Computer building opinions

[Brian d marge]

Last question Honest guv !!

I run Openfoam, a CFD program

its a number crunching application ( big numbers and lots and lots of them )

I am running the solver now and it will take a few hours to complete on a duo core with 4 gig ram

Sooo..

I am building a new computer for this software

Ive been advised as rule of thumb , 2 gig of ram per CPU is about right

and the more CPU the better ...one assumes

Sooo

I thinks to me self ...Quad core ( I7 950 core bloomfield ) and as much ram as I can

4 gig stick x my four slots I have available ( they do 4 gig sticks of ram ? )

and a nvidia Geforce GT 430 video card ( 1 gig onboard memory )

all in a well ventilated chassis , has 5 fans incl a huge one on the top

and water cooled chip using the corsair H50 ( well its cheap !)

Can any one see any bottle necks , improvements ,,, or general any other stuff

bear in mind its a pure number cruncher ,,not a gaming rig


Kind Regards

Stephen

[steve_t]

Was looking at one of the Gigabyte X58 boards just out of interest and it can house up to 24gb of RAM!
SSD's probably aren't necessary but cooler and quieter... depends if your budget is unlimited

[Mental Trousers]

Not quite what you're looking for, but for that sort of application I'd start looking at a small cluster, preferably of PS3's

May sound ridiculous but the PS3 is the number cruncher from hell and clustering a couple of things would make short work of OpenFoam.

Failing that a cluster of cheap bare bones systems that are basically cpu's, ram, motherboard and psu. Some 10G NIC's and away you go.

Sorry if that lot sounds stupid, but that's what I'd be aiming for.

[steve_t]

Not quite what you're looking for, but for that sort of application I'd start looking at a small cluster, preferably of PS3's

May sound ridiculous but the PS3 is the number cruncher from hell and clustering a couple of things would make short work of OpenFoam.

Are PS3's still a major force powering the Folding@Home project? That's a pretty sweet concept

[Mental Trousers]

nfi sorry. I haven't looked at Folding for a long time.

[Brian d marge]

ok

clustering? many cpu and motherboards

I fear this will take a bit of googling

24 gig of Ram......... I like

stephen

off to google

[sil3nt]

Do you have a budget? Those $1500 i7s are stupidly fast.

[Gremlin]

I haven't seen 4GB DDR3 dimms yet, but thats not to say they don't exist.

Most i7 boards should be coming with 6 slots for memory, making 12GB of memory. Not sure what your crunching does (not familiar with the software either) but disk IO perhaps?

If you're that worried, just get a ProLiant DL385 G7 or similar... spend a few grand taking her up over 100GB of memory, 12 core CPU (x2 of course)... you'll be done in a jiffy!

[Brian d marge]

Failing that a cluster of cheap bare bones systems that are basically cpu's, ram, motherboard and psu. Some 10G NIC's and away you go

Sooo


2 quad cores and lots and lots of ram 16 x 2 running as a cluster???

why can I see a divorce on the horizon

Stephen

[Brian d marge]

Do you have a budget? Those $1500 i7s are stupidly fast.

thats what I was looking at Lga 1366 Core I7 950 Bloomfield

quite reasonable price at local shop

Stephen

[Brian d marge]

I haven't seen 4GB DDR3 dimms yet, but thats not to say they don't exist.

Most i7 boards should be coming with 6 slots for memory, making 12GB of memory. Not sure what your crunching does (not familiar with the software either) but disk IO perhaps?

If you're that worried, just get a ProLiant DL385 G7 or similar... spend a few grand taking her up over 100GB of memory, 12 core CPU (x2 of course)... you'll be done in a jiffy!

I am filling out the divorce paper as we speak

Knees are going weak ...

seriously though, is it possible to run 2 quad cores ?

does everything have to be matched , ie the same on each motherbaord?? ram and videocard?


Stephen

[SMOKEU]

Buy a 1055T or a 1090T with an 890FX board. They OC to 4GHz on air and are great for multi threaded apps. I wouldn't go for an X58 setup unless you have lots of cash to burn.

Hook up a 6850 and you can OC it to close to 1GHz on the reference cooler.

[steve_t]

2 quad cores and lots and lots of ram 16 x 2 running as a cluster???

why can I see a divorce on the horizon

Stephen

Divorce? One for you and one fo the wife. How can she complain about that?

[SMOKEU]

I am filling out the divorce paper as we speak

Knees are going weak ...

seriously though, is it possible to run 2 quad cores ?

does everything have to be matched , ie the same on each motherbaord?? ram and videocard?


Stephen

Dual core processors are old. Get a single 6 core!

[sil3nt]

thats what I was looking at Lga 1366 Core I7 950 Bloomfield

quite reasonable price at local shop

Stephen

$400? You can get a Phenom II 1090 with 6 cores for less. The I7 950 may still be better though it depends on how the application utilises the cores.

Just get the best I7 you can afford.