Plz recommend Proc/Mobo for Research purposes (need 24Gb RAM)

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aElien

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Hey guys, long time :)

I need to build a configuration with TONS of RAM, 24GB. Its for my research lab. Money isnt really an issue, but i dont want to go for an overkill like $3k just for RAM :P

So currently I have three systems with core i7 860 (LGA 1156) processors and 2Gbx2 on each system.

We want more RAM so I was looking for configuration, turns out my current LGA 1156 processors have limitations with memory? and very limited range of motherboards with 6 memory slots. And im not even sure if they will work, read something about only four of the six slots are usable for some motherboards :S

I was wondering what my proc+mobo options are, should I go for core i7-930 (LGA 1366) with Asus P6T (newegg), will it support those 4GBx6 ram modules?

What are your other recommendations for i7? and how about AMD?

As I said, need 24Gb RAM and will be purchasing online asap cos need it urgently.

ps: sorry, my last desktop was a AMD 3000+ :S ... i have no clue whats goin on these days!

Questions

1. Q: What is your budget?

1. $500-$1000 for mobo+proc, will be spending additional ~$1000 on 24Gb ram kit

2. Q: What is your existing hardware configuration (component name - component brand and model)

1. CPU - Intel i7 860

2. Motherboard - MSI 2A90H

4. RAM - Samsung 2X2GB DDR3

3. Q: Which hardware will you be keeping (component name - component brand and model)

well wanna keep all of it :D but need 24Gb ram per system :(

4. Q: 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.

core i7-930 (LGA 1366) with Asus P6T



6. Q: Where will you buy this hardware? (Online/City/TE Dealer)

United States, online

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

No

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

Research, heavy computation, server

9. Q: Do you have any brand preference or dislike? Please name them and the reason for your preference/dislike.

like em all

10. Q: If you will be playing games then which type of games will you be playing?

mmm naah

11. Q: What is your preferred monitor resolution for gaming and normal usage

1600x1200

12. Q: Are you looking to overclock?

nope

13. Q: Which operating system do you intend to use with this configuration?

Win 2k, 7, Linux (both 32/64 bit versions)
Click to expand...
 
:huh: "* 24GB *" ram???????:huh::huh:what researchr u upto man ...i m curious...
i mean seriously man name few aplication that need/require that much ram ???
i m really ZONKED...u r really lucky...good luck on ur MASSIVE purchase:)
 
hybrid black said:
:huh: "* 24GB *" ram???????:huh::huh:what researchr u upto man ...i m curious...

i mean seriously man name few aplication that need/require that much ram ???

i m really ZONKED...u r really lucky...good luck on ur MASSIVE purchase:)
Click to expand...

Animation can use that much of ram too, especially compositing n vfx softwares when you render on them. I know studios in Bombay that house workstations for EACH artist consisting of 24 GB RAM...Reliance MediaWorks to name one :)
 
Well I need 12 GB+ of RAM for my new system but I am considering getting only 4Gb to 8 Gb and use SSD pagefile. With or without OS on SSD.

If you dont mind that your SSD dies in 2yrs or so then use 8Gb RAM and reminder as pagefile on SAndforce 1200 controller based SSD. It wont be as fast but would definately economical solution than 24Gb RAM.
 
24GB RAM .. 4GB*6 .. alone will cost between US $800-1000 :@ ... even I wanted to go for more than 12GB RAM

Another option is that u get server motherboard which comes with 12 or more RAM slots .. like from micron and with Nehalem xeon processor u r good to go.
 
I bought 4 P6T SE w/ 6GB of RAM each for scientific research a few months ago, with the intention of upgrading to 24 GB eventually. It says it supports 24 GB on the box, although I have yet to try it. Let me know how it pans out. The cheapest 24 GB kit I've seen is this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...jCmtB55bETCjCVqHCjCdwwp&cpncode=23-97196159-2

700$, not much more expensive than the cheapest 12 x 2 GB you can get.

I have nothing but praise for the i7 (I'm on the 920, but it's very similar to the 930). It is FAST. Running the Matlab benchmark on Ubuntu it kills every other computer they have on the list even though each of these babies cost a mere 1200$ canadian. With tons of RAM you can get massive speed increases with scientific computing because you can cache anything you can think of. A programmer working in the lab was telling me the other day that running this paramagnetic clustering algorithm on his reasonably fast Macbook took something like an hour, whereas it took 26 seconds on the i7. You're definitely not crazy to want that much RAM.

Words of advice. Try disabling hyperthreading in the BIOS because some programs are not optimized for working with 8 threads (Matlab for instance). Don't even bother with 64 bit Windows, get a Linux distro. Matlab runs smooth as butter on Ubuntu, as well as R, Scipy, etc. Hardware wise, you could try installing some massive Nvidia video card to do GPU computing; this is great if you have some computational bottleneck in your program that can be parallelized (for example, matrix multiplication, FFTs, etc.). The Tesla cards are unbelievably expensive; if you can live with 1.5GB of GPU RAM, the GeForce GTX480 is much more affordable (500$) for roughly the same computing power (but half the RAM). Haven't tried it yet, but the Jacket toolbox for GPU computing in Matlab looks awesome: AccelerEyes - MATLAB GPU Computing. Or you could try PyCuda if you're into Python.

Let me know how it works out.
 
If you want to get to the 24GB of RAM on General desktop computer then the only option you are left with is the Core i7 RIG (Socket 1366). The reason for it is that no one makes a 6GB of memory module and the Dual Channel architecture does not support beyond 16GB. So following is what I will suggest.

i7 930 - 14-15K

ASUS P6X58D-E (Best performer against money) - 13-15K

or

MSI X58 Pro-E (Lowest Power Consumer Of the X58 Family).

6x4GB Gskill. (4-4.5K / Module)

GODSPEED
 
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