High-end developer PC

noonand

A while back (in 2009) Scott Hanselman attempted to build an Ultimate Developer/WEI 7.9 machine [0]. Some time has elapsed since that and I was wondering if anyone knows of a site with updated recommendations similar to this.

I found Bit Tech and their PC Hardware Buyer's Guide [1] but this was last updated in 2013 so I'm wondering if there's any other similar resource out there that does packages like this (Affordable All-Rounder, Enthusiast Overclocker, Gaming Workhorse, Premium Player) but that's up to date?

[0]
hanselman.com/blog/UltimateDeveloperPC20Part3UPDATEOnBuildingAWEI79AndRFCForBuildingAGOMGodsOwnMachine.aspx

[1]
bit-tech.net/hardware/buyers-guide/2013/08/22/pc-hardware-buyer-s-guide-august-2013/1

frozenfrozen

1. What is your budget? [€xxx]

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? [Gaming/Video editing/3D Modelling/HTPC/Internet] (If gaming include which games)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? [Yes/No]

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? [Hard drive/DVD Drive/Case/PSU/etc.] (If possible state brand and model of the parts to ensure compatibility)

5. Do you need a monitor? [Yes/No]

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? [1920x1080/1440x900/etc.] [Yes/No]

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.]

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? [Yes/No]

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser]

9. When are you purchasing? [In x days]

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? [South Dublin City/Cork City/Kerry/etc.]

noonand

I'm a little bit mystified at the nature of some of your questions (especially given as I just asked for _sites_) but I'll bite:

1. Not important, however each component must have a demonstrable need in the system, not just because it's the latest and greatest

2. Software development

3. No

4. Yes, case is reusable; also possibly the PSU although I'll probably replace it as the newer ones are nicer with modular cables

5. No

5b. N/A

5c. 1920x1200, undecided

6. No

7. No, unless the processor warranty explicitly allows it

8. Why is this important?

9. As soon as I decide what I need/want

10. I don't need help, thanks

frozenfrozen

Thought you were asking for help as per 90% of threads created here, don't worry these aren't personal questions it's a copy and paste set which everyone who wants help is asked to fill out on this forum (It's in the sticky post).

I got a real kick out of some of your answers especially answers 8 and 9. Without the context of these being generic questions, it does seem a bit odd asking how you're willing to pay. (The reason for this question is because some retailers, namely hardwareversand.de only really accept bank transfer, & charge an extra fee for PayPal).

I can't help you with an up to date guide for systems at different price points, however the threads here in PC Building & Upgrading can be used to gauge what you may need, especially as they all follow the same set of questions (as above with the misunderstanding).

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc also has some useful links in the sidebar, although in terms of price it will all be in USD as it's mainly Americans on that website.

noonand

@frozenfrozen Some nice resources there so thanks for the link. I found these two particularly good:

- pcpartpicker.com
- choosemypc.net

I was unaware of the stock set of questions but thanks also for that. Appreciate your help!

Digital Solitude

Are you looking to do a self build? Between myself, wotz, gumbi and Terror you'll get as good a build as any specialist recommendation

justsomebloke

noonand wrote: »

I'm wondering if there's any other similar resource out there that does packages like this (Affordable All-Rounder, Enthusiast Overclocker, Gaming Workhorse, Premium Player) but that's up to date?

There is no point, Different shops in different countries are all going to have different prices for components. So your best bang for buck will change per location and per day (depending on price fluctuations of products) and if you are willing to overclock or not.

Following a guide like this could lead to you spending more on and inferior machine. So if you are looking to build a machine give the details, other then that read through some of the threads in the forum as that ywill basically do the same thing as you are looking for.

Gumbi

What kind of software dev will you be doing? Many people wouldn't need a particularly high end system depending on what kind of development they do.

noonand

justsomebloke wrote: »

There is no point, Different shops in different countries are all going to have different prices for components. So your best bang for buck will change per location and per day (depending on price fluctuations of products) and if you are willing to overclock or not.

Following a guide like this could lead to you spending more on and inferior machine. So if you are looking to build a machine give the details, other then that read through some of the threads in the forum as that ywill basically do the same thing as you are looking for.

Not really interested in price, rather the specifications of the components. For example, I want an i7 but think it's silly to go for the top of the line so what represents the best bang for the buck? Or what mobos offer best perf and ports?

Am I making sense?

noonand

Gumbi wrote: »

What kind of software dev will you be doing? Many people wouldn't need a particularly high end system depending on what kind of development they do.

Full-stack MSFT on one machine. Running VS, IIS and SQL either directly or as VMs. Also running multiple instances of Office applications and browsers at the same time...

5uspect

TBH OP, I'd say just get an Enterprise level Dell or HP workstation. The warranty and technical support are probably more important to you and your work than the hot rod performance you'd get from a self build.

noonand

5uspect wrote: »

TBH OP, I'd say just get an Enterprise level Dell or HP workstation. The warranty and technical support are probably more important to you and your work than the hot rod performance you'd get from a self build.

I take your point but there's cost to going down that route the least of which is the financial one. I have a case, don't mind assembling the bits and I can replace components on a modular basis after which isn't possible if I buy a Dellosaurus...

5uspect

You'll need to have some spares just in case you suffer a failure. You could be waiting a couple of weeks for parts to ship from some of the German resellers. At least with a ****ty Dell their service and support is decent.

We've started building a few of our high end workstations ourselves, mostly for data processing and numerical work. It can be much cheaper and it's nice to have more flexibility. Most of us use Macs as our daily machines so we're never really stuck.

noonand

5uspect wrote: »

You'll need to have some spares just in case you suffer a failure. You could be waiting a couple of weeks for parts to ship from some of the German resellers. At least with a ****ty Dell their service and support is decent.

We've started building a few of our high end workstations ourselves, mostly for data processing and numerical work. It can be much cheaper and it's nice to have more flexibility. Most of us use Macs as our daily machines so we're never really stuck.

I too won't be stuck as I have a laptop. This is just for extra capacity and because I can have a better experience with a workstation class machine.

If you could share the spec of your high end workstations then that'd be great, if not no worries :-)

justsomebloke

5uspect wrote: »

TBH OP, I'd say just get an Enterprise level Dell or HP workstation. The warranty and technical support are probably more important to you and your work than the hot rod performance you'd get from a self build.

This. I would be more inclined to buy a decent dell, swap out the hard drive and bump up the RAM myself. It's great having a good machine, but it is priceless being able to have someone fix it the next day if it all goes to pot.

Xenoronin

Also the specs you are talking about are fairly industry standard. From looking at your requirements you just need a decent i5/i7 and plenty of RAM. There are some nice things that could speed you up but from an enterprise point of view the others have said it well. Peace of mind trumps the minor inconveniences of not having full control over your hardware spec. To make things zippy an SSD is the only "luxury" you need and I assume hardware suppliers like HP and Dell offer that at this stage.

Gumbi

Plenty of RAM (16-32 gigs), a nice SSD and maybe a 2TB drive (if you need mass storage space) and an i5 and you're good to go really.

noonand

I'm going to attempt to bring this back on topic as I feel that it's wandered a bit off. I appreciate all the advice, I really do, about buying Dells and HPs and if it were a customer of mine that's probably what I'd advise for exactly the same reasons as you've all outlined here.

However the original question was if anyone's aware of sites that have preconfigured bundles for different niches already made up. If someone has a similar workload to the one I outlined earlier then fine I'll happily take a spec that has worked for them on board too.

Why do I want to self-build so badly? It's not that I want to, it's just that I'm not averse to it. I have a case already with a functioning PSU so I figure why not reuse that instead of junking it?

Thanks again to all of you that give up your time to answer questions like these! :-)

5uspect

Most self builds tend to be gaming machines while most development machines tend to be build by the OEMs.
The likes of Hardwareversand.de have preconfigured machines, not that they might be targeted at your needs because there probably isn't a market.

Tech sites like Ars Technica, Anandtech and Tom's Hardware often do build guides for budget and high end builds - mostly aimed at gaming.

noonand

5uspect wrote: »

Most self builds tend to be gaming machines while most development machines tend to be build by the OEMs.
The likes of Hardwareversand.de have preconfigured machines, not that they might be targeted at your needs because there probably isn't a market.

Tech sites like Ars Technica, Anandtech and Tom's Hardware often do build guides for budget and high end builds - mostly aimed at gaming.

I'll have a look at those sites to see if I can glean anything - many thanks!

goz83

Maybe take a look at the build I literally just completed. You won't need as many drives as I got and you already have the periphals, case and PSU, so you would save a bundle on that. The dual monitors for me is an absolute must and sounds like you could do with the same idea. The guys here have been a great help.

noonand

goz83 wrote: »

Maybe take a look at the build I literally just completed. You won't need as many drives as I got and you already have the periphals, case and PSU, so you would save a bundle on that. The dual monitors for me is an absolute must and sounds like you could do with the same idea. The guys here have been a great help.

@goz83 Happy to do that, can you share the specs?

goz83

noonand wrote: »

@goz83 Happy to do that, can you share the specs?

Sure.

Motherboard
Monitor i got 2
RAM i went for 32ram
PSU
Barracuda HDD 2TB x2. one for my files and one for the wife. I plan to add another back up drive.
WD Red 2TB back up drive
SSD 1 120gb for my OS
SSD 2 250gb for other programs
SATA Cables
USB Card
Disc Drive
Nanoxia Case
i7

I got the QPAD mechanical gaming keyboard and a logitech roller ball mouse. Logitech speakers too.

noonand

goz83 wrote: »

Sure.

Motherboard
Monitor i got 2
RAM i went for 32ram
PSU
Barracuda HDD 2TB x2. one for my files and one for the wife. I plan to add another back up drive.
WD Red 2TB back up drive
SSD 1 120gb for my OS
SSD 2 250gb for other programs
SATA Cables
USB Card
Disc Drive
Nanoxia Case
i7

I got the QPAD mechanical gaming keyboard and a logitech roller ball mouse. Logitech speakers too.

@goz83

Could you be more specific on some of the components please?
- What i7?
- What mobo?
- What SSD?

Digital Solitude

noonand wrote: »

@goz83

Could you be more specific on some of the components please?
- What i7?
- What mobo?
- What SSD?

Think he's got a 4790k, dunno about the board its a Z97, about €100 and either Samsung 850Evos or Crucial BX100s SSDs

Digital Solitude

noonand wrote: »

@goz83

Could you be more specific on some of the components please?
- What i7?
- What mobo?
- What SSD?

Think he's got a 4790k, dunno about the board its a Z97, about €100 and either Samsung 850Evos or Crucial BX100s SSDs

Maximus Alexander

noonand wrote: »

I'm going to attempt to bring this back on topic as I feel that it's wandered a bit off. I appreciate all the advice, I really do, about buying Dells and HPs and if it were a customer of mine that's probably what I'd advise for exactly the same reasons as you've all outlined here.

However the original question was if anyone's aware of sites that have preconfigured bundles for different niches already made up. If someone has a similar workload to the one I outlined earlier then fine I'll happily take a spec that has worked for them on board too.

Why do I want to self-build so badly? It's not that I want to, it's just that I'm not averse to it. I have a case already with a functioning PSU so I figure why not reuse that instead of junking it?

Thanks again to all of you that give up your time to answer questions like these! :-)

To be honest, I wouldn't overthink this. For a dev box like you've described all you really need is a decent spec CPU, a barrel of memory, maybe an SSD and a few cheap disks in RAID.

I threw together a few of these for myself and other devs in the office over the last couple of years and none of them have struggled. My own one is a few years old at this stage - i7 2600k, 16GB RAM, 4 1TB disks in RAID and an SSD for the OS. I'd have Visual Studio, Eclipse, other application specific IDEs, local SQL server, IIS, Multiple Excel instances and a ton of browser windows active pretty much all the time and it never misses a beat.

goz83

noonand wrote: »

@goz83

Could you be more specific on some of the components please?
- What i7?
- What mobo?
- What SSD?

I expected the links to work, sorry. Look at post 21 I believe on this => http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2057446296&page=2

For links to the products

noonand

Just having a look, at some of the suggestions and I see that the Skylake architecture is set to debut next month.

Typically this will drive down prices of the current offerings so I'll adopt a wait and see until then I reckon.

Thanks to all of you for all your help on this thread in terms of your suggestions on this. It's much appreciated :-)

5uspect

I wouldn't hold my breath for Skylake until the end of the year it early next year. Intel only managed to get desktop Broadwell CPUs out a few months ago.

Also bear in mind that most of the gains in CPUs have been energy efficiency related so you can already get plenty of bang for your buck.

noonand

5uspect wrote: »

I wouldn't hold my breath for Skylake until the end of the year it early next year. Intel only managed to get desktop Broadwell CPUs out a few months ago.

Also bear in mind that most of the gains in CPUs have been energy efficiency related so you can already get plenty of bang for your buck.

According to WP they're due out next month with several vendors already having mobos
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1151

(Not arguing, just quoting what it says)

5uspect

No worries.

Intel were understandably behind with their 14nm process. They are talking up a rapid switch to Skylake late this year but I've not seen anything to really support this other than good intentions.
So while their roadmap may indeed say August, I would say it's closer to February 2016 before desktop parts ship - at least in significant numbers.

Consequently I wouldn't be putting a build on hold because of it.