Desktop Workstations/Gaming Rig - Part Review ($~2,500);

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eprits

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Hey all,

Here's the list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/wxCTcf .

I'm currently working off a HP Elitebook (i7-3630QM @ 2.4GZ, 16GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 7700M, 840GB SSD) . I'm going to be building a machine here in the next couple of weeks and wanted to get a review on my part list before I start breaking it out and ordering stuff.

I'm a web designer/developer that will be working full-time from this machine (so I'll always have hundreds of tabs open across multiple browsers, Photoshop, 3-4 instances of text editors, a local hosting server, 2 virtual machines, a handful of compilers, and quite a few other applications open for the majority of the day). As a reference, I'm currently using 56% of my memory and 12% of my CPU while writing this post (however, the CPU often spikes to 100% and the machine will freeze for a few seconds at a time when I'm actively working).

I hope to support three monitors in the near future (currently only have 2).


My main concerns at the moment are the socket I'm choosing (as I can't decide between this or 1151 with the 6700k) and the x99 Deluxe motherboard (it seems like the best choice, but I can't tell if the features are worth the extra ~$150 over say the Sabertooth model).

Anything else we could do to bring the price down without sacrificing my ability to work/game would be much appreciated.
 
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bambiboom
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jmsellars1

jmsellars1

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I don't think that system is powerful enough to be worth the upgrade. The much more powerful graphics card is unlikely to make a huge difference in the work, the RAM is only slightly faster and the CPU is only around 70% faster in multithreaded tasks. Whenever I build a new system I usually look for a 100-200% performance boost.

You briefly mentioned games though, which games are you looking to play?
 
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eprits

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Sep 8, 2015
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Unfortunately, I have no option but to upgrade. I currently commute to work. This laptop workstation will be being passed onto a new developer as I will be working from home from here on out (and need to purchase my own setup). My old desktop is ~7 years old and hasn't been used due to the laptop workstation being an upgrade.

I felt the GPU and CPU were both huge and necessary upgrades (CPU especially) as this machine will often hangup during intense work sessions in graphics programs/watching videos/compiling.

I haven't actually played games in a couple of years due to being able to run them at over 30FPS. The last game I played was PlanetSide 2 (on extremely low settings) for a year or two; love the game, but my ability to play suffered as the computer aged. I'd like to get into the new games that I've missed out on, such as Skyrim (this machine can't make it through the opening intro), and newer releases.

Would you suggest I invest more money into the setup? I don't mind investing more.. I simply felt confident this would get the job done.
 
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jmsellars1

jmsellars1

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Oh fair enough, that would be much more powerful than the laptop, just not so much that it would be worth spending all the cash to upgrade. Didn't realise you had to replace it.

If you're overclocking I'd go for an i7-6700k. At stock you'd be looking at around 40-50% better performance boost over the laptop, overclocked you'd be looking at a 60-70% boost over the laptop. (Based on multithreaded benchmarks on Passmark)

If you're gaming at 1080P the GTX 980Ti is probably overkill, I'd go for something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($359.99 @ NCIX US)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($99.99 @ Micro Center)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($88.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($319.00 @ Adorama)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB Superclocked ACX 2.0 Video Card ($319.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case ($95.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: SeaSonic 520W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1378.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-09-09 11:29 EDT-0400


EDIT: Obviously you could save even more by getting a smaller SSD and a big hard drive but you seem to want plenty of SSD storage.
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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eprits,

I'm a bit conservative with workstations because the program seem to become more demanding and specialized with each iteration. It's important to have too many capabilities and not use one or two immediately, but have them to grow into. This extends the useful life of the hardware considerably and saves costs of replacement /upgrades.

Your proposed system is quite good. My inclination is to shift it towards the workstation side:

E5-1650 v3 (6-core @ 3.5 / 3.8GHz) about $580. The E5-1650 v3 is the magic cost /performance Xeon and this has 40 PCIe lanes as compared to the i7-5820K's 28 lanes.

ASUS X99 WS motherboard. This is very, very fast.

DDR4 2133 ECC
Change the boot drive to a Samsung M.2 SSD to take advantage of X99- and use some of the extra PCIe lanes. If you make the boot drive larger- you can have a partition for the working files / libraries. This is what I do with an Intel 730 480GB.

Consider a Quadro K2200 (4GB) or it might be worthwhile to break the bank and buy the new Quadro M4000 (8GB) which I think are released in a few days (15 Sept 2015). I not sure if I believe it, but the new M4000 is said to rival the Quadro K6000 (12GB) costing $5,000. Even if it does as well as the K5200 (8GB) - on;t $1,800, this means that a $900 GPU will be able to do anything- CAD, VM, compile, graphics, and gaming should be very good. Even with the extreme image quality orientation, a K5200 has a Passmark 3D score similar to a GTX 970. However, it's possible a worsksttion card is not necessary, simultaneous VM's to me should have all the stability possible- so Quadro and ECC RAM, no overclocking.

CPU cooling: Be sure that you need liquid cooling. By the numbers, a very good fan /heatsink is more effective than an average integrated liquid system and there's a considerable noise factor with a liquid cooler.

Here a revision of a workstation list I did a few months ago:

BambiBoom PixelCannon Cadamodarendergrapharific iWork TurboBlast ExtremeSignature SuperModel 8000 ®©$$™®£™©™_ 1.16.15_9.9.15

1. CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1650 v3 Six-Core Processor 3.5 / 3.8GHz 0GT/s 15MB LGA 2011-v3 CPU> $575
____ http://ark.intel.com/products/82765/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1650-v3-15M-Cache-3_50-GHz
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=E51650V3BX
____ http://www.amazon.com/XEON-E5-1650V3-6C-3-5G-15MB/dp/B00MU045JU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411580728&sr=8-1&keywords=E5-1650+v3

2. Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO CPU cooler > $31. (£26.05 Scan.UK)

3. Motherboard: ASUS X99-M WS mATX Dual Intel LAN with M.2/USB 3.1/ 3T3R Wi-Fi Onboard Workstation Motherboard > $275

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132584&cm_re=asus_x99_ws-_-13-132-584-_-Product

4. Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM ECC DDR4 2133 (PC4-17000) Server Memory Model CT2K8G4RFS4213 > $244 (£152 Scan.UK)
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148839&cm_re=Crucial_16GB_%282_x_8GB%29_288-Pin_DDR4_SDRAM_ECC_DDR4_2133_%28PC4-17000%29_Server_Memory-_-20-148-839-_-Product

5. GPU: PNY VCQK2200-PB Quadro K2200 4GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Workstation Video Card > $459 (£378.26 Scan.UK)

____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133559&cm_re=quadro_k2200-_-14-133-559-_-Product

5 ALT: PNY Quadro M4000 VCQM4000-PB 8GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 Full Height Workstation Video Card > $889

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814132051&cm_re=Quadro_M4000-_-14-132-051-_-Product

6. SAMSUNG SM951 M.2 256GB PCI-Express 3.0 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) - OEM > $219.
____ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147425&cm_re=Samsung_M.2-_-20-147-425-_-Product

7. Seagate Constellation ES.3 ST2000NM0033 2TB 7200 RPM 128MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Enterprise Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive > $134 (Files, Backup, System Image) (Notice the 128MB Cache)

8. CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI CrossFire 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply New 4th Gen CPU Certified Haswell Ready> $130 £119.70 (Scan.UK)

9. Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE 24X SATA DVD±RW Internal Drive w/o Software (Black) SH-224DB $17.99

10. LIAN LI PC-A75X No Power Supply ATX Full Tower Case (Black) CA-A75 >$170

11. Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit w/ SP1 (1-Pack, DVD), OEM MSFQC04649 > $138.99 (£119.70 Scan U.K)

________________________________________________________

TOTAL = $ 2,395 or $2,825 with Quadro M4000


Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) > Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 24GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3490 / CPU = 9178 / 2D= 685 / 3D= 3566 / Mem= 1865 / Disk= 2122] [Cinebench 15 > CPU = 772 OpenGL= 99.72 FPS] 7.8.15


 
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eprits

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Sep 8, 2015
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Great advice, BambiBoom!

I will take a look at the specs you've listed, compare them to what I had chosen, and sleep on it for a few days to see where I end up.

Your advice/build looks pretty solid.
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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bsod1 and sora,

As mentioned in my post, a Quadro may not be necessary, My attitude as mentioned is that the application demanding the most performance / precision governs the GPU choice. In this example, a Quadro that can do almost everything well- visualization, high double precision, stability / reliability and with a wide bandwidth and RAM capacity seems the best idea.

The IT manager of a large engineering firm told me they are running 5 or 6 VM's plus MATLAB and CAD and the firm will only use Quadros for precision and stability reasons. Still, the OP needs to work out what is needed based on use and experience. Given the description of the loads on the current system and the title of "Desktop Workstation / Gaming Rig, VM's, "a handful of compilers", and the visualizations use with Adobe, my inclination was to lean strongly in the workstation direction. If a system has capabilities that are not used for everything the function is still available for the application or applications that need it. Without the capability, some important use may not be possible or the quality of the results could suffer as it did when I tried a GTX. And experiments with GPU are expensive. Given the loss when resold, the GTX I tried cost about $50 per hour. In Maya, a $150 AMD V3900 can be faster than a $1,000 Titan:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/best-workstation-graphics-card,3493-8.html

Interesting discussion. It seems that the applications are consistently demanding more specialized and higher performance hardware so that content creation and content consumption systems have increasingly different hardware.

Cheers,

BambiBoom
 
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