NASTRAN/Gaming Machine

Eirenaut

Hi guys,

I'm looking for some help spec'ing a build. I'm currently living in the UK, i'm an engineer and i'm currently studying for a Master's in Finite Element Analysis, so i need a machine to run Patran/Nastran, i'll also be gaming on this PC, particularly bf4 when it comes out. My budget is flexible and can increase depending on the suggested upgrade.

Thanks in advance.


1. What is your budget? [£800]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/NASTRAN/Matlab etc]

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [No I have Win7 64bit]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Keyboard and mouse]

5. Do you need a monitor? [No, will be buying a Qnix 2710]

5a. If yes, what size do you need. [19'/20'/22'/24'/etc.]

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? [1920x1080] [As above]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.] [No]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes]

8. How can you pay? [Debit Card]

9. When are you purchasing? [Before the end of the month (July)]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [Uk]
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Eirenaut

Also i should mention, i'm planning on this being an mATX build, preferably the corsair 350d case.

tuxy

Well the 350d is €150 euro so that only leaves €650 to work with. A gpu that will run BF4 on high detail at the native resolution of the Qnix 2710(2560x1440) will cost close to €400.


Item|Price
ASRock B75M R2.0, Sockel 1155, mATX|€58.08
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€55.64
be quiet! SYSTEM POWER 7 500W|€53.83
Intel Xeon E3-1230v2, boxed, LGA1155|€201.13
MSI N660 Twin Frozr 2GD5/OC, GeForce GTX 660, 2048MB DDR5|€179.54
16GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 PC3-10667U CL9-9-9-24|€109.94
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€677.15

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CC-9011028-WW-Obsidian-Micro-ATX-Performance/dp/B00BWLL9MY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1372734032&sr=8-1&keywords=350d [€148]

Nastran uses cuda cores so that's why I included an Nvidia card. It will be fine for gaming at 1080p but too weak for 1440p. With the 16gb of ram and the xeon processor the system is well above the recomended specifications for NASTRA and Matlab.

You said your budget is flexible this is the lowest level nvidia card I could recommend for 1440p, it's just a very demanding resolution with 80% more pixels than 1080p
http://www.hardwareversand.de/2048+MB/80552/Gainward+GeForce+GTX+770%2C+2GB+DDR5.article
So replace the 660 in the build with the 770 if you can stretch the budget to that and you are sure you will be gaming at such a high resolution.

An ssd would also be nice to have
http://www.hardwareversand.de/Solid-State-Disk/67795/Samsung+SSD+840+120GB+SATA+6Gb+s.article

Eirenaut

Thanks Tuxy, my budget is in GBP not euros and I don't need the case to be part of the £800 budget. I think I'll go for the nvidia 770 although I'll consider that as additional to the original budget, and I also have my eye on a 256GB SSD (Samsung 840 pro). I'll add a larger storage HDD later.