Work/Entertainment PC recommendations.

[Earl_of_Madness]

Alright i'll try to be as concise as possible. I am a graduating Physics and Math major and I am an avid programmer as well.  In a few months time i'll be needing a PC with some serious horse power due to my work.  I plan on working as a computational physicist or mathematician doing simulations and writing code for those kinds of tasks. However my current Gaming/Overclocking PC is not cut out for the task at all a Quadcore i7, GTX760, and 16GB of RAM just don't cut it. I will be needing some really Heavy Horsepower. I am not very well versed in buying components at this price range and though I have purchased components in the enthusiast/workstation range I only did it once and determined it wasn't worth it for gaming or simple programming (hyper-threading was nice for programming though) well now i don't really have a choice. In addition i would also like this PC to have some gaming capabilities and media capabilities for when i'm not running simulations or working on it. Though that is an important but secondary choice. 

 

Anyway I have a few requirements that i'll list below but I have some general considerations that I need to mention. I want to stick with Nvidia and Intel. I know AMD has great stuff but as far as computation is concerned AMD doesn't have the performance i'll be needing, unless someone can prove to me otherwise.  CUDA is nice for computation from Nvidia and the per core performance of Intel as well as hyper threading will be invaluable for my work. In addition though price is not a huge consideration since this will be my work computer just please avoid things like the high level Xeons, Tesla Cards, and Dual Socket Motherboards.  I will have a few thousand dollars to spend on this but a machine with those would immediately break that bank.

 

EDIT: PRICE: Keep it under 5k please.  I have more available but for the sake of keeping everyone else within budget please use this as a marker.

 

Requirements

- Stability and Reliability

- High RAM amounts (MIN 32 GB would prefer more. simulations and solidworks will eat ram very quickly)

- Drive 3 monitors comfortably one will be 1440p the others 1080p. 

- High Speed, reliability and Capacity Storage Options (not just SSDs i couldn't afford several terabytes of SSD arrays for calculations not when I need a good CPU and GPU(s))

- SSD boot and media Drive(s)

- Heavy Parallelization

- Visualization Technology

- Motherboard Connectivity (USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt (thunderbolt is great for raw data transfers), Esata? (if that is still a standard))

- Good Gaming Performance

- Lots of possible Expansion for anything I may need for work

- CUDA

 

Software Stuff

- Dual Booting Linux/Windows

- Good Inter-connectivity with Laptop/phone so i can check on simulations remotely

 

Luxuries (Nice things)

- Double Precision Floating Point Performance (I know that is a tesla card but if there is anything with good floating point performance that will greatly speed up simulations)

- Great/Excellent Gaming Performance

- Rendering capabilities for physics/math tutoring videos

- Water cooling Expandability

- Fits in Phanteks Evolv ATX

- Overclocking Capabilities

- Running small local game servers (I do host small LAN parties occasionally)

- V/R ready (i have been wanting VR since i was a wee lad)

 

Obviously Please stick to my requirements for parting out a basic build, if any of my luxuries get into the build then that would be excellent but that isn't essential.  I just want a work computer that I can use for gaming and entertainment whenever i'm not running simulations or doing calculations. Please and thank you guys this will be my first high performance PC so I would like to get the best bang for my dollar at this price range. Obviously don't cut too many corners. Thanks everyone!

[I am an SSD]

What was the budget again? Working on the parts list...

[Megazero]

12 minutes ago, Earl_of_Madness said:

Alright i'll try to be as concise as possible. I am a graduating Physics and Math major and I am an avid programmer as well.  In a few months time i'll be needing a PC with some serious horse power due to my work.  I plan on working as a computational physicist or mathematician doing simulations and writing code for those kinds of tasks. However my current Gaming/Overclocking PC is not cut out for the task at all a Quadcore i7, GTX760, and 16GB of RAM just don't cut it. I will be needing some really Heavy Horsepower. I am not very well versed in buying components at this price range and though I have purchased components in the enthusiast/workstation range I only did it once and determined it wasn't worth it for gaming or simple programming (hyper-threading was nice for programming though) well now i don't really have a choice. In addition i would also like this PC to have some gaming capabilities and media capabilities for when i'm not running simulations or working on it. Though that is an important but secondary choice. 

 

Anyway I have a few requirements that i'll list below but I have some general considerations that I need to mention. I want to stick with Nvidia and Intel. I know AMD has great stuff but as far as computation is concerned AMD doesn't have the performance i'll be needing, unless someone can prove to me otherwise.  CUDA is nice for computation from Nvidia and the per core performance of Intel as well as hyper threading will be invaluable for my work. In addition though price is not a huge consideration since this will be my work computer just please avoid things like the high level Xeons, Tesla Cards, and Dual Socket Motherboards.  I will have a few thousand dollars to spend on this but a machine with those would immediately break that bank.

 

Requirements

- Stability and Reliability

- High RAM amounts (MIN 32 GB would prefer more. simulations and solidworks will eat ram very quickly)

- Drive 3 monitors comfortably one will be 1440p the others 1080p. 

- High Speed, reliability and Capacity Storage Options (not just SSDs i couldn't afford several terabytes of SSD arrays for calculations not when I need a good CPU and GPU(s))

- SSD boot and media Drive(s)

- Heavy Parallelization

- Visualization Technology

- Motherboard Connectivity (USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt (thunderbolt is great for raw data transfers), Esata? (if that is still a standard))

- Good Gaming Performance

- Lots of possible Expansion for anything I may need for work

- CUDA

 

Software Stuff

- Dual Booting Linux/Windows

- Good Inter-connectivity with Laptop/phone so i can check on simulations remotely

 

Luxuries (Nice things)

- Double Precision Floating Point Performance (I know that is a tesla card but if there is anything with good floating point performance that will greatly speed up simulations)

- Great/Excellent Gaming Performance

- Rendering capabilities for physics/math tutoring videos

- Water cooling Expandability

- Fits in Phanteks Evolv ATX

- Overclocking Capabilities

- Running small local game servers (I do host small LAN parties occasionally)

- V/R ready (i have been wanting VR since i was a wee lad)

 

Obviously Please stick to my requirements for parting out a basic build, if any of my luxuries get into the build then that would be excellent but that isn't essential.  I just want a work computer that I can use for gaming and entertainment whenever i'm not running simulations or doing calculations. Please and thank you guys this will be my first high performance PC so I would like to get the best bang for my dollar at this price range. Obviously don't cut too many corners. Thanks everyone!

I think this would be a good baseline for you if what you already have is called obsolete. Though without a budget I dont know if this will be ok or not.

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor  ($369.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($103.99 @ Best Buy) 
Motherboard: MSI X99A GAMING 7 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($253.88 @ OutletPC) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.17 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($179.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA NEX 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($54.99 @ Micro Center) 
Total: $1242.99
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-09 03:49 EDT-0400

I left out the GPU for now since the GTX 1080 and 1070 is so close to release, I suggest you should wait for them anyway. the GTX 1080 will be 599$ (699$ founder edition, we dont know what it is yet other than that it will run better OC than the normal 1080), 1070 will be 379$ (449$ founder edition) and as Nvidia advertise: "better than Titan X", so let's wait for the 3rd party review for them before you buy a new GPU.

[I am an SSD]

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 2.4GHz 8-Core Processor  ($629.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($114.90 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE/U3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($379.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3400 Memory  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($147.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($196.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card  ($1287.94 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair AX1500i 1500W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power 

[Earl_of_Madness]

16 minutes ago, I am an SSD said:

What was the budget again? Working on the parts list...

No real major budget i just want to avoid people suggesting like parts that are 1500+ for each part. I would say if you can keep it under 5k fantastic though i could go a little higher if necessary. I know simulation computers are expensive such is the price you pay for doing this kind of work. 

[Earl_of_Madness]

15 minutes ago, Megazero said:

I think this would be a good baseline for you if what you already have is called obsolete. Though without a budget I dont know if this will be ok or not.

I left out the GPU for now since the GTX 1080 and 1070 is so close to release, I suggest you should wait for them anyway. the GTX 1080 will be 599$ (699$ founder edition, we dont know what it is yet other than that it will run better OC than the normal 1080), 1070 will be 379$ (449$ founder edition) and as Nvidia advertise: "better than Titan X", so let's wait for the 3rd party review for them before you buy a new GPU.

The budet is fine, Under 5k would be something i could build much faster.  I could go higher but i'd have to save more and that would limit my productivity until then.  I do like the parts you picked out but the CPU seems a bit anemic especially for heavy parallelization. great for rendering but I don't know if it would be enough for high parallelism.  Also gaming motherboards are not something i'm looking for i want more reliability if anything else. Good Power Delivery as well as expandability are not part of gaming boards usually. Great Enthusiast build though especially at that price point. 

[Earl_of_Madness]

17 minutes ago, I am an SSD said:

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 2.4GHz 8-Core Processor  ($629.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: NZXT Kraken X61 106.1 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($114.90 @ B&H) 
Motherboard: Asus X99-DELUXE/U3.1 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($379.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3400 Memory  ($189.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 500GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($147.99 @ NCIX US) 
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($196.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X 12GB Video Card  ($1287.94 @ Newegg) 
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case  ($109.99 @ Newegg) 
Power Supply: Corsair AX1500i 1500W 80+ Titanium Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power 

I really like this build. I Might change out the CPU for something a bit beefier and I like you picked out 8GB dimms as i could add more later.  I'll probably buy 3 Caviar black drives and run them in raid 5 for simulation stuff, unless you think i should go for the red.  Also isn't that power supply a bit much, or is that to ensure the reliability of the computer? Other than that I really like the build. Also since its under budget i could add another Titan and up the CPU to get a really high power computing PC> 

[I am an SSD]

Just now, Earl_of_Madness said:

I really like this build. I Might change out the CPU for something a bit beefier and I like you picked out 8GB dimms as i could add more later.  I'll probably buy 3 Caviar black drives and run them in raid 5 for simulation stuff, unless you think i should go for the red.  Also isn't that power supply a bit much, or is that to ensure the reliability of the computer? Other than that I really like the build. Also since its under budget i could add another Titan and up the CPU to get a really high power computing PC> 

I dont think you should go for red....unless you are going to run this PC 24/7 with heavy disk usage, which I dont think will be your case. 

 

Yes the power supply is a bit more than what you need, but in your field  you are definitely going to be thinking about upgrades in the future, and when you look at it, paying a bit more for the power supply is a lot  more worth it than buying a new one altogether when you need it. However if its bothering you, ofcourse you can change..its up to you.

 

As for the GPU, id do what everyone is doing and wait for the 1080. Check for the benchmarks (released on the 17th ) and then make my decision. Then you can think about 1080 SLI for the price of a single Titan. 

[Megazero]

5 minutes ago, Earl_of_Madness said:

The budet is fine, Under 6k would be something i could build much faster.  I could go higher but i'd have to save more and that would limit my productivity until then.  I do like the parts you picked out but the CPU seems a bit anemic especially for heavy parallelization. great for rendering but I don't know if it would be enough for high parallelism.  Also gaming motherboards are not something i'm looking for i want more reliability if anything else. Good Power Delivery as well as expandability are not part of gaming boards usually. Great Enthusiast build though especially at that price point. 

If your budget is 6k you dont even have to worry about choosing workstation GPU or gaming GPU LOL, you could easily get 1 GTX 1080 for gaming and 1 Quadro for work. Also I choose that CPU under the assumption that include the GPU your budget would be around 2k. if it's 6k then I will choose something else. For the motherboard, just because it have "gaming" in it name doesnt change the fact that's it a workstation grade X99 motherboard, so you dont have to worry about it. But well, if you want, this is a different one:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5960X 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor  ($999.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Corsair H110i GTX 104.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99P-SLI ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($249.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($124.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($89.17 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($65.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Case: Phanteks Enthoo Evolv ATX ATX Mid Tower Case  ($179.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W 80+ Platinum Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($149.99 @ Newegg) 
Total: $1980.10
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-05-09 04:22 EDT-0400

Again just the base line stuff without GPU. Like I said at 6k budget you better buy 1 workstation GPU and 1 gaming GPU instead of using 1 for both (ofc depend on if your work need it or not). A Nvidia Quadro M5000 clock about 2000$ and a GTX 1080 about 600$ for example. Ofc if you dont need a Quadro, you could always just get 2 1080 or something like that.

[Earl_of_Madness]

2 minutes ago, I am an SSD said:

I dont think you should go for red....unless you are going to run this PC 24/7 with heavy disk usage, which I dont think will be your case. 

 

Yes the power supply is a bit more than what you need, but in your field  you are definitely going to be thinking about upgrades in the future, and when you look at it, paying a bit more for the power supply is a lot  more worth it than buying a new one altogether when you need it. However if its bothering you, ofcourse you can change..its up to you.

 

As for the GPU, id do what everyone is doing and wait for the 1080. Check for the benchmarks (released on the 17th ) and then make my decision. Then you can think about 1080 SLI for the price of a single Titan. 

I think i'll keep your PSU recomendation. You are right that i'll probably be upgrading more frequently and i might need this especially for long computing sessions. Also the titanium rating will actually see some benefit since i'll be running at full load for long periods. I'll definitely wait for the 1080 to hit the shelves but the titan was a nice benchmark, i might wait for the 1080 ti and titan release and see if i gain any floating point precision performance if they release by the time i build any way. Also the SLI would just be a nice feature in addition.  The second video card would mostly be used to speed up simulation time. Heavy computation is one of the few places multigpu actually makes sense. 

[Earl_of_Madness]

11 minutes ago, Megazero said:

If your budget is 6k you dont even have to worry about choosing workstation GPU or gaming GPU LOL, you could easily get 1 GTX 1080 for gaming and 1 Quadro for work. Also I choose that CPU under the assumption that include the GPU your budget would be around 2k. if it's 6k then I will choose something else. For the motherboard, just because it have "gaming" in it name doesnt change the fact that's it a workstation grade X99 motherboard, so you dont have to worry about it. But well, if you want, this is a different one:

I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression. Also i didn't know it was still a workstation board.  Whenever I see gaming I assume that perhaps they might sacrifice on reliability which is something I will absolutely need.  This next build looks very high end though XD.  Although You may be right i could afford a titan and a quadro at that price point but  that is my maximum budget.  I would like it to be cheaper if at all possible.  After all price/performance does matter to me.  I'll look a bit into the quadros though and see if they are really worth it. I haven't looked much into them. Plus the budget does need to include any extras i might need at the time of build so obviously a cheaper build would be preferable, but if i needed i could save more. mismatched GPUs though sounds wierd i wonder if that quadro would play nice with the gaming card especially if i utilize the gaming card for extra simulation performance since it can still do computing.  I have done computing on gaming cards.  I did it on my 760 it was just slow on the 760. Thanks for your help though I do like the build and thanks for the information about the gaming sku of motherboards.

 

[Megazero]

13 minutes ago, Earl_of_Madness said:

I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression. Also i didn't know it was still a workstation board.  Whenever I see gaming I assume that perhaps they might sacrifice on reliability which is something I will absolutely need.  This next build looks very high end though XD.  Although You may be right i could afford a titan and a quadro at that price point but  that is my maximum budget.  I would like it to be cheaper if at all possible.  After all price/performance does matter to me.  I'll look a bit into the quadros though and see if they are really worth it. I haven't looked much into them. Plus the budget does need to include any extras i might need at the time of build so obviously a cheaper build would be preferable, but if i needed i could save more. mismatched GPUs though sounds wierd i wonder if that quadro would play nice with the gaming card especially if i utilize the gaming card for extra simulation performance since it can still do computing.  I have done computing on gaming cards.  I did it on my 760 it was just slow on the 760. Thanks for your help though I do like the build and thanks for the information about the gaming sku of motherboards.

 

Rather than playing nice... they wont work together at all. Running a Quadro along side a GTX gaming card is not the same as SLI. SLI require 2 same card working for the same purpose. Running Quadro along side a GTX card like I said is different, think of it as when you do work on the Quadro, the GTX will not do anything at all, and when you game, the Quadro will do nothing at all. It isnt a common practice at all, I know it's viable because of Linus old video about running both AMD and Nvidia GPU in 1 system, it's simply the issue of which one is currently connect to your monitor/which one is currently in use.

Here's a topic talking about it: http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2326075/quadro-2000d-gtx-760-system.html , you can also search for similar post on google.

And for more info I think you can ask people on the Graphic card Sub forum of LinusTechTips, 

[Earl_of_Madness]

4 minutes ago, Megazero said:

Rather than playing nice... they wont work together at all. Running a Quadro along side a GTX gaming card is not the same as SLI. SLI require 2 same card working for the same purpose. Running Quadro along side a GTX card like I said is different, think of it as when you do work on the Quadro, the GTX will not do anything at all, and when you game, the Quadro will do nothing at all. It isnt a common practice at all, I know it's viable because of Linus old video about running both AMD and Nvidia GPU in 1 system, it's simply the issue of which one is currently connect to your monitor/which one is currently in use.

Here's a topic talking about it: http://www.tomsguide.com/answers/id-2326075/quadro-2000d-gtx-760-system.html , you can also search for similar post on google.

And for more info I think you can ask people on the Graphic card Sub forum of LinusTechTips, 

Hmm that might be the nail in the coffin for the quadro for the price if that's the case. I don't want one card sitting and doing nothing at any time. I know that i have the budget for it.  Also looking at benchmarks there is little performance gain in double precision or single precision computing performance over the GTX cards.  The only thing its better at is reliability and memory and though i need that i don't know if the price justifies it especially since i'm not a developer of graphics and i'm not rendering things.  I just need straight up computing performance and no way in hell i can buy a tesla.  Oh well I guess the Titan it is then or well the next titan, i hope it has better double precision performance than the current titan.