don't do upgrades and save loads of money. So to a machine... As mentioned your budget is a large amount of money and will likely purchase 2 really good machines. So here's what I would do. First look at priority and score the requirements out of 10, something like this: Usage Crunching - 6 Gaming - 4 Performance Crunching - 6 Gaming - 4 And so on, with whats important to you... The above indicates a 60% - 40% split, I would buy 2 machines with allocated budget as per the split, making the cruncher bigger, better & faster within 60% of your budget and the gaming machine for 40%... Advantage - you can game on the macine and crunch when not using it returning more work units for the projects! Thank you for the advice. The desktop I am looking at will be used more for crunching, and that is why I am not that picky with the graphics card. However, I personally like inter cpus better than AMDs. The cpu that I was looking at is Intel® Core™ i7 4930K Processor (6x 3.40GHz/12MB L3 Cache). Are there AMD cpus that can perform better than the one above? |
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Mamajuanauk
Master Cruncher United Kingdom Joined: Dec 15, 2012 Post Count: 1900 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Have a look at CPU Benchmark , it allows you to compare CPU's etc.
----------------------------------------However, Intel's are usually best for crunching
Mamajuanauk is the Name! Crunching is the Game!
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PMH_UK
Veteran Cruncher UK Joined: Apr 26, 2007 Post Count: 773 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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For good performance per watt consider an i7-4770t or similar.
----------------------------------------See http://www.cpubenchmark.net/power_performance.html for more info. I was about to buy an i7-3770T based system with a mSATA SSD but no more 3770Ts from that supplier. Paul.
Paul.
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