Budget 21-30k Desktop for Software Development

A

ampdr1

Disciple
Hello Friends,

I wanted to build system (only CPU) for Software Development purpose...

Please help me decide the configuration...

Questions
  1. What is your budget?
    • 21-30K
  2. What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
    • None
  3. Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
    • None
  4. Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name). If you have already decided on a configuration then please mention the (component brand and model) as well, this will help us in fine tuning your requirement.
    • CPU - i3 or i7 in case buyer decides to make it Server Machine
  5. Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future. If yes then please mention when and which component
    • Yes, will upgrade the following within 18 months
  6. Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
    • Mumbai
    • Open to online purchase
  7. Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
    • No
  8. What is your intended use for this PC/hardware
    • Browsing
    • Desktop Processing
    • Software Development (Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008)
  9. Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
    • None
  10. If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
    • NA
  11. What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
    1. Desktop - 1366x768
  12. Are you looking to overclock?
    • No
  13. Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
    • Windows 7 32-bit OR
    • Windows 7 64-bit
 
I don't have much information about monitors but for rest of the stuff, this is what you can get

Pentium G2010 - 3.5k or i3 3220 - 7k
Gigabyte GA-B75M-D3H - 4.5k
Corsair 2 x 2GB - 2k
Seagate 500GB - 3.2k
Corsair CX v2430W - 2.5k
Some iBall Cabinet - ~1k or NZXT Gamma - 2.5k or NZXT Beta Evo - 2.8k
DVD Writer - LG/Samsung/Asus - 1k
Keyboard and Mouse - 0.7k
APC BR620VA-IN - 1.9k

That makes it a minimum of 20.3k for the Pentium or 23.8k for the i3
You can refer to ALPHA17's buying guide for other configuration options http://www.techenclave.com/community/threads/te-pc-buying-guide-t1-2013.145166/

If you are willing to spend slightly more (say total 35k), you can get an i5 3570, 8GB RAM and a H77 motherboard (supports SSD caching and RAID).

Do you want to buy a PC right now or can you wait another 2-3months for the new Intel Haswell processors which will be released in June?
 
thanks mndar for the configuration...

will i5 3570 be better option or shall i go for i7 in case i decide to make the system as Server which will be accessed by at least 3 other systems...

what will be the configuration then?
Processor
Motherboard
RAM
HDD
SMPS
Cabinet
DVD Drive
Keyboard+Mouse

what about Intel Haswell?
 
ampdr1 said:
what about Intel Haswell?
Click to expand...

It will take time ...until July/late August for the i5-4430 ($175); 4570 ($189) or 4670k ($227) to show up in India. So the i5's could cost between 11k to 16k (after including taxes etc).

As for the top-end i7-4770K ($327) will be launched first ... and only in limited stocks, so expect it to be priced at 23 to 26k.

prices are still very vague - check here where the 4770K is listed pre-order for $368
 
ampdr1 said:
What about Intel Haswell?
Click to expand...

The available info on Haswell says exactly whay dark.lord.rules said; "10-15%" performance boost.
There is going to be 'significant' improvement in the on-die graphics.
Also, the socket is going to change from LGA 1155 to LGA 1150.
This wiki page has useful information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)

ampdr1 said:
will i5 3570 be better option or shall i go for i7 in case i decide to make the system as Server which will be accessed by at least 3 other systems...
Click to expand...

i5 3570 - ~12.5k(need to verify) or i7 3770 - 17.5k
Asus P8H77-V LE - 7.4k or ASRock H77 Pro4 - 6.2k
2 x 4GB Dual Channel Kit - ~4k
Seagate 500GB - 3.2k
Seasonic S12II 620W - 5k (or equivalent Corsair)
NZXT Gamma - 2.5k or NZXT Beta Evo - 2.8k or Corsair Carbide 400R - 4.9k
DVD Drive - 1k
Keyboard+Mouse - 0.7k

Total: 33.8k to 43.7k depending on which components you select from the above list.

Here is some information which will help you decide between the i5 3570 and i7 3770.
The primary difference between these two processors is that the i7 has HyperThreading enabled while the i5 does not.
For applications that make use of HyperThreading, you will get a maximum of 30% performance boost when using a HyperThreading enabled processor. That means, given the current prices, you will be paying 40% more for at most 30% faster performance if you choose the i7

Can you elaborate a bit more about what your server is going to be doing? Is it just going to be a source code repository or are you going to install Windows Server on it and have developers use remote desktop to login and use Visual Studio etc. via Remote Desktop?
 
mndar said:
Can you elaborate a bit more about what your server is going to be doing? Is it just going to be a source code repository or are you going to install Windows Server on it and have developers use remote desktop to login and use Visual Studio etc. via Remote Desktop?
Click to expand...

at first i wanted to use option 1 -> as a source code repository (will be using Visual Studio Sourcesafe by 3 Users)+ SQL Server for which i think ur mentioned config will be sufficient!

but what in case if i install "Windows Server on it and have developers use remote desktop to login and use Visual Studio etc. via Remote Desktop" Can i be able to use thinclients(or any other similar devices, 2 or 3 users) and get resolution(at least 1366x768) and speed on them?
 
ampdr1 said:
but what in case if i install "Windows Server on it and have developers use remote desktop to login and use Visual Studio etc. via Remote Desktop" Can i be able to use thinclients(or any other similar devices, 2 or 3 users) and get resolution(at least 1366x768) and speed on them?
Click to expand...
It has been quite a while since I used Visual Studio, so I can't say for sure how much resources it will take. May be someone can step in here and put up some figures for us to look at. It will also depend on what kind of development you are doing (websites, webservices, system services, .NET, C# etc)
You can try this. Have your developers monitor their CPU & RAM usage give you the figures and then decide.

From what I remember; SQL Server, Visual Studio, its Debugger takes up lot of resources. I am fairly certain that the i7 processor will be able to handle the load (since not all 3 developers will be compiling projects simultaneously all the time) but the RAM and HDD speed could bottleneck your performance.

With Gigabit ethernet, you shouldn't have a problem with Remote Desktop at the resolution you mentioned.

I personally wouldn't be happy if I was asked to do development work via Remote Desktop but then that's just me. Using Remote Desktop to do stuff like Word Processing works just fine.

I was looking for a Windows equivalent of Distcc under Linux that allows you to use multiple systems to compile software. Found one but it's not free. Here is the link to the company's website. http://www.incredibuild.com/
You could buy less powerful PCs and invest in the software to improve performance.
 
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