simonb530

Distinguished
Sep 2, 2011
75
0
18,630
I'm a mechanical engineering about to start my Ph.D. program and need a workstation for my office. I will be using it for matlab, mathcad, and excel, but also looking at using comsol and fluent for some 3D modelling work. This is what I have so far any input for increase power or decrease cost will be greatly appreciated.



Monitors: Acer S211HL 21.5 x2 = $240
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003U4IROY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

Case: Cooler Master Cooler Master Elite 430 Mid Tower ATX Case $50
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O8J11E/ref=ox_sc_act_title_8?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

PSU: Corsair Builder Series CX600 600 watt 80 Plus $60
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W2T2UQ/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

MB:ASRock Z68 PRO3 GEN3 Intel Z68 ATX $105
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005N5Q2MW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_7?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

CPU:Intel Core i5 3550 - $210
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007SZ0EJW/ref=ox_sc_act_title_6?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

RAM:Corsair Vengeance Blue 8 GB (2X4 GB) PC3-12800 1600mHz DDR3 - $49
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004QBUL1C/ref=ox_sc_act_title_4?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

GPU:ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 1 GB DDR5 - $130
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004RJJN9Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_5?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER

OS: Windows 7 home 64bit $100

I have an extra hard drive and optic drive to put it in.

Total - $944
Would like to keep it under $900.
 

superman50

Honorable
Jun 20, 2012
4
0
10,510
:non:

You have an Ivy Bridge CPU with a motherboard designed for Sandy Bridge. I'd recommend a chipset thats z77.

I know you said you have a budget and have an extra hard drive, but I recommend an SSD if you're going to fork over 900 bucks anyways.

The graphics card is decent for games but may under perform if you use a robust 3D modelling software.

Maybe install Windows 8 Beta and use it as primary OS, thus you can defer the $100 cost of the OS.