Hi all, I am building a home desktop machine for the purpose of scientific research (using CUDA), and some gaming. It has been 6 years since my last build and I’m a little out of touch with some of the hardware, so any comments are appreciated about this new build. For my research I will be getting a nvidia Titan-Z, and a 1TB Samsung 850 evo, but I’m still deciding about the rest of the build. Ignoring the cost of the previous two components, I am aiming to spend <£700 (the lower the better) for the rest. So far I am looking at: Motherboard: Asus Z97-a CPU: Intel i5-4690k RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance 1600 MHz PSU: No idea, maybe re-use the old one? Case: Re-use, or Corsair Obsidian 750D For comparison I’ve put my previous build below (almost all purchased in 2009), and I intend to re-use the display, dvd-rw, and HDD. 850W Coolermaster Real Power M850 Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R iP45 Socket 775 4GB (2x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR2 GeForce GTX 580 1TB Samsung HD103UJ Spinpoint F1 Silverstone Raven RV01B-W Samsung DVD±R Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP My research code previously ran on 3 Tesla cards, and they could get up to 97degrees C, so cooling is something I am keen to ensure is sufficient. Due to the GPU ownership I don’t want to modify the Titan-Z to fit a water block. So I thought using a closed loop CPU cooler would at least help get heat out of the case better than a internal heat sink, reducing the case temperature. To do this I am thinking about a case upgrade from my current Raven RV01, to something with more fan space which can also fit a dual radiator closed loop cooler. I’ve seen a lot of mixed opinions on the cooling performance of closed loop vs air coolers, but not too much on their effect of reducing case temperature. This build will not likely be overclocked straight away, but is something I will investigate at a later date. For the personal gaming use of this machine (a mix of games, elite: dangerous, skyrim), I aim to keep the current display (Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP), and run it at 1920x1200. However, as I will have a good GPU, I am curious about maybe a future upgrade to a triple monitor set up, either by getting 2 displays to add to my 24”, or get 3 matching monitors, alternatively would 1 large display be better. I have no idea what are appropriate costings for this (although I won’t be looking at top costs, probably <£500 if it is possible), so any suggestions about viable set ups and approximate costs to go with the above build would be a great help. Apologies if I’ve left out any information, and I look forward to hearing any feedback on this build design.
