Build review request - Workstation

[Marjana]

It's been about 15 years since I've build a computer, so I would really appreciate it if someone would casually review my build to see if I made any critical errors or if I'm completely missing the boat. Any comments or suggestions / recommendations is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

1. What YOUR PC will be used for.
Bioinformatics (Python, SQL, Excel). Photo editing (Illustrator, Photoshop). Various scientific software. No games.

2. What YOUR budget is.
~$1500

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
United States

4. IF you're buying parts OUTSIDE the US, please post a link to the vendor you'll be buying from.
N/A

5. IF YOU have a brand preference.
No brand preference

6. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
No recycling of parts.

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
Default speeds. Overclocking not an option.

8. What resolution, not monitor size, will you be using?
Never thought about it. Whatever is standard.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
August. Waiting for the Amazon sale (and crossing my fingers) before I purchase parts.

10. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
Windows.

My current build plan:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/stdxqs

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-1620 V3 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($286.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste ($6.79 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99E-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA2011-3 Narrow Motherboard ($257.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($172.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung SM951 NvME 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (~$220 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($52.49 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon R9 280 3GB Dual-X Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Node 304 Mini ITX Tower Case ($84.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: SeaSonic G 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 OEM (~$110)
Total: $1450.55
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

I'm waiting to purchase the NvME version of the SM951 when it comes out later this month.
I will be purchasing Windows 10 when it comes out later this month.
The motherboard comes with the Dynatron R24 60mm CPU cooler.

Thank you!

 

[Ken g6]

Hm, you appear to have some unusual requirements:

- ECC RAM
- M.2 SSD
- Mini-ITX

Those three are sufficient to limit you to that one mobo. If any one of those is not a requirement, you could choose something different.

An R9 280 seems like overkill...unless you plan to use it for double-precision GPGPU work. It doesn't have ECC RAM, though, so I'm not sure you'd want to do that. If not, you can choose a much lower-power and lower-heat GPU, like a GTX 750 or 750ti.

It seems like kind of a shame that you get an LGA2011 processor and don't get more than 4 cores out of it. For just a little bit more you could go with something like this:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: *Intel Xeon E5-1650 V3 3.5GHz 6-Core OEM/Tray Processor ($564.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Thermal Compound: Noctua NT-H1 3.5g Thermal Paste ($8.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99E-ITX/ac Mini ITX LGA2011-3 Narrow Motherboard ($257.86 @ Newegg)
Memory: *Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) Registered DDR4-2133 Memory ($172.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Samsung SM951 256GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($219.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($40.50 @ Amazon)
Storage: *Hitachi Deskstar 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($40.50 @ Amazon)
Video Card: *MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Case: *Cooler Master Elite 120 Advanced (Black) Mini ITX Tower Case ($27.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: *SeaSonic 350W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 OEM (64-bit) ($86.98 @ OutletPC)
Total: $1559.67
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-07-10 17:57 EDT-0400

But do your scientific applications even use all 4 cores?

Edit: Oh, by the way, you don't need to wait to buy Windows. It'll upgrade from 7 or 8 to 10 free, if you do it in the first year.

 

[zir_blazer]

Since he said that he didn't build computers since 15 years ago, I suppose he just picked Workstation parts but don't know if that's actually good. His needs are covered in a LGA 1150 platform.

Also, I would use an Intel 750 PCIe SSD. M.2 SSDs are intended for Notebooks and not for intensive, serious usage, as proof you have the extremely high operating temperatures and thermal throttling which are rather scary.
Besides, if I recall correctly, no LGA 2011 Processor comes with an Heatsink. You NEED to add a third party one. And may want a Supermicro Motherboard to seal the deal.

 

[Ken g6]

Wow, I didn't know that about M.2 SSDs either!

Besides, if I recall correctly, no LGA 2011 Processor comes with an Heatsink. You NEED to add a third party one.

That mobo comes with a heat sink. Because it has an unusual mounting system.

 

[Marjana]

Thank you very, very much for your response!

Just to walk you through my logic, however flawed it is . I started with the mini-ITX because it would fit very nicely in my bookshelf. As petty as it is, I really hated the idea of a big computer on the floor of my office. I originally planned on one of the i chips (especially since I saw them repeatedly used in builds), but my post-doc said that it was a waste of money in a workstation and that I would be better with an Xeon chip. The articles I read seems to support that, so I settled on the Xeon.

I chose DDR4 because it seems that was where the field was moving and I saw a large number of (admittedly, very high end) work stations using the DDR4. Given those requirements, I used PCPartPicker to narrow down the motherboards and the X99E-ITX had very good reviews and had USB3. Going back to the RAM, I originally wasn't going to use ECC RAM, but since the motherboard supported it I figured why not. Sounds like that was a poor choice.

It appears that I also made a poor choice for a boot drive. I originally had selected a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" solid state drive, but switched to the M.2 SSD after reading the reviews and seeing that the motherboard could use one.

My last video card was a Radeon 9700 pro, which pretty much dates me (post-undergraduate and before I had kids, when I had time to game now and then). I wasn't sure what I needed, so I selected the R9 280 because it was the card I saw most frequently in the lowest end builds. I'm ecstatic with your 750 Ti recommendation. Thank you.

I know that some of the software that I'll be using is multi-core aware. I was also under the impression that Microsoft Access was also able to use multiple cores. Would I see much of a difference between a chip that has 2, 4, or 6 cores? To be honest, I don't know.

I'm still unclear about the whole free upgrade to Windows 10 bit. At times the upgrade seems like an extended demo, after which you have to purchase the upgrade ("free for a year"). I was also very unclear about whether or not I had to be involved with the Insider program and whether, if I left the program later, the OS would stop working. I can't say that I have a tremendous amount of faith in Microsoft and their business practices.

 

[zir_blazer]

You have two main platform choices: LGA 1150, which max at 4 Cores and 32 GB RAM DDR3 but is quite cheap, or go full blown with LGA 2011. However, if you want LGA 2011, NOT using a 6 Core+ Processor or 32 GB+ RAM is rather an stupid idea, since you're going to spend much more just to get a LGA 2011 equivalent. Also, on LGA 1150 you have the Processor's integrated GPU, which if you don't need anything fancy, is as good as you need.
Still, if you wanted a true Workstation, and not a Desktop-as-Workstation, the choice of parts was at least decent. Xeon with ECC RAM is the way to go for that.

The only dilemma is whenever you need to purchase it NOW or you can wait a few months. Today you can purchase a LGA 1150 Haswell, but in 3 months or so you could get Skylake, which is skipping two generations and also a new platform. If you need to go LGA 2011 Haswell-E because you want MOAR Cores, you may as well ignore Skylake since it max out at 4 Cores like Haswell.

Something that could work:
Processor: Xeon E3-1246V3 Haswell Refresh - 290 U$D Newegg
Motherboard: Supermicro X10SAT - 269 U$D Newegg
This Motherboard is one of the best purchases I ever made. The only thing I don't know if it is rolls out of the box with a NVMe SSD.
RAM: 4 * 8 GB Unbuffered/ECC - around 300 U$D
Can't really help you on this one since I'm picky when it comes to the actual DRAM chips and there is little to no in-depth info about these. Remember, its Unbuffered + ECC, NOT Buffered or Registered, these don't work on LGA 1150
Heatsink: May want aftermarket Heatsink, since the stock cooler isn't good enough.
SSD : Intel 750 PCIe 400 GB - 390 U$D Newegg

 

[bononos]

......
It appears that I also made a poor choice for a boot drive. I originally had selected a Samsung 840 EVO 250GB 2.5" solid state drive, but switched to the M.2 SSD after reading the reviews and seeing that the motherboard could use one.
......

A few things jumped out in your op. Someone already commented on your proposed 280x purchase.

I think the m.2 doesn't have any advantage apart from lower power consumption and size. Since normal ssds are already relatively low power devices, you might as well save $100 and get a sata ssd for the same size.

AS5 is old and messy and capacitative. Get tuniq tx-4 or pk-3.

 

[Murloc]

840 EVO is an older model and it has performance issues, get a newer one.

A cooler with a 60 mm fan could be noisy so try looking at a review before, it mostly depends on the specific model anyway so maybe it's not noisy.

Also depending on what kind of bookshelf you're talking about, airflow restrictions might make the noise worse.

 

[Marjana]

Thank you all very much - I really appreciate your time and certainly have a lot to think about. This has certainly been a humbling, but very exciting, project.

Zir_Blazer, you made the comment "...if you wanted a true Workstation, and not a Desktop-as-Workstation..." and I'm wondering if I backed myself into a corner by using the wrong terminology. What is the difference between a true Workstation and a Desktop-as-Workstation? I've been using the term 'workstation' to distinguish from a gaming machine as I didn't want to put in a GPU that was 50% of the computer cost (and that I would never use) and I also came away with the impression that gaming machines have different CPU requirements than non-gaming machines.

I spent a lot of time reading up on ECC memory last night, and it doesn't seem to make sense in my case. I won't be using the computer as a server, running 24-7. Besides for my extremely intensive analysis, I use the Biowulf cluster. In general, would there be much of a functional difference between CAS15 and CAS12?

 

[zir_blazer]

Zir_Blazer, you made the comment "...if you wanted a true Workstation, and not a Desktop-as-Workstation..." and I'm wondering if I backed myself into a corner by using the wrong terminology. What is the difference between a true Workstation and a Desktop-as-Workstation? I've been using the term 'workstation' to distinguish from a gaming machine as I didn't want to put in a GPU that was 50% of the computer cost (and that I would never use) and I also came away with the impression that gaming machines have different CPU requirements than non-gaming machines.

You can use a computer the way you want it. You can pick an expensive Dual Processor server with a professional Video Card like a nVidia Quadro and use it for gaming. You can run mission-critical applications on an overclocked computer of dubious stability. You can play games with an integrated GPU, if you don't mind low resolutions and image quality. Basically, you can build something, and use it for a totally different purpose than the intended one. Indeed, you will get the best results if you use the proper Hardware within the budget for the task.

Desktop-as-Workstation is what happens when you use a typical Desktop for heavy duty work. Compared to Desktops, Workstations are meant to have rock solid stability - is not that you can't achieve near identical results with a Desktop, just that there are more appropiated parts for the job. Xeons with ECC RAM are intended to do that. And the best part of it and the reason why I like them soo much, is that they aren't much more expensive than equivalent-performance parts from the consumer Desktop segment.
In general, Workstation parts, mainly Motherboards, usually are more reliable, at the cost of losing some features that Desktop Motherboards of the same price range have. Besides overclocking, the high end Desktop aims for the enthusiast crowd, which Motherboard manufacturers thinks that wants lots of color on it, Heatsink with ridiculous shapes, and near-useless gimmicks that looks cool.

 

[mfenn]

I spent a lot of time reading up on ECC memory last night, and it doesn't seem to make sense in my case. I won't be using the computer as a server, running 24-7. Besides for my extremely intensive analysis, I use the Biowulf cluster.

I think this is the crux of the issue. What is it that you actually want to do with your computer? Be as specific as possible with the various codes and libraries that you use.

For example, if you're just doing development on your machine and farming out most real jobs to a Beowulf-style cluster, then your machine probably doesn't need to be anything out of the ordinary. But if you're doing intensive analysis on your machine, then you need to look at workstation parts.