Shoutbox

I am buying a new pc, this one isn't fast enough for the stuff i am doing these days.
I use some quite processor intensive programs (i'm an engineer):

• MATLAB
  
• SolidWorks
  
• AutoCAD
  
• Maple

I will be expecting for this to last a long time, so am considering the high spec and high price end of the market...

Here is what i have at the moment:
Motherboard:
ASUS P7P55D PRO iP55 Socket LGA 1156 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard £136.84
Processor:
Intel Core i7 860 2.8GHz Socket LGA 1156 8MB L3 Cache Retail Boxed Processor £210.85
Memory:
Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1600MHz/PC3-12800 XMS3 Dominator Memory CL9 (9-9-9-24) £94.99

OS:
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate - Licence and media - 1 PC - OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English £139.78 Probably going to switch this for retail

Other:
Enlight Internal 3.5" 15-in-1 Card Reader with Sim Card Reader £9.99
Sony AD-5240S 24x DVD±RW DL Internal SATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £15.99
120mm Black Case Fan - 4 pin connector £1.99
Akasa AK-959 Socket 1156 CPU Cooler £5.42


I am unsure about the memory to be honest seems pretty pricey... anyone with any helpful suggestions?

oh, and i haven't included a graphics card as i will be getting that at a later date. and i have the case and power supply...
one of the reasons for getting this soon is too buy it before the VAT goes back up in england.

If you're going to run those kinds of apps the memory can't be high enough.

4Gb is also the absolute minimum for Win7 64bit to run smoothly, not even taking in account those apps. So you would benefit a lot with more memory (PS: it's totally useless to have more than 4Gb memory on a 32bit OS though). I would say have at least 6Gb. Preferably 8Gb or even more seeing the kind of apps you want to run. (PS: make sure those apps are the 64bit versions though, this will again be very benefitial)

Having enough memory can speed up your apps way more than investing in a slightly better CPU but having not much or the minimum amount of memory.

Memory is actually not that expensive anymore, you should realy invest in that. The thing which makes it expensive is the DDR3. If your motherboard also supports DDR2 I would buy that instead if you're short on cash (it is roughly twice as cheap). You will loose some performance speed, but at equivalent speeds that is actually not very noticable.

Also:
http://www.w7forums.com/windows-7-64-bit-vs-32-bit-t484.html

Cheers Cookie, i will probably go for 8Gb DDR3. I didn't even mention the Finite Element Analysis software, i am tired of it crawling along, and i have access to the 64bit and multi-core version so will defiantly be making the most of that!

anyone got any opinions on the motherboard and processor? a lot of things have changed since i last build a pc.

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
4Gb is also the absolute minimum for Win7 64bit to run smoothly

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I've been using Win7 64 since beta and it runs just fine with 2GB...

I can run MATLAB with my Quad Q6600, but I've only used for simple calculations so far, and it's almost instantly even for not so simple integrations. But my brother has an identical PC running XP 32-bit and he runs MATLAB smoothly doing this complex calculations (I don't know what he does). He also runs AutoCAD Inventor fine.

In my opinion, you could start with 4GB and then buy more when needed.
You could maybe add a bluray drive, in case you watch movies... but I don't know if it's cheap or not. No idea.

And a final tip about MATLAB if you have never used the 64-bit version, its usage is different of the 32, so you may want install both until you get used to the 64-bit.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chancer
I've been using Win7 64 since beta and it runs just fine with 2GB...

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It would run, but slower than with 4GB, especially when you have all the bells and whistles. Most people realy recommend at least 4GB.

quote:

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Originally posted by Chancer
In my opinion, you could start with 4GB and then buy more when needed.

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Highly depends on what the motherboard supports. If there are only 2 slots, then he should buy 1 stick of 4GB in that case, and not 2 sticks of dual channel 2GB. Because otherwise he must throw away those two sticks when he wants to upgrade to 8GB (=2 sticks of dual channel 4GB). And as said, DDR3 is not that cheap to just throwing it away imho. If it was DDR2 then who cares.

the i7's DDR3 memory controller is triple channel. the number of RAM modules you have installed should always be a multiple of 3.

If I  had known you needed an i7 CPU, I would've hooked you up with my Intel EEP program deal.

Anyways, I7 rock. (I have a 920).

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
the i7's DDR3 memory controller is triple channel

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The ASUS P7P55D PRO seems to be a dual channel board (4 slots, 2 colored groups).

Also, not all i7s use triple channel. The 9xx models do, the 8xx models (which he picked) don't.

quote:

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Originally posted by Veggie
OEM - DVD - 64-bit - English £139.78 Probably going to switch this for retail

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Why switch to retail?

quote:

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
It would run, but slower than with 4GB, especially when you have all the bells and whistles. Most people realy recommend at least 4GB.

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Yes and 4GB would run slower than 2GB. Windows 7 runs perfectly fine with 2GB, though I would suggest getting atleast 4GB (even 8 if you can afford it) for what you are doing.

quote:

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Originally posted by ShawnZ
the i7's DDR3 memory controller is triple channel. the number of RAM modules you have installed should always be a multiple of 3.

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It's the X58 chipset that runs the triple channel memory controller. P55 is duel channel.

quote:

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Originally posted by albert
Anyways, I7 rock. (I have a 920).

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Mines running at 3.6 with 6GB of ram (same type Vegie is looking at only tighter timings). Was working really well yesterday while everyone elses computer was lagging/freezing .

i stand by what Cookie said, im on Win764 bit an Memory usage is around 1.70GB of 4GH ram. an im on a old crappy AMD Dual Core 6000+ Cpu with a Crappy Mobo i wont replace till the computer actually dies on me

though i have been looking at the i5 intel cores . i dont need a i7