World of Warcraft and MATLAB

[azizhp]

Hello everyone,

I'm building a system for MATLAB data processing and World of Warcraft! I'm not really a gamer beyond WoW, and my MATLAB stuff tends to be simple calculations on very large matrices. This is my first real build in ten years and my first one with all new components instead of the perpetual incremental method. Here are the details:

from NewEgg:

$130 MB ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA1156
$200 VGA ASUS|ENGTX460 DIRECTCU/2DI/1GD5
$205 CPU INTEL|CORE I5 760 2.80G R
$120 MEM 4Gx2|GSKILL F3-12800CL9D-8GBRL
$100 CASE LIANLI|BLACK PC-K62 RT

from Amazon:

$90 Antec Truepower New 23652 TP-650

(more details about the long saga of this particular build here at my geekblog: http://www.haibane.info/2010/12/22/building-for-the-future/ )

I already have a 1TB hitachi hard drive I will re-use (ok, so not exactly a purely new build!) but am considering buying a second 1TB disk to do some basic RAID. The machine will also serve as my primary household storage (iTunes, photos, etc).

I want to share the build with you all to get your feedback on cost, on performance, on suitability for my intended needs. Also, given that this machine will house our family's files, what RAID should I use, RAID 5 or RAID 10?

 

[gkay09]

^ Intel will be launching SandyBridge CPUs(LGA 1155- LGA 1156's replacement) on JAn 5th, IMO you should wait for it,...
http://www.anandtech.com/show/3871/the-sandy-bridge-preview-three-wins-in-a-row

 

[azizhp]

For budget reasons I try to stay just behind the bleeding edge. I'd characterize my entire build as "upper middle class"

That said, I'm not impressed with Sandy Bridge. Still no native USB 3.0 support? Also it looks like you still can't run two PCE-E 2.0 cards at x16 on a P67 board (same limitation as on the P55 board I ordered). To get true max-speed SLI you'd have to buy an X58 type board, but unless I am mistaken it doesn't look like those will get updates this cycle.

Since I'm not interested in SLI I was able tos ave a considerable amount of money. I don't think I'd see much value from waiting for Sandy Bridge. If anything, I should have waited for Sandy Bridge to come out and then bought the same components as I did, which would have been cheaper.

Lynnfield is pretty much where I need to be, I think. The advantage of my build is that I have a pretty solid system for under $900. I'm probably near the inflection point of the price/performance curve.

 

[ScrewySqrl]

for statrers, the Sandy Bridge 2500 will be 3.3 GHz quad for $205 instead of a 2.8 Quad for $205

 

[azizhp]

Another question for you all - if I don't intend to overclock, will the stiock cooler suffice? Or should I spring for a cooling solution anyway?

 

[ScrewySqrl]

Another question for you all - if I don't intend to overclock, will the stiock cooler suffice? Or should I spring for a cooling solution anyway?

:lol: yes. That's what it's FOR! :lol: