Looking For Feedback On a High Performance Computer

[vcelloho]

I'm working on puting together a part list for a server/workstation that our research group will use for optimization and modeling. I'm trying to keep the system on ~$4000. I'd appreciate any feedback
Motherboard - $429.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813131643
Processor - 2x Opteron 6274 - 1299.98
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819113038
Hard drives - 2x 1TB Samsung Spinpoint
Memory - 128 GB 16000 DDR3 ECC RAM 1139.96
Other less important to specify components including PSU, case , and some other things come to 978.42.
The total cost for the build is $4068.33.

Right now I'm not planning to set up RAID, will this significantly hurt the computers performance on large optimization problems. I was assuming that the memory and processors were more important on this front. Any critique would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[mfenn]

DO NOT build a whitebox system for use as a research computing platform. People's degrees and careers depend on the machine being available all the time, and you don't want to be the guy who everyone's looking at when things go to shit.

You'll want to buy a system from a major vendor who is going to be there if problems occur. You should leverage your university's pricing discounts to get as good of a Dell or HP server as you can within your budget.