Need info on componets needed to build the best computer for crunching numbers for setihome Starting from ground up case to operating system gpu's cpu's mother board. power supply.could possiably go has high as 3 grand. Any one have an idea on this? PS never built a computer from ground up have received A+ certification in 2003

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Need info on componets needed to build the best computer for crunching numbers for setihome Starting from ground up case to operating system gpu's cpu's mother board. power supply.could possiably go has high as 3 grand. Any one have an idea on this? PS never built a computer from ground up have received A+ certification in 2003

Start by creating a wish list at Newegg. TigerDirect may do the same. Case, MOBO, PSU, RAM, HDD, CPU, GPU. Those are the base parts. Add DVD/Bluray disc drive, SSD for OS drive, fans for cooling, maybe water cooling for the CPU. In the end the OS is an important decision. Purchase a Pro copy of WIN 7 or ask about the different Linux distros available. Personally, I have no problem with WIN 8.1 or 10. Some others feel differently. Otherwise, its a snap together model, if it doesn't go together easily, you have it in the wrong hole or orientation. Good luck. Two grand should get you some good hardware...

My rig; Around $1500 with the OS, case and fans....

AMD FX-8350 at 4300mhz
16gigs of G-Skill Ripjaws RAM at 1600mhz
2-Powercolor R9 280Xs 1030/1500mhz
Gigabyte GA970-UD3 MOBO
Samsung EVO 850 SSD
EVGA Supernova P2 1200W PSU

I'm an AMD fan. Nothing wrong with intel though, or invidia.

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Just an example....

PowerColor TurboDuo Radeon R9 280X AXR9 280X 3GBD5-T2DHV2E/OC 3GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support ATX OC V2 Video Card

2 X $239.99 -$40.00 Instant $399.98

EVGA 220-P2-1200-X1 80 PLUS Platinum 1200 W 10 yr Warranty ECO Mode Fully Modular NVIDIA SLI Ready and Crossfire Support Continous Power Supply

Maximum Power: 1200WFans: 1Modular: Full ModularModel: 220-P2-1200-X1

1 X $269.99 -$16.79 Instant $253.20

SAMSUNG 850 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-75E500B/AM

$219.99 -$50.00 Instant $169.99

AMD FX-8350 Black Edition Vishera 8-Core 4.0GHz (4.2GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 125W FD8350FRHKBOX Desktop Processor

1 X $179.99 -$10.00 Instant $169.99

G.SKILL Sniper Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBSR

2 X $49.99 $99.98

DIYPC Cuboid-B Black Aluminum / Steel MicroATX Mid Tower Computer Case Standard ATX / PS II (Not included) Power Supply

1 X $89.99 -$30.00 Instant $59.99

ASRock 970M Pro3 AM3+/AM3 AMD 970 + AMD SB950 6 x SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

1 X $64.99 $64.99

Western Digital WD Green WD20EZRX 2TB IntelliPower 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive

1 X $99.99 -$21.00 Instant $78.99

Pioneer Black Blu-ray Burner SATA BDR-209DBK

1 X $63.99 $63.99

Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - OEM

1 X $139.99 $139.99

Subtotal: $1,501.09

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I agree make yourself a wishlist first before you buy anything.

Figure out if you want to just crunch on the GPUs or are you going to want to crunch on both the GPU and CPU? (my own preference is just do GPU as they will make up any lost productivitiy from the CPU)

I know Louis likes the ATI cards but I would say you might be better off with Nvidia cards (you can scan the number crunching thread to see some of the issues that people are having with the ATI cards, not just here but with other projects)

As far as power for the computer, EVGA has a power assessment tool

http://www.evga.com/power-meter/

This would give you an idea on how much you would need

Choice of windows is up to you (my own preference is Win 7, you can read the windows 10 thread for some reasons not to upgrade)

There are some deals on different GTX 970s out there so you could pick up 2 or 3 without too much expense. (yes people will say it's not a true 4 GB but that's not an issue for Seti)

AMD chips tend to be cheaper than Intel chips but remember some "8 core" AMD chips only have 4 floating points so they act like 4 cores since they need to share a floating point between 2 different cores. (I have several AMD cpu chips so don't think I'm a hater)

You are going to get a lot of different opinions so just make a list of pro and cons and see which you prefer.

Good luck.

I'd start with a motherboard & case that can handle 4 video cards and go from there.

My personal preference is for GTX 750Tis, other cards have higher performance, but no other card can do so much work for so little power- 60W. Next in line would be the GTX 950/960s.
You could go for higher performing GPUs, but keep in mind you will have to pay for the power they use.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Here's a great site that will go out and grab prices from all over for you. You can also save various builds to compare.

https://pcpartpicker.com/

I'd start with a motherboard & case that can handle 4 video cards and go from there.

My personal preference is for GTX 750Tis, other cards have higher performance, but no other card can do so much work for so little power- 60W. Next in line would be the GTX 950/960s.
You could go for higher performing GPUs, but keep in mind you will have to pay for the power they use.

I'll agree strongly with that.

Also, go with AMD + Linux to benefit from real CPU cores for instruction bashing to feed the GPUs and additional GPUs with what you save on software costs.

(On the latest AMD, you have an FPU shared between two CPU cores, hence the FPU count is half the core count. However, most of your number crunching should be on the GPUs... Hence much bigger bang per buck than the more heavyweight Intel.)


Happy fast crunchin',
Martin

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

My AMD A10-6700 is decribed as 4 core CPU on the HP datasheet. But the Windows 10 Task Manager describes it as a 2 core 4 logical processors. I've read on theregister.co.uk that someone is suing AMD on the count of cores in the Bulldozer chips.
Tullio

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I'd skip the 950/960 GPUs and go to the GTX970 - I'm amazed at their performance - take a look my rigs for a performance comparison.
(Power draw is about 140w per GTX970 compared with about 65w for a GTX750ti, but the performance is over double)
Price for an Asus is about £105 for a GTX750ti against £270 for a GTX970, so getting on to three times the price.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I would start with choosing the GPUs because that's what will be carrying most of the workload. I'd also agree with Rob in that the price/performance of the GTX970 is about the best. You pay quite a premium for the 980 or 980Ti for not so much gain.
I'd also go for one that exhausts from the case to keep things cool and the Asus GTX970 OC Turbo does just that.
Three of those on an Asus X99 with an i7 5820K would add 12 hyperthreaded cores that would push RAC well beyond 50,000. Add in some Corsair 3200 DDR4 and it should be really good.

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My AMD A10-6700 is decribed as 4 core CPU on the HP datasheet. But the Windows 10 Task Manager describes it as a 2 core 4 logical processors. I've read on theregister.co.uk that someone is suing AMD on the count of cores in the Bulldozer chips.
Tullio

All amazing Marketing in any direction you might look.

So see for yourself:

Intel use one physical CPU core that then runs two 'hyperthread' logical CPUs at about half the clock rate;

AMD use a unit block that has two full clock rate CPUs.

AMD share the FPU circuitry within a block to give an 'Intel style hyperthreaded' FPU, but also with added flexibility.


So how do you count up the cores and relative performance? By CPU or FPU count or from what you can get from the full system?

Should we sue Intel for conning us with only half speed hyperthreading?


And how many remember Intel's unholy push into the ludicrous pipelines design for the Pentium4 "Netburst" so as to claim higher clock speed for bigger Marketing numbers despite poor technical performance?... And thence onto hyperthreading that similarly happen to embiggen the numbers for Marketing...

Such is my observation of what I see as Marketing compromised design to sell bigger numbers to the number chasers...


Meanwhile, back to what gives most bang-per-buck?...

Happy cool crunchin'
Martin


(Tulio, good comments thanks and my comments are purely against the purile Marketing conning those left bewildered... Best wishes!)

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See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)