recommend a mATX workstation? sort of

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giantbucket

giantbucket

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i have a "casual" workstation, which may need an upgrade or partial replacement soon. i say casual since it's MSOffice plus AutoCAD / Robot, but mostly 2D and for learning rather than designing. plus of course standard email / Foxit PDF editing / etc multitasking stuff.

can you recommend a mobo & processor?

limitations:
* must be mATX since i want to re-use the case and the wiring as-is
* prefer AMD since i have a nice large cooler for it but no Intel brackets
* i can do Intel if it'll jive with my Corsair H55, so no super-hot i7 here
* no, i'm not buying yet another cooler, so ditch the Hyper212 idea
* standard DDR3 since i plan on reusing my 2x8G and 2x2G DDR3-1600 sticks
* don't care about on-board graphics since i have random cards kicking around (HD5870, GT610, 9500GT, etc)
* cheap!!! and i'm going to re-use / re-install Win7Pro
* only need 2 SATA ports, so that's simple enough (OS+DVD)
* buying in Canada, so stores are NCIX, Newegg.ca, and CanadaComputers
 
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giantbucket
budget = cheaper is better since it's out of my own pocket. sub-$200, though i might wait for halloween / christmas / black friday sales if i can get something that's currently $250-plus

casual workstation = yeah, i know. sounds weird. but it's certainly not gaming and it's not basic email/web stuff which i can do on a piece of dirt. as far as i understand it, i'd benefit from 2 strong cores for the Cad/Robot stuff, with some hyperthreading or extra cores being a nice-to-have for the other mundane things like MSOffice

ram slots = 4 for sure. i couldn't limit myself to just 2, in case down the road i want to replace the 2x2G for more 2x8G. at the very least, i'd want to at least use all the ram i have in my pockets today and not...
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Rookie_MIB

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Well, usually when you way 'workstation' you're talking about something in a professional capacity using Xeons, ECC RAM, Quadro/Firepro cards etc. In other words, 'professional' workstations. What it seems like you're talking about is a simple computer.

So - you want mATX, quad core, cool-running, AMD preferred, DDR3 with 4 slots. Sound about right?

That's easy enough.

For the CPU I'd jump right to the top of the AMD Quad core non-APU - Athlon x4 860k. You don't need an APU since you have some discrete graphics cards at your disposal, this way all the TDP goes to the CPU Plus, it's almost half the cost of the equivalent A10-APU series.. Cost: $75.00 at NewEgg.

For the mobo - believe it or not, you're limited to two MSI motherboards because of the 4 DDR3 slots you want. If you bend on that, you can get a Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H motherboard for $45.00, but it only has 2 DDR3 slots. If you have to have the 4 DDR3 slots, you'll have to go with the MSI A78M-E45 or the MSI A88XM-E45 both of which are about $70.00. So - depends on what you absolutely need.
 
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sna

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lol i7 is not super hot . actually AMD is more hot than any intel CPU ...
and you forgot to say the budget.
 
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giantbucket

giantbucket

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budget = cheaper is better since it's out of my own pocket. sub-$200, though i might wait for halloween / christmas / black friday sales if i can get something that's currently $250-plus

casual workstation = yeah, i know. sounds weird. but it's certainly not gaming and it's not basic email/web stuff which i can do on a piece of dirt. as far as i understand it, i'd benefit from 2 strong cores for the Cad/Robot stuff, with some hyperthreading or extra cores being a nice-to-have for the other mundane things like MSOffice

ram slots = 4 for sure. i couldn't limit myself to just 2, in case down the road i want to replace the 2x2G for more 2x8G. at the very least, i'd want to at least use all the ram i have in my pockets today and not have some of it on a shelf doing nothing.

that X4 860k is intriguing, though

and as to that i7, yeah that's true, i just am not in a position to grab an i7-____k as i have neither the funds nor the need for something that powerful. i'd rather brag about the money in my bank than the money in my computer case :p

on the other hand, the G3258 would be a done-deal if i could find a cheap Z board (i'm NOT risking a non-Z board with that processor, it's just dumb economics)
 
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