HP ENVY Phoenix 850se for MATLAB?

[sefan86]

Hi all. I'm considering buying HP's ENVY Phoenix 850se to use with MATLAB. The specs are as follows and it costs 1015 usd + taxes. Do you think it's a good deal? I've built a computer on my own once, so I could potentially build one on my own, but ~1000 is my budget limit. I usually use servers for MATLAB at my university but sometimes they are crowded and unusable, that's why I want to have my own computer capable of doing some demanding tasks.

4th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K processor hexa-core [3.3GHz, 15MB Shared Cache]
No Additional Security Software
16GB DDR4-2133 DIMM (2x8GB) RAM
Home and Home Office Insert
NVIDIA GTX 745 4GB DDR3 FH GFX
256GB SATA 2.5 TLC Solid State Drive
No Secondary HDD
SuperMulti DVD Burner
Microsoft Office Trial
HP USB volume control Keyboard and USB Optical Mouse
HP ENVY Phoenix 850se Win 7 Desktop PC
HP Wireless 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 1x1 with Bluetooth M.2 NIC
Windows 7 Professional 64
Integrated Sound, Bang & Olufsen Audio
7-in-1 Media Card Reader, 4 USB Ports (Top), Audio [Top 2USB2.0, 2USB3.0]

 

[nsafreak]

You can do your own build for a little bit less and with likely a better quality motherboard and PSU. You can go even cheaper by cutting down even further on the GPU, you just need one since the X99 platform CPUs don't have an iGPU. Here's what I've put together:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($373.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($25.98 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: MSI X99S SLI Plus ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($162.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($92.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: XFX Radeon R7 260X 2GB Double Dissipation Video Card ($87.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Core 2300 ATX Mid Tower Case ($43.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Power Supply: EVGA SuperNOVA G2 550W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $936.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-08-06 13:27 EDT-0400

Keep in mind that I do believe you can still sign up for the Windows Insider program and get a legit copy of Windows 10 at no charge. Somebody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that.

 

[sefan86]

Thanks! I guess I would pick an NVIDIA GPUs given that it's the only one MATLAB is actually capable of using for parallel computing (or that is, at least, my understanding)

 

[freeskier93]

If the work you do in Matlab is highly parallel then the 6 core i7 will be really nice, but you need to be careful because you'll hurt single threaded tasks with that lower clock speed. EDIT: Just realized you were looking at the -k version, I'd get a nice watercooler and overclock that puppy.

Yes, Matlab only supports CUDA acceleration so something like a 750Ti would work well.

 

[sefan86]

Thanks! What water cooler would you recommend?

 

[lehtv]

You can OC that fairly well on an air cooler. Noctua D15, Phanteks TC14PE, Macho X2, some high end Be Quiet! etc. If you want a water cooler that will cost extra for a minor benefit, e.g. H110i GT (need to make sure the case is compatible).

 

[magomago]

If this is for school, what you have listed is vastly overkill.

 

[sefan86]

I'm a grad student. In servers my jobs do take a day or so and I use parallel so many cores do make a difference. It may still be overkill though