She who must be obeyed has allocated £2K for my next desktop purchase. As a BOINC person, I like the idea of the Intel i7 (8 CPU threads) and three PCI Express ports (CUDA).

I’ve always gone for Dell, but their XPS 730x, which meets the requirements above, is outrageously priced: it starts at £2900 with a GTX280 - £380 extra for a dual version GTX280. Their Studio XPS has the (non-extreme) i7, but only one graphics card slot and comes only with a Radeon card.

I’ve spent the morning Googling but have not come up with an alternative. Perhaps you can help?

Thanks, Tom

I think the Extreme version of the i7 costs about $1000 USD extra, so maybe one of the other i7's maybe be a better fit (though you will be restricted to overclocking on the Dell with those). I've heard that they do perform quite well, however.

As for the GTX280's, they are $500 USD extra per each one, which is obviously not the best price -- they should be provided GTX295's for that price.

It might be best to get the XPS 730x w/ a "lower-end" i7 and one of the less expensive GPU's - 9800GT (that is the default). You could still use it for GPUGrid, but add the GTX280's later for much less than Dell is charging.

The best bang for your buck will probably be building it yourself, but if you don't want to go that route the 730x is a beast.

It might be best to get the XPS 730x w/ a "lower-end" i7 and one of the less expensive GPU's - 9800GT

If only! That combination is only available from Dell U.S. Dell Europe don't offer it...

Tom

Tomba,

You might be interested in this rig from PC Specialist that I just managed to scrape in at 2k including vat when using the configurator:

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Processor Extreme Edition i7-965 (4 X 3.20GHz) 6.4GTs/8MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
3GB CORSAIR XMS3 1333MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (3x1GB)

Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE || EXTREME: DDR3, 3-WAY SLI / CROSSFIREX SUPPORT

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium 64 bit Edition + SP1, CD & Licence (£83)

USB Options
8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
320GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)

1st CD/DVD Drive
22x DUAL LAYER LIGHTSCRIBE DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Graphics Card
1792MB GEFORCE GTX295 PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT

Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)

Case
STYLISH TRIDENT MID TOWER ATX CASE - SILVER/BLACK

Power Supply & Case Cooling
900W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (Special Offer: £105)

Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER

Firewire & Video Editing
1 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORT ONBOARD

I suggested these guys when a mate wanted a custom rig and he loved it. I have no affiliation with them, but I think they are a decent alternative to Dell when their starting prices are so crazy. What do you think?

Rob

It might be best to get the XPS 730x w/ a "lower-end" i7 and one of the less expensive GPU's - 9800GT

If only! That combination is only available from Dell U.S. Dell Europe don't offer it...

Tom

Sorry to hear that. But jrobbio's provided computer specs seem like a nice alternative. Good hunting.

If only! That combination is only available from Dell U.S. Dell Europe don't offer it...

Tom

You might take a look here. I've bought a couple of the "returned unopened" listings and they are no different than new (other than only a 30 or 90 day warranty). You might be able to find a nice Dell at about 40%+ off the normal price...though I am not sure about how they sell to non-US markets?

What do you think?

Wow! Thanks for that Rob. What a bang for the quid!! I think I'll have five...

I shall spend today tuning that configuration. Couple of questions:

1. Do I have to connect a monitor to each graphics card or will the second/third card run CUDA without an attached monitor (probably a daft question!)?
2. Perhaps the copper base ultra cooler rather than the standard cooler?
3. Is "ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT" an Ethernet connector for my router?
4. Is a 900W PS enough for three graphics cards?
5. Would there be any benefits to paying another £100 for the ASUS® RAMPAGE || EXTREME: DDR3, 3-WAY SLI / CROSSFIREX SUPPORT MB?

Thanks again for the pointer, Rob.

Tom

You might take a look here.

Thanks for that, Scott. Dell UK do have an outlet here where they have the 730x/i7 Extreme/GT280 but it's £2642 + shipping.

Tom

Couple of questions:

1. Do I have to connect a monitor to each graphics card or will the second/third card run CUDA without an attached monitor (probably a daft question!)?

I'm not a definitive hand at this question, but I have read that a "dummy VGA plug" that is a a DVI to VGA converter with a resistor that makes the Card feel like it's hooked up to a monitor.

2. Perhaps the copper base ultra cooler rather than the standard cooler?

Yeah if your going to try and overclock it

3. Is "ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT" an Ethernet connector for my router?

Yes

4. Is a 900W PS enough for three graphics cards?

Actually no. Looking at the power consumption charts, ( http://www.neoseeker.com/Articles/Hardware/Reviews/bfggtx295/14.html) you are going to need a higher PSU for 3 cards. This thread suggests a 1100-1200w PSU to give reasonable head room.

5. Would there be any benefits to paying another £100 for the ASUS® RAMPAGE || EXTREME: DDR3, 3-WAY SLI / CROSSFIREX SUPPORT MB?

I didn't actually research the other available motherboards, but I was sure that this motherboard supported 3 cards from the description. It shouldn't be too difficult to find out if the other motherboards have 3 full size PCI-E ports.

Thanks again for the pointer, Rob.

No problem. Let us all know what you decide on in the end.

Rob

I guess this offers are like also many more upgrade offers only available in the usa.
So sadly non of the good deals are available for EU customers.
There are some tricks to buy them via usa friends and special companies but that gives a problem when something breaks down or fails to work.
So you could use those and take the risk to buy a top of the line machine for cheap, but could have a problem getting support when needed.

Guys.. please, don't by the i7-965 for BOINC!!

Sure, the i7 is the way to go for DC, but spending 1000€ on a cpu is just not worth it. Let's assume the 965 earns 10k RAC in some project. That means the 920 will get ~ 2.66/3.2 * 10k = 8.3k RAC. That's 1700 credits a day for an investment of 700€! Now consider that a GTX 260 did >10k RAC, even before the recent credit increase.

I'd rather change or upgrade GPUs a bit more often (40 nm models with 60% more shaders anyone?) than spending a lot on a slightly faster cpu. Just because you have 2000 bucks doesn't mean you have to spend all of them right now, doesn't it?

MrS

---

Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002

Guys.. please, don't by the i7-965 for BOINC!!

Sure, the i7 is the way to go for DC, but spending 1000€ on a cpu is just not worth it. Let's assume the 965 earns 10k RAC in some project. That means the 920 will get ~ 2.66/3.2 * 10k = 8.3k RAC. That's 1700 credits a day for an investment of 700€! Now consider that a GTX 260 did >10k RAC, even before the recent credit increase.

I'd rather change or upgrade GPUs a bit more often (40 nm models with 60% more shaders anyone?) than spending a lot on a slightly faster cpu. Just because you have 2000 bucks doesn't mean you have to spend all of them right now, doesn't it?

Can I respectfully disagree? :)

Why not do both?

By that I mean I tend to buy the top or second from the top CPU. So, my last computer buy was an i7 940 and I am quite well pleased with the ability of the machine.

That said, buying a GPU is almost the same thing. Buy at or near the top as then it will be usable for longer times. As an argument AGAINST your advice I have to note that there simply are not enough GPU projects extant to make this a convincing argument. And even then, there will ALWAYS be CPU only projects... even Milky Way is rethinking the GPU way of doing business to split the project so as to relieve the load on their server.

Addicted as I am to my credit awards I also am here about the science... so, I do higher end GPUs so I can do science here and as a side benefit I get a fair award of credit.

Just a hint i discovered buying my i7. The ASUS rampage II Extreme comes with a quick overclocking method called CPU Level UP. So even if you know absolutely nothing about overclocking (i do but this was a great fast solution for my PC as i was waiting on new parts for my Watercooling system to fit the i7) an i7 920 can instantly run at 965 speeds. It will save you a huge amount of money!!!!!! Might even leave your enough for a GTX 295 or two.

Mines running at 965 speeds with a stock cooler running BOINC 24/7.

That said overclocking is always a risk!!!!!! YMMV

I just saw this article linked from Digg, which is a really good overview of the latest suggestions on Building a Killer Gaming Rig. It's worth going through all the pages and although they look at it at a gaming perspective, the majority of the conclusions apply to CUDA utilisation too.

Rob

I don't know what they are putting on their HD, but, 160 G is more than enough for a BOINC rig. My i7 which also has some other windows programs installed is only using 33G and yes, that includes some games and working programs. Not sure how much those disks would help BOINC, but with more and more cores the urge to checkpoint goes up as does other state file writes so, more speed could not hurt. (my drive in the i7 is a 10K RPM for example)

The recommendation on the video cards is also not necessarily the best for BOINC, I would suggest that going with dual "core"/device is better for the same rough device class. A 9800GT(2) is better than two 9800GT cards for example as you can later add a second and have 4 tasks running at once.

BUt most of the rest of the thoughts are decent.