Low power consumption development workstation

I

ibose

Skilled
High performance development workstation

Folks, I want to set up a high performance development workstation which should be able to play/deliver full HD video flawlessly.

Q: What is your budget?
26K can stretch by 2K

Q: What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)
N.A. as no desktop yet. Some components to be used mentioned below.

Q: Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)
Monitor - Dell E1609W with Max Resolution of 1366 x 768 / 60 Hz and VGA connector
HDD - Seagate Momentus Laptop HDD 320 GB
Keyboard - Enter USB
Mouse - Logitech M90 USB
Speaker - X-mini MAX
Optical DD - Liteon iHBS112 Blu-ray Burner
HDD - Seagate Barracuda® Green SATA 3Gb/s 2TB Hard Drive ST32000542AS

Q: Which hardware component are you looking to buy (component name).
Primary requirements are low power consumption and high computing power
CPU - Intel Core i5 2500K
Motherboard - Intel Z68 chipset based with USB 3.0, HDMI and 1600 DDR3 support
GPU - Should support Full HD/Bluray playback and casual gaming, on board Intel HD 3000 should suffice for now
RAM - 2 x 4 GB 1600 DDR3
Cabinet - Any uATX good brand with flexibility and sufficient air flow
PSU - FSP SAGA II 500
CPU Cooling - Not sure, open to suggestions. Is the i2500k stock cooler good enough for moderate overclocking ?

Q: Is this going to be your final configuration or you would be adding/upgrading a component in near future.
Yes, will upgrade the following within 6 - 8 months
Add 2 X 4 GB more RAM (total 16 GB)
Additional SSD 60 GB
Full HD LED display
May add a discrete Graphics card as well

Q: Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)
Kolkata, open to online purchase

Q: Would you consider buying a second hand hardware from the TE market
Yes

Q: What is your intended use for this PC/hardware

Primary requirements are stability, high computing power and performance, expandability
Mainly to serve as a development workstation with win7/linux. I will deploy Oracle database and certain application servers.
Virtualization using virtualbox, vmware, etc.
Watching Bluray/HD and video transcoding
Casual gaming for now

Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.
Would prefer Intel CPU. For others, established brands with good after sales service in Kolkata would be preferred.

Q: If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?
Casual gaming

Q: What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage
Full HD LED display for HD/Bluray playback

Q: Are you looking to overclock?
Yes, I may do some moderate overclocking but without losing stability

Q: Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
Linux - openSUSE, Ubuntu and Mint 64 bit
 
Well I am confused in suggesting you a PC.... Dont know why :) Still lets start atleast..

Core i5 2320 ~ 9.3K TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!Intel Core i5 2320 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz (3.3GHz Turbo Boost) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52320

GIGABYTE GA-H67M-D2-B3 ~ 5.25K TheITWares - One Stop for all Gizmos!GIGABYTE GA-H67M-D2-B3 LGA 1155 Intel H67 SATA 6Gb/s Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Gskill Value rams 2x4gb 1333mhz at ~2350/-

For Graphics HD 3000 is more than enough for your purpose

FSP saga 400/ Gigabyte Superb 400 ~ 1.9K or Corsair CX430 V2 ~ 2.1K or Seasonic 430 (5 years warranty/bronze certified) ~ 2.6K

For cabby, you may visit any local shop in your area for a generic but small sized cabby ~ 900/-
 
As per my experience, AMD Phenom proccy shows better performance on bare-metal virtualization and even on software Virtualization. So I would recommend go for a Phenom X6 like 1075T or 1090T. Memory management on bare-metal virtualization is much better with AMD then i5/i7. But it isnt that power efficient as i5 SB, but not too high either.

AMD Phenom II X6 1090t: 7.8k

Asus M4A 88TD M EVO USB3: 6.5k

Corsair/Gskill Value 1333 2*4GB: 2.4k or 4*4GB: 4.8k

FSP Saga 400: 2k

Cabby: max 1k

--------------------------

19.7k with 2*2GB and 22k with 4*4GB.
 
Folks, I have an expanded budget now so my requirements have changed. The OP has been updated. I will move the 24x7 download work to the Pogoplug Pro I have ordered and am looking forward to some casual gaming and moderate OC. After some reading/research decided on the Core i5 2500K. So I was thinking on -

Intel Core i5 2500K
Intel Z68 chipset based mobo with USB 3.0, HDMI and 1600 DDR3 support
On board Intel HD 3000 should support Full HD/Bluray playback and casual gaming for now, will look for discrete graphics later
2 x 4 GB 1600 DDR3
Any uATX good brand cabinet with flexibility and sufficient air flow cooling
FSP SAGA II 500
Not sure on CPU cooling, open to suggestions. Is the i2500k stock cooler good enough for moderate overclocking ?

Folks let me know your suggestions especially on the mobo, ram, cabby and CPU cooling.. within the max. budget of 28K.
 
ibose said:
So I was thinking on -

Intel Core i5 2500K

Intel Z68 chipset based mobo with USB 3.0, HDMI and 1600 DDR3 support

On board Intel HD 3000 should support Full HD/Bluray playback and casual gaming for now, will look for discrete graphics later

2 x 4 GB 1600 DDR3

Any uATX good brand cabinet with flexibility and sufficient air flow cooling

FSP SAGA II 500

Folks let me know your suggestions especially on the mobo, ram, cabby and CPU cooling.. within the max. budget of 28K.
Click to expand...

Under 28k? Might not be possible.

Assuming, i5 2500k + Z-chipset board alone will come to about 20k (or even more if its a good Z-board). Keep 3k for 8 GB RAMs. PSU for 2.2k.

Total= 25+ k. Now you'll need a cpu cooler for that "moderate" OC'ing. Reserve 1.5k for cooler. And NZXT Gamma for 2.1k. Thats 28.6k. Then add tax as applicable. (prices are approx)

So stick with Phenom II X4 955BE config.

ibose said:
Not sure on CPU cooling, open to suggestions. Is the i5 2500k stock cooler good enough for moderate overclocking ?
Click to expand...

Not recommended. Get a new aftermarket cooler.
 
iPwnz said:
U

So stick with Phenom II X4 955BE config.
Click to expand...

Personal request to OP, Sire free up some more money for the budget OR refrain from buying any hardware.

Also I highly suggest not to recommend any more AMD [AM3 builds until extreme budget constraints] as it has become EoL and doesn't compete well even against even Intel Core i3 line-up.
 
Back
Top