PC custom build for Gaming & ArcGIS 10.5

DigBipper

Hello, I will be starting my Masters in January in GIS, using ArcGIS 10.5. For the occasion I would like to create a custom pc that will also be able to be used for Gaming. Up to date AAA titles, something that will be good for the next few years.

1. What is your budget? €1800 (Although I am not sure if that's too much for what I need)

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Gaming and ArcGIS 10.5 (cant post system requirements as I am a new user)

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? Yes

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Nothing

5. Do you need a monitor? Yes

5a. If yes, what size do you need. I think 24" would be best

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? I basically need everything.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? No

8. How can you pay? Laser, Bank draft, whatever is needed.

9. When are you purchasing? Masters starts in January so no major panic, probably want it before Christmas, was wondering if any of the below mentioned websites have good Black Friday deals?

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Mayo, I am planning on shopping around at a few UK based custom pc builders like cyberpowerstation (Can't post link, new user). I really don't know enough to go about doing this myself.

The likes of the monitor, keyboard and those extras I would probable look at Amazon and get them separately myself. I think I would use these sites just for the actual computer itself.

Once I have an idea of parts / performance I can then start pricing them... Is there a better alternative given my lack of knowledge in this field. The choice and options have proved far to overwhelming and I am more confused now than I was at the start!!!

Xenoronin

ArcGIS requirements:

CPU speed
2.2 GHz minimum; Hyper-threading (HHT) or Multi-core recommended

Platform
x86 or x64 with SSE2 extensions

Memory/RAM
Minimum: 4 GB
Recommended: 8 GB

Display properties
24-bit color depth
Also see Video/Graphics adapter requirements below.*

Screen resolution
1024x768 recommended minimum at normal size (96 dpi)

Disk space
Minimum: 4 GB
Recommended: 6 GB or higher
ArcGlobe creates cache files when used. If using ArcGlobe, additional disk space may be required.

Video/Graphics adapter
64 MB RAM minimum; 256 MB RAM or higher recommended. NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel chipsets supported.
24-bit capable graphics accelerator
OpenGL version 2.0 runtime minimum is required, and Shader Model 3.0 or higher is recommended.
Be sure to use the latest available drivers.


I don't think you'll need to hit that budget. Though it is a good ceiling. No time to throw a full spec at you at the moment, but something along the lines of an i7 7700 Intel build, or an R7 1700 AMD build would both be excellent. Probably a GTX 1070 for the GPU, 1060 if you think you'll stick with 1080p. 16GB of RAM.

DigBipper

Thanks for the reply,

I have been looking at an i7 7700 alright. Where I am getting bogged down is in terms of SSD over HDD or both?

Motherboard is another piece of kit I know nothing about, and if I would just be throwing money at something I have no need for.

minitrue

I'm guessing the link you wanted to post is http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/system-requirements/latest/arcgis-desktop-system-requirements.htm and see the info now there.

I know nothing more than what that says but it sounds like (unless you know otherwise for what you will be doing) it will chew up a processor and the more threads the merrier, but the video card probably isn't going to bottle neck things? With anything like this that has a view to a few years, and when the budget isn't desperate, I wonder if it might see more gpu processing in future though ... throw in the state of the gpu market and I'm glad you aren't itching to pull the trigger

I'd be thinking something like the following for a self build and pick a graphics card whenever the market is sane, you grab a bargain or you just can't wait any longer! You could get a rx580 or a Vega 56 (or a 1070/1080 but it's a freesync monitor so better to stay with AMD).

I included overclocking speed ram and a NVMe SSD which you could cut back on. The case (and PSU) is up to you but that's a decent placeholder for budgetting If it all possible (and I bet it is) I'd just stick with SSD though.

You could drop back to the R5 but I don't think I would! You could drop from a 4K screen down to 1080p but my gut instinct would be if you spend any amount of time looking at visualisations 4K is worth it

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core Processor (£266.00 @ Amazon UK)
Motherboard: MSI - B350M MORTAR ARCTIC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard (£79.98 @ Ebuyer)
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 Memory (£148.79 @ Aria PC)
Storage: Intel - 600p Series 512GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive (£170.10 @ Alza)
Case: Thermaltake - Core V21 MicroATX Mini Tower Case (£53.99 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Corsair - RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply (£81.99 @ Ebuyer)
Operating System: Microsoft - Windows 10 Home OEM 64-bit (£83.70 @ Aria PC)
Monitor: AOC - U2879VF 28.0" 3840x2160 60Hz Monitor (£299.99 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Total: £1184.54

That would leave about €450 for graphics, keyboard, mouse, whatever give or take You aren't buying right now (and don't even sound too much like you will build yourself) so I haven't cared tooooo much about the exact parts here, just trying to sketch out what I think I would be doing and the sort of options you might have.

Lu Tze

Xenoronin wrote: »

ArcGIS requirements:

CPU speed
2.2 GHz minimum; Hyper-threading (HHT) or Multi-core recommended

Platform
x86 or x64 with SSE2 extensions

Memory/RAM
Minimum: 4 GB
Recommended: 8 GB

Display properties
24-bit color depth
Also see Video/Graphics adapter requirements below.*

Screen resolution
1024x768 recommended minimum at normal size (96 dpi)

Disk space
Minimum: 4 GB
Recommended: 6 GB or higher
ArcGlobe creates cache files when used. If using ArcGlobe, additional disk space may be required.

Video/Graphics adapter
64 MB RAM minimum; 256 MB RAM or higher recommended. NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel chipsets supported.
24-bit capable graphics accelerator
OpenGL version 2.0 runtime minimum is required, and Shader Model 3.0 or higher is recommended.
Be sure to use the latest available drivers.


I don't think you'll need to hit that budget. Though it is a good ceiling. No time to throw a full spec at you at the moment, but something along the lines of an i7 7700 Intel build, or an R7 1700 AMD build would both be excellent. Probably a GTX 1070 for the GPU, 1060 if you think you'll stick with 1080p. 16GB of RAM.

I haven't used arc specifically, but have used other GIS packages like QGIS and MapInfo. I don't think those minimums have been updated in a while!

Depending on what you are doing, I would recommend 16GB of ram, if you are often working with large databases/datasets. And make it fast ram. When you are updating columns in tables with several million entries it will be worth it!

DigBipper

What is the difference with going AMD over Intel?

Ya, as I am going to be building through a site this is exactly what I was looking for, a general list to use as a guide.

Thanks mate!!!

minitrue

Intel i7-7700 is 4-core 8-thread. Ryzen R7 is 8-core 16-thread (and the R5 a 6-core 12-thread). For workloads which scale well to more cores (which I'm pretty sure this is) AMD wins in terms of bang for buck. Where the i7 wins is in games (and other tasks) that depend on one or more faster cores and don't spread well to more.

ED E

Arc is pretty single threaded, wouldnt bother building anything other than as high a SCP as possible.

DigBipper

Just wondering what you think of this lads, 'built' it over at cyber power systems uk site. Total build cost comes to £1400.04.

Am I missing anything, is something too much or little? Any help will be really appreciated.

Operating System: Windows 10 Home (64-bit Edition) (Recovery Disk)

Case: IN-WIN 101 Mid Tower High Air Flow Gaming Case w/ Tempered Glass Full Size Window (Black Colour)

Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Maximum Airflow with 3 x 120mm Corsair SP120 Quiet Edition High Static Pressure Fans 1,450 RPM

CPU: INTEL® Core™ i7-7700K Quad Core 4.20 GHz 8MB Cache LGA1151 + HD Graphics *** Pro OC ***

Cooling Fan: Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator (Cooler Master CPU Water Cooling *** Extreme OC ***)

Motherboard: Gigabyte Z270P D3 INTEL Z270 Chipset, ATX Mainboard w/ 4 RAM slots, USB 3.1, 3 PCIe x16, 3 x PCIe x1, 6 SATA3, 1 x M.2

Memory: 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4/3000mhz Dual Channel Memory (Corsair Vengeance LPX w/Heat Spreader)

Video Card: MSI GeForce® GTX 1060 6GB Video Card VR Ready (Single Card)

Power Supply Upgrade: 600 Watts Power Supplies (Cooler Master MasterWatt Lite 600watt Gaming Power Supply)

Hard Drive: 250 GB Hynix SL308 SATA III Gaming MLC Solid State Disk (Single Drive)

Secondary Hard Drive: 1TB Seagate SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 7200RPM Hard Drive (Single Hard Drive)

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE. (BLACK Colour)

Warranty Service: DESKTOP SILVER WARRANTY: 3 Year Labour, 2 Year Parts, 1 Year Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support.

Xenoronin

It's pretty reasonable for a pre-built, but still a bit on the high side. PC Specialist is pretty good, and their standard setups can be gotten at reasonable prices:
http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/pc-specialist-core-i5-7700-16gb-2tb-dvd-rw-windows-10-gaming-desktop-pcs-d1165533/version.asp

I'd highly recommend getting something with the OS on a SSD though. It really does make a world of a difference.

DigBipper

That's a great price for virtually the same build with a better graphics card. For the SSD, I could just buy an external one to use with it? Still work out cheaper...

In regards to putting OS on SSD, is that something that can be done after purchase or is it something that needs to be done in the build phase?

Haha I feel like an awful numpty asking such daft questions.

tazzzZ

Is this an immediate requirement? I'm literally sitting on the fence atm waiting for the coffee lake cpu's to come out. 6 core 12 thread and with a far greater single core grunt than everything around atm. Also alot of talk of a 1070ti coming out very soon. From what I can gather this stuff is expected October time?

But if you are not looking to hang around lads have given you good advise but this is just something to think about.

Digital Solitude

DigBipper wrote: »

That's a great price for virtually the same build with a better graphics card. For the SSD, I could just buy an external one to use with it? Still work out cheaper...

In regards to putting OS on SSD, is that something that can be done after purchase or is it something that needs to be done in the build phase?

Haha I feel like an awful numpty asking such daft questions.

Would lose some of its usefulness as you'd be using USB speeds

OS can be changed at any time, its fairly handy to do, either cloning the old OS or reinstalling Windows again

DigBipper

Just been looking at this one here: https://www.laptopsdirect.ie/pc-specialist-core-i7-7700-16gb-3tb-240gb-ssd-dvd-rw-windows-10-gaming-desk-pcs-d1165534/version.asp

The only gripe I can find is that it is the i7 7000 processor and not the i7 7000k.

Will that make a big difference overall do you reckon?

Xenoronin

Not an appreciable difference, especially for your workloads. You'd have to be benchmarking to notice.

DigBipper

It seems like a good pc for the price, no? Everywhere else I have looked doesn't come close price wise.

Lu Tze

DigBipper wrote: »

It seems like a good pc for the price, no? Everywhere else I have looked doesn't come close price wise.

Its bit overkill in the graphics card department, if you are going for a 1080p 24" monitor. On the plus side, you won't have to upgrade the graphics card until the rest of the system is obsolete!

If you can afford it, on top of the outlay for the PC, have a look at the 34" ultrawide monitors. It will be well suited to the GTX 1080, and they are fantastic for GIS/CAD and even excel, due to all the screen real estate. Makes a big difference, got one for my home office, and its difficult going back to do GIS/CAD work in the work office with the ****ty small monitor after using it.

DigBipper

Definitely, if I'm spending that much on the pic I can't skimp on the monitor! Thanks for the help lads! ��