Critique this insanity PC build ... 4000$ budget

[revelations]

Hey guys, building a PC for a client who will be using it to run some heavy duty medical software.

Apparently this software renders 3d images of the brain and requires the best PC ....best within a 4000$ budget !!

What changes would you make?

Intel
Core™ i7-3770K Processor, 3.50GHz w/ 8MB Cache (MX38982)
$329.99

Asus
BW-12B1ST 12x Blu-Ray Writer, SATA, Black, Retail (MX39399)
$99.99

Asus
P8Z77-V PREMIUM w/ Dual DDR3 1600, 32GB SSD Cache, 7.1 Audio, Dual GB Lan, WiFi BT4.0, Thunderbolt, SLI / 4-Way CrossFireX (MX39681)
$449.99

Samsung
830 Series SATA III Solid State Drive, 128GB (MX42355)
$109.99

2x Seagate
2TB Constellation ES.2 SATA III w/ 64MB Cache (MX39238)
$439.98
($219.99 each)

Microsoft
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 (64-bit) SP1 DVD - OEM (MX33000)
$209.99

Arctic Cooling
Accelero Hybrid Graphics Card Cooler (MX39770)
$139.99

Corsair
Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (MX33765)
$119.99

ThermalTake
UGK Ultimate Gaming Kit Case White Edition w/ Keyboard, Mouse & Headset (MX36690)
$399.99

Patriot
Viper 3 Series, Black Mamba Edition DDR3 32GB (4 x 8GB) PC3-12800 Quad Channel Kit (MX41040)
$189.99

eVGA
GeForce GTX 680 FTW+ LE 4GB PCI-E w/ Backplate, Dual DVI, HDMI, DisplayPort (MX40687)
$549.99

OCZ
ZX Series 1250W Modular Power Supply (MX33835)
$249.99

Cyberpower
CP850AVRLCD 850VA GreenPower UPS Battery Backup w/ 8 Outlets, Surge Protected, LCD (MX26906)
$129.99

TOTAL = $3,493.82 wo/ GST

[schocker]

Maybe bigger ssd or squeak in a GTX 690
I would probably switch out those seagates for WD though, better warranty and subjectively more reliable.

[revelations]

Yea I know all about the old Seagates and their woes.... but these are supposed to be Enterprise-level. I havent dealt with a lot of these but they're supposed to be tested to a higher standard.

[ipeefreely]

Originally posted by revelations
Hey guys, building a PC for a client who will be using it to run some heavy duty medical software.

Apparently this software renders 3d images of the brain and requires the best PC ....best within a 4000$ budget !!

I'd find out what's recommended for the software... 64 bit... multitreaded...

Are you going to OC or does the client want a really quite PC?

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 vs Pro ?

UGK Ultimate Gaming Kit Case White Edition w/ Keyboard, Mouse & Headset ??? Is the client planing on gaming on the side?

[Boat]

I agree with the comments about the case. Give it a professional look.

What is the philosophy about the liquid cooling/aftermarket heatsink?

Maybe you should check out the recommended specs of the software..

[Zhariak]

If it's for business medical apps, the vid card may or may not be compatible with features their apps use... And also, that's way under-spec'd.

IMO (I do this for a living)

You should pick up a HP Workstation...

Xeon processor
SAS Hard Drives (running on a Smart Array RAID Controller)
NVIDIA high end biz video card...

It would fit the budget easily... Also their high end business workstations usually come standard with 3 year next business day warranty (so if a SAS drive fails, vid card fails, etc... you get a new one received next business day).

The "Ultimate" version of windows isn't needed, as all they probably will do is join it to a domain and use their med apps.

Keep in mind regular firmware updates are made available by HP for support for applications which upgrades may support new graphic processing instructions, etc...

Chances are the software has strict hardware requirements....

[revelations]

I asked the client about the case and he was quite excited about it (hes used to boring black boxes).

As far as the specs for medical use - he was using a gaming laptop previously to run the app (which was good enough, but he wanted to be set for a few years in case the demands increased).... but I will check out he HP workstation idea too.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by Zhariak


If it's for business medical apps, the vid card may or may not be compatible with features their apps use... And also, that's way under-spec'd.

IMO (I do this for a living)

You should pick up a HP Workstation...

Xeon processor
SAS Hard Drives
NVIDIA high end biz video card...

It would fit the budget easily... Also their high end business workstations usually come standard with 3 year next business day warranty (so if a SAS drive fails, vid card fails, etc... you get a new one received next business day)

This right here. We need to know what features their software can leverage because the build is going to be COMPLETELY different based on whether it can use CUDA and/or multiple cores/CPUs.

On top of that, I imagine reliability is kind of a thing, which I don't think you've addressed.

[revelations]

Originally posted by ipeefreely

I'd find out what's recommended for the software... 64 bit... multitreaded...

Are you going to OC or does the client want a really quite PC?

Windows 7 Ultimate x64 vs Pro ?

UGK Ultimate Gaming Kit Case White Edition w/ Keyboard, Mouse & Headset ??? Is the client planing on gaming on the side?

Client alo drives very fast cars ... he might turn into a gamer too ...

PC wont be OC'd .... not yet anyway. Went with ultimate - just because.

[ipeefreely]

Originally posted by Mibz
This right here. We need to know what features their software can leverage because the build is going to be COMPLETELY different based on whether it can use CUDA and/or multiple cores/CPUs.

That's what I was getting at!

[revelations]

Originally posted by Mibz
This right here. We need to know what features their software can leverage because the build is going to be COMPLETELY different based on whether it can use CUDA and/or multiple cores/CPUs.

On top of that, I imagine reliability is kind of a thing, which I don't think you've addressed.

Client was using a gaming laptop for the app. He just wanted something more permanent and something that wouldnt become old in a couple of months.

[Mibz]

I understand that, but you have an opportunity to give them what they really need for less money than they want to pay. Not just something that will do the trick.

If they're the kind of person that doesn't care and just wants to throw money at the problem, cool, do what you think they want. When I hear medical software I don't think SMB, and I think most people here thought the same, hence the replies :P

[revelations]

Thanks for the thoughts guys ... good ideas here.


Heres what I'm thnking of changing.

Mobo

(from a gaming to a workstation board)
P9X79 WS w/ DDR3 1866, 7.1 Audio, Dual GB Lan, 1394, CrossFireX / 4-way SLI

CPU

(to match board, socket 2011)
Core™ i7-3820 Processor, 3.60GHz w/ 10MB Cache


I looked at the HP workstation ... it would save a few K very easily, but client likes to spend money on things that are fast

[Kg810]

I'm putting together a revised list, I'll hopefully be posting it shortly.

[ExtraSlow]

For that kind of price, is there any way to run multiple processors in parallel?

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by Mibz
When I hear medical software I don't think SMB, and I think most people here thought the same, hence the replies :P

That's what tip me off as well. I don't know how much that software setup cost is, but be careful when doing gears for businesses.

When I was in this space, I let people buy stuff without next day support with me supporting it. I recommends it but most people don't care...... until it breaks.

Then it's my fault that I didn't advise them enough to buy services when the laptop goes to depot for 2 weeks and they have to buy another one.

Gaming rig is find but keep it as gaming rig. Requirements are different when it comes to business.

Get some RAID 1 in there. Make sure you have 3 year next day support.

[Grogador]

Forget consumer SSDs, get RevoDrive or enterprise equivalent.

http://pcpartpicker.com/

[Seth1968]

Originally posted by Xtrema
When I was in this space, I let people buy stuff without next day support with me supporting it. I recommends it but most people don't care...... until it breaks.

Then it's my fault that I didn't advise them enough to buy services when the laptop goes to depot for 2 weeks and they have to buy another one.

That's part of the reason why my shop no longer builds and/or sells computers.

[Zhariak]

Originally posted by revelations
Thanks for the thoughts guys ... good ideas here.


Heres what I'm thnking of changing.

Mobo

(from a gaming to a workstation board)
P9X79 WS w/ DDR3 1866, 7.1 Audio, Dual GB Lan, 1394, CrossFireX / 4-way SLI

CPU

(to match board, socket 2011)
Core™ i7-3820 Processor, 3.60GHz w/ 10MB Cache


I looked at the HP workstation ... it would save a few K very easily, but client likes to spend money on things that are fast

Believe it or not, a spec'd HP Workstation will blow away whatever you could buy at the local "build your own computer" store...

The higher end HP workstations have essentially the same components that HP Servers do to some degree. They are focused on high end performance...

[revelations]

Originally posted by Zhariak


Believe it or not, a spec'd HP Workstation will blow away whatever you could buy at the local "build your own computer" store...

The higher end HP workstations have essentially the same components that HP Servers do to some degree. They are focused on high end performance...

is there a particular model youd recommend looking at?