Hey everyone! I'm here with another build advice thread but hopefully slightly unique? I work in a research laboratory with limited funding. We need to build an analysis PC on a budget. I've been out of the loop in terms of hardware for the past couple years so I'm not certain how to accomplish what we need on a budget. I suppose i'll just dive in. The computer doesn't have to be high end because we do 'low volume' high content analysis (lol), basically, 1-2 users a day. Budget: Around $500.(I know, I'm sorry!) It would be great to sort of have a range, if it's even possible from $400 ~ $700. The preferred items in the budget are Quad core processor (is Intel still the 'standard'? I still prefer Intel but know AMD's are generally cheaper) ~32GB of ram (This can certainly vary, but again, the system is going to be used for Data analysis. It's exactly going to be used for High Content Analysis with this machine Thermofisher Array Scan) These items can be wiggled slightly but overall if it's possible it would be great to get them. As far as a GPU goes, we likely will not need anything other than on-board. the software we use for analysis is not very GPU intensive. What the main uses of the PC will be: Strictly data processing. Processing large amounts of raw images with meta data. The spec of your current PC and whether you are re-using any parts from it This will be a new PC, but the vendor recommends we at least meet the minimum Quad core processor/32gb ram. As far as using other parts, possibly hard drives if they cant fit into a decent enough system spec, and possibly a case if a motherboard is presented that can fit. I would say not to worry about the case and i'll see if there's anything around that I can make use of to fit the hardware that's presented. If not, i'll just select a case. The native resolution of your monitor: 1080x1440 Whether you will be overclocking or not: Highly unlikely unless it can save a decent amount of money. I have some experience overclocking but I've never really gotten anything on my own systems to be stable. So unless this is the only option, probably no overclocking. How much storage space you require: We may have some spare hard drives that I can use (probably IDE but oh well!). Otherwise, any size HD that we can fit in the budget. It likely won't contain a lot of data, just programs. Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): No Summary: $400~$700 PC is for data analysis Quadcore 32mb Ram No Video card (if budget won't allow) I may have an old case to fit the parts in I may be able to use some old hard drives
So far, this is what i've come up with but like i said, if you can see sufficient improvments in leaving out the case/HD's for better CPU/Ram im all ears! PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: Intel Core i5-6400 2.7GHz Quad-Core Processor ($174.99 @ SuperBiiz) Motherboard: Asus B150M-PLUS D3 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($61.98 @ Newegg) Memory: G.Skill Ares Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($133.16 @ Amazon) Storage: A-Data Premier SP550 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($39.99 @ Newegg) Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.00 @ Amazon) Case: Rosewill FBM-02 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg) Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($47.83 @ OutletPC) Total: $525.94 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-06 17:46 EDT-0400
Assuming the work is multithreaded I would guess (at a budget) you could possibly stand to benefit to a greater extent from more cores than better performance per core. I think you can get 8 core AMD processors for similar money. Might be worth considering.
Not sure about the actual difference in your workload, but why not get a DDR4 compatible motherboard & DDR4 RAM? According to part picker you could do that for a similar price to what you have there and, in theory, it should be a bit faster than DDR3.
Do you actually need an SSD in thus build? For general home use it's a given, but purely for a data analysis machine in a lab? I'd save that and get a more powerful CPU
You certainly have a good point. The software does parallel work this might be a better option. I'll look into this. I did not realize this at all! I'll look into this! Definitely not, For the Intel CPUs, I found that an $39 didn't bump up to anything much better. Maybe that's wrong though! I'll check again. It was also mostly just for convenience
Just checked, if i Go the AMD route, there's no Boards available with DDR4 support. At least not on PCpartPicker
I've settled on this. Anyone have any minor tweaks the would suggest? PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($159.89 @ OutletPC) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9a 57.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($38.49 @ OutletPC) Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.88 @ OutletPC) Motherboard: ASRock 970M PRO3 Micro ATX AM3+/AM3 Motherboard ($41.98 @ Newegg) Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($139.89 @ OutletPC) Storage: Seagate Barracuda ES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($43.00 @ Amazon) Case: Rosewill FBM-01 MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($24.99 @ Newegg) Power Supply: Corsair Builder 500W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($29.99 @ Newegg) Total: $485.11 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-10-07 18:22 EDT-0400
You'll need a cheapo gpu with that build, the fx cpu's don't have igpu Edit: Also you're likely to run into throttling on extended high loads using that motherboard, it only has a 4+1 vrm phase so will encounter heat issues using the 125w cpu. You want to aim for a board with 6+2 or higher.
