Build for Excel/Number Crunching programs and spreadsheets- Need advice

[gorlios2]

I have been thinking about building a PC for my father who would use it for some serious number crunching for his marketing consulting business. He uses Excel and other solvers on extremely large models (industry term is "big data") and the build times have literally have taken DAYS using a thinkpad with an i7 and 16gb of ram.

 

If anyone has experience in this field, I'm looking for recommendations. CPUs (Xeon vs i7), should I even worry about overclocking? Would RAM speed matter? Would the system benefit from 32gb of RAM? performance SSDs? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

And if anyone is an excel guru that knows how to take better advantage of software within excel or even settings within windows to help better utilize hardware, that would also be GREATLY appreciated. 

 

 

[NInety]

I'd go with a 6 core i7 and 16GB or 32GB of RAM @ 1866MHz or higher if you're doing MAJOR number crunching. An SSD would help with read and write speeds as well as boot up your PC faster.

[sandals100]

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C7Lnyc

Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/C7Lnyc/by_merchant/

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4930K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor  ($576.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: be quiet! Dark Rock Pro 3 93.3 CFM Fluid Dynamic Bearing CPU Cooler  ($64.99 @ NCIX US) 

Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011 Motherboard  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport XT 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory  ($299.99 @ Micro Center) 

Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($139.98 @ OutletPC) 

Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($74.49 @ OutletPC) 

Video Card: Zotac GeForce GTX 650 1GB Video Card  ($94.99 @ NCIX US) 

Case: Zalman Z12 Plus ATX Mid Tower Case  ($64.99 @ Newegg) 

Power Supply: LEPA MaxGold 500W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply  ($76.24 @ Amazon) 

Optical Drive: LG GH24NSB0 DVD/CD Writer  ($13.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $1606.64

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-07-22 03:46 EDT-0400

[sandals100]

Video card is optional, also the same with the optical drive