Buying a new Pixinsight CPU suggestions

[mmirot]

I am looking for new CPU for PI.  I have budget of around 1200.00 to 1300.00, max 1500 USD.

I think it should have fast CPU Intel i7 with four or six cores, a SSD 128gig drive with the OS and applications and 8 gig ram.
That's seems to be the most important performance specs from PI benchmarks.

If anyone has any other suggestion please let me know.

I would love a link to specific system if you have been shopping recently.

Thanks

Max

[msmythers]

Just my 2 cents but get as much ram as you can stand. At least 16 and 32 would be better. If the machine is just for PI then also seriously think about Linux. I'm not a Linux person, I am running a 6 core AMD with Windows 7 but if I was doing a PI only box today I would go Intel, SSD, 32GB ram and Linux. The motherboard I would look for would be capable of multiple processors also. By going Linux your saving yourself at least $80 if not more. If you have a bit of money tied up in imaging equipment don't cut corners on the processing side.



Mike

[NGC7789]

if your budget maxes out at $1500 then I think a four core i7 is the way to go. Of course multi core is nice but you won't fit it in your budget. Get the fastest one and don't bother with a graphics card. Use the integrated GPU. PI doesn't leverage the GPU anyway (yet). I agree with Mike about RAM and Linux. With Linux (I use Ubuntu) you benefit from superior CPU and RAM utilization that benefits PI greatly. Remember you can set up to dual boot (or triple boot) with Windows and if you want to hackintosh 9 (as I do) OS X. When I added Linux I was surprised that it out performed OS X by 30% on the same hardware. In that budget you should be able to get an SSD for boot/scratch as well as working storage. For archiving and backup I'd use standard hard drives. 

[CharlesW]

$1500 in the Apple world will hardly buy you a seat at the table but on the PC planet it's supercomputer dollars. Since you are probably going to use this computer for more than just running TGV Denoise, you might want to take a look at Dell. They have a builder that makes it relatively easy to match budget with power.

[NGC7789]

I had assumed you were building. Are you building yourself? If not I think it's true that dell or HP are the places to go. You're not going to get what you want in a Apple Mac for $1500.

[mmirot]

   
Here is what I am looking at for around 1260.00 with no OS

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-5820K Six-Core 3.30GHz 15MB Intel Smart Cache LGA2011-V3 10% overclocked.
   
 
    RAM / System Memory: 16GB (4GBx4) DDR4/2400MHz Quad Channel Memory
     
    Hard Drive: 120GB Samsung 850 EVO Series SATA-III 6.0Gb/s SSD - 540MB/s Read & 520MB/s Write
    Secondary Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD
    Video Card: AMD Radeon R7 240 2GB GDDR3 PCIe 3.0 x16 Video Card
    Power Supply: 430 Watts

How do think this system would do?
I could go for more and still keep in budget.  Do I need more?  The web site I am on has many custom options.

I am going in the right direction?

Max

[mmirot]

Here is the site if someone cares to look at the options.

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/CyberPower_X99_Configurator/

Max

[NGC7789]

Wow. That does seem to be a good deal. If you can swing it go for the 5930k. And a 250GB SSD will let you keep your working files on the SSD. I'd also be concerned about the power supply. I'd say 650 watt minimum. But that change should be short money. And I don't know anything about the GPU.

[Juan Conejero]

Your choice of processor is reasonable. I agree that the i7 5930K is also a very good choice for $190 more. See the high-end Passmark table for price/performance comparisons. Both processors are well positioned on the PixInsight Benchmark, but the 5930K is clearly superior (in the 9000-10000 CPU index range) to the 5820K (in the 8000-9000 range).

Definitely I would go for 32 GB of RAM at least. It is true that 430 W is borderline for this machine, especially if you upgrade it with more components in the future. You need 650 W or, for a small price increment, even 850 W.

[sctall]

My 2 cents would be if you are building a PC, and are PC building savy, Build your own from bottom up.
Go to https://pcpartpicker.com/builds/, and get some ideas on cases and motherboards.
Since it is geared towards Gamers mostly, just substitute the hundreds they spend on the GPU for the RAM.

I agree with Linux utilization being better. But if you don't know Linux, it is not user friendly.

Your choices are a good start. Not sure you need the R7 though.

I build PC's for people for a hobby, and my goal is to build a PC that WILL BE upgradable. In all aspects.
I have worked for both HP and Dell, and though they make decent high end servers, their $1200 are not all that.

You will get a basic motherboard, probably branded but not made by them. Most likely Foxconn in China or such.
You may get tied to proprietary upgrade options.
If you build your own, you get just what you want.  And there are many options out there.
Since I build mostly for gamers, I don't generally need a high end CPU. Most every game out there will play 60FPS on a i5 4690K, with some clocking. They want the BIG GPU's
However for PI I would think a good i7 would be better. But definitely lots of RAM.
Get the SSD for boot up and PI, and a 1TB HDD for the storage, unless you can afford bigger.

And besides it is FUN!!!!

Scott

[msmythers]

I'd like to add one more item to the list of possible requirements. I live in Florida and we have power interruption issues. From simple loss of power, to slow brown outs, to large spikes due to local thunder storms it's a major headache. They can severely shorten the life of your hardware and or just be a pain when you least expect it like the power dropping out during a processing session. A quality UPS system is your hardwares best friend. It will out last your computer and the long term costs is just replacing batteries every 3 to 5 years.

Mine are extreme issues but I would not chance a large hardware investment without some protection.


Mike

[vicent_peris]

Hi,

My laptop and workstation are configured with three hard drives. One SSD for the operating system, another SSD for your "work in progress" files, and a backup rotational hard drive for general storage.


Best regards,
Vicent.