I've been lurking for a while and seen lots of builds - even ones in my desired price range, but I'm still stupid. So, I need your help.
Being a Mac person, I am pleasantly ignorant of the majority of the hardware in my machines. I realize that hardware is the issue here, but I don't have the time to delve into the minutiae, so my main question is when there are millions of permutations of builds...how do you even begin?
Let me tell you what I am looking for in a new PC:
One that wont become obsolete in 5 minutes (maybe I'm being too optimistic?)
I am a MATLAB user, but most of my work really needs hundreds of cores, so a desktop will be for data analysis. Storage is important. If I had multiple cores, I could make use of parallelization.
I play games like SimCity, KSP, Cities in Motion, Sid Meiers games...nothing as demanding as the rest of you (It seems).
I need a machine that I can move across country with (i.e. no huge towers weighing 40lbs)
I have a 46" LED LG flatscreen TV that I'd like to drive with the machine from time to time (HDMI ports)
I work with large multidimensional data arrays, so sometimes displaying this data is critical.
I am ready to plunk down $500-800
Rather than just giving me a build, you could also help by showing me the methods of designing one. Like the "give a man a fish..." idea. Though, I would closely study any build that you submit. I promise that I will give feedback while I'm building it.
Some inspiration? Pretend I am designing machines for an open data analysis lab where students clandestinely go and install games and stream HD videos afterhours.
As for that Bible quote (catching fish), I am working with PC's 15+ years, and I watch HW progress on daily bases so there is no way that you can learm smt about computers in one forum thread.
you have google, use it (not to mention billion tutrials on you tube)..
Once you get a pc than you will see all the ins and outs, otherwise this is just empty talk...
Well, designing a PC is pretty complex due to the variety of hardware out there, but i'll do my best to explain the build.
I went with an AMD 8350, Out of all the CPUs on the market today within a reasonable budget, the 8350 has the most cores, 8 of them, so you should be able to take advantage of parallelization.
For the CPU cooler, I went with the xigmatek dark knight, it is the best cooler for the money out there
I selected a realitivly high quality motherboard, this will allow you to get a good overclock, and upgrade your CPU in the future.
For the GPU, I selected a nvidia 660. this is a fairly modest GPU, as you will not be playing very intensive games, but it will still handle most modern games on high settings if you need it too. Since it is an nvidia GPU, it has CUDA cores, which I belive MATLAB supports. I added 8 gb of decent quality ram, and a basic 1tb HDD.
The PSU is bronze certified, it is efficient and you don't have to worry too much about it bursting into flames. (unlike the PSU on most OEM systems) I have a corsair PSU myself, and have never had any trouble with it.
Yep, I totally agree with choosing a AMD 8350 for the processor. It has 8 cores and at ~$200 it is the best bang-for-buck CPU in general. Also, it is a good idea to go with a Nvidia graphics card for the CUDA cores that MATLAB utilizes.
Definitely go 80 plus Bronze and above when choosing a PSU. Achiving that level of certification generally means a high-quality product, not to mention higher power effeciency and thus slightly lower electric bill.