PC for software engineering

[rmxhaha]

Hello,

I am from Indonesia .

I am a computer science student.

I want to build a pc for developing software.

I already have a laptop (A451LN) and a core2duo pc with gtx650 inside. An old radeon 5000 series GPU lying around.

My PC is mostly for downloading torrents.

The core2duo PC is so underpowered, it struggles to play 720p youtube.
My biggest reason for this build is poor performance on Android Studio and Visual Studio on my laptop.

 

I have 3 question...

I might need to bring this PC for competition somewhere and I want to move this PC around during holidays since I move back to my hometown by bus carrying something like a MiniITX build would be more convenient but something like a ATX is still possible only harder to carry around. I am struggling to figure out should I got with a mini ITX build for portability or a MicroITX for completeness.

Should I choose to go with Mini ITX build I lose 2 RAM port. At the present time, I don't need large amount of RAM. 8GB is enough.

But perhaps for something like database sorting out stuff more RAM might help...

 

Candidate Casings :

Casing for MicroATX Corsair 88R

Casing for Mini ITX Cooler Master 130

 

1. What do you think which should I go with a mini ITX or a Micro ATX build ?

 

I have 3 option for the motherboard along with the prices in Rupiah.

Mini ITX

MSI B51I Gaming (Rp 1.6M)

Asus H97I Plus (Rp 2M)

 

MicroATX

GA-H97-D3H (Rp 1.42M)

 

2. Which motherboard would be best and is the Asus h97i-PLUS worth the extra price ?

 

I am planning on either of these 2 power supply

XFX TS 550w (Gold) at (Rp 1.25M)

Silver Stone P460FL (Platinum) at (Rp 1.1M)

 

At most I will have 2 SSD, 2 Harddisk, a GTX 970, i5 4590, 1 mouse, 1 keyboard.

PSU Calculator said 328w load and recomends 378w PSU

I try not to go below gold because the flat I am staying at limits my power consumption to 440watts.

 

3. which power supply should I go with ?

 

Note:

I am not considering a skylake build because :

1. At the same price (here in Indonesia) I get more out of Haswell when comparing the geekbench score

2. Skylake motherboard is more expensive and is not available in Mini ITX form factor on cheaper chipsets (H110, B150, H170).

 

Stock fan noise is not a problem for me.

 

[ObilvionNizer]

4 minutes ago, rmxhaha said:

-snip-

 

What is your budget? 

[rmxhaha]

Would the budget matter ?

Would you research the price in Indonesia and checks all their availability?

Thank you very much if you do ...

 

Rp 7M for the CPU, Motherboard, Casing, RAM, PSU

I have 2 harddisks and a GTX 650 so I can reuse that.

 

Rp 6M for later upgrade for buying a GTX 970

 

 

 

[infinitymdm]

I would check this list to find your PSU: 

I, personally, would go with the mATX build in a different case: the Corsair Graphite 380T. This case is perfect for a portable mATX build. It is a little pricier, but if you need the portability, this is the case for you. 

 

The reason I recommend mATX is that if you do decide to change something in the future, you have the capability to upgrade. You may not need it now, but you may in the future. 

[rmxhaha]

It's kinda hard to justify case at that price. Something beyond Rp 1M is hard to justify. Just think about it this way. Anything pricier than 50$ on newegg is too pricey for me. I am not too concern about casing just the form factor.

 

Thank you for your suggestion.
I will try to look up what's available here from the PSU listings you gave me

[Stefan1024]

What you need for software engineering:

Best single core performance you can get: the number of cores is nit that much important (4 c without HT is enougth)

Fast RAM: latency (in ns) is even more important then througthput

An SSD is a must

 

Mini ITX is fine, and you will never need more than 400 watts.

[rmxhaha]

Any benchmark showing faster ram matter for aoftware development or perhaps anything else?

 

[infinitymdm]

39 minutes ago, rmxhaha said:

Any benchmark showing faster ram matter for aoftware development or perhaps anything else?

 

Based on what I just read, faster RAM is important for compiling and working with large amounts of code. Lots of data going in and out between storage and memory. Also, an SSD is highly recommended for the same reason: lots of data transfer. 

[Streetguru]

14 hours ago, rmxhaha said:

 

Get the XFX power supply, if the 390 is available at the same price as the 970 get that as it'll be faster, though you should invest more into your CPU and RAM if programming is your main goal

[rmxhaha]

5 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Get the XFX power supply, if the 390 is available at the same price as the 970 get that as it'll be faster, though you should invest more into your CPU and RAM if programming is your main goal

I might consider them that but i dont think my power limits is enough. Remember that even if i have 440watt power limit i must share them with lights, laptop, printer, monitor, and so on.

[Streetguru]

6 hours ago, rmxhaha said:

I might consider them that but i dont think my power limits is enough. Remember that even if i have 440watt power limit i must share them with lights, laptop, printer, monitor, and so on.

You have a power limit? You should probably then get a Broadwell CPU with fast memory for the iGPU, and run without a GPU, if you aren't doing heavy gaming broadwell iGPU is actually pretty fast, especially with faster RAM. and that'll be the most efficient thing you could get.

[rmxhaha]

On 4/27/2016 at 10:15 PM, Streetguru said:

You have a power limit? You should probably then get a Broadwell CPU with fast memory for the iGPU, and run without a GPU, if you aren't doing heavy gaming broadwell iGPU is actually pretty fast, especially with faster RAM. and that'll be the most efficient thing you could get.

I think i will be fine with the gpu. Broadwell ? Can you give an example of a broadwell cpu that have came out? I havent found any. And also how much power will it save compared to haswell?

 

 i also have a friend in another room he got a i5 3rd gen, gtx 750ti, 2 monitor, 1 despenser, 1 refrigirator, and a laptop. He can power it all just fine. I think gtx 970 will power on. I dont think i will game a lot so gtx 650 for now will be ok.

 

[Streetguru]

1 minute ago, rmxhaha said:

 

it saves you power because you won't need a GPU with it really

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5775c-i5-5675c-broadwell,4169-6.html

[rmxhaha]

2 hours ago, Streetguru said:

it saves you power because you won't need a GPU with it really

 

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-core-i7-5775c-i5-5675c-broadwell,4169-6.html

When can i buy them ? It doesnt to be available . 

[Streetguru]

10 hours ago, rmxhaha said:

When can i buy them ? It doesnt to be available . 

ya, might be screwed if you'd have to try and import it though