Have My New Scientific Analysis PC

G

geeksarebeta

Member
Hello everyone, I am please to say that my new PC arrived last week and after a few days using it I have been able to determine how good it is! The service from PCS was great and the delivery was next-day from dispatch which I was very pleased about. Well packaged too. The PC worked out of the box, just asked me a few Windows set-up questions, and all was great and good, so got on installing my analysis software onto the SSD. Once installed I did a trial run and was very glad I went for 32Gb of RAM as I was able to run much bigger analyses than I could before.

Next I started to load on all the files I needed to transfer (via Ethernet from a PowerMac G5, HDDs formatted to Apple), even this was simple enough, I could see it from Windows 10 on the network and I could just drag all the files across (after setting some permissions right). Here is where I have encountered my first niggle. I ordered a 3Tb HDD with this machine, see below, and have found that it is quite noisy, not noisy like it will soon fail, just very loud during read and write. Not sure if this is common, I know that it is a Toshiba drive, never had one of those before (always Seagate), so not sure if it's common that they're louder.

Of course I've had the side off and poked around, didn't realise the water cooler lights up, not really necessary when the case has no window, but do like the Corsair-Link to be able to set quiet mode, when not doing anything taxing. The side will be off again soon, have a couple more HDDs to add into it, once I have finished with them in the G5 (which will soon be for sale), plus will add Wi-Fi at some point, will add some pictures when I next have it open.

Case
CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Six Core Processor i7-5820K (3.3GHz) 15MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® X99-A: ATX, HSW-E CPU, USB 3.0, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM)
32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X FURY DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE 210 - DVI, HDMI, VGA
1st Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
3TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H80i GT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
2 x ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORTS
 
G

geeksarebeta

Member
Have been testing this out a little more, have copied all my old files on to it through the the network, excellently fast, amazed that Windows 10 connected to my old Power Mac G5 without batting an eyelid. I've installed MATLAB and Altair HyperWorks and have been able to run some pretty large analyses without it breaking a sweat (where my MacBook Pro was in some pain). Can't wait to see what this machine is capable of as I progress in my PhD onto more complicated analyses.

Will be installing a new HDD over the weekend so will post pictures soon.
 
G

geeksarebeta

Member
So today was the first opportunity to get her sides off and get one of the additional HDDs in. Was very impressed with the way some of the cables were organised, mostly tied into the casing, there are a few loose one that I will tidy up once I've got all the other parks into the case. I do love how the case sides both open up and the cables can be routed up the back, especially the thick ATX cable. However the modular power supply is still not modular enough, nor does it come with enough SATA power cables when MoBo's tend to come with 5-10 SATA ports (though maybe more expensive ones do?).

PLUS I have also solved the mystery of the noisy HDD, as the post above the Toshiba drive was fairly noisy during read/write, something which I was hoping didn't mean I had a faulty drive, turns out that PCS had put a screw in to fix it to the case instead of just using the tool-less features, presumably for security in transit. Removing this screw means that the vibration is not translated into the HDD caddy when the noise was being amplified in the case! Very happy!

Pics below, it's all black inside, except for a few white highlights on the MoBo and there is now a red SATA cable in there, though will replace with a black one to match the others as I'm picky like that!

IMG_4981.jpgIMG_4982.jpg
 
G

geeksarebeta

Member
Installed a new HDD into this machine last weekend, not a new drive, it's one from an older machine, but just a few days later I got the POST telling me that it was not much longer for this world, so out it has come. While I was in there I took some time to tidy up a few cables, the job that PCS had doen was mostly a good one, but they were putting some stress on a couple of headers on the board, and the cable for the CPU cooler coul dhave been routed better behind the motherboard so have now done this. When I have the cash I wioll replace the broken HDD and get another for a mirrored RAID drive.

So far still very happy with my machine, it's doing all my analyses with ease!
 
G

geeksarebeta

Member
Been having a great time with this machine, still working out great for my analysis needs, still lightning fast.

Have made an upgrade to add two new HDDs in a software RAID config. (after finding out that PCS did not do as I asked and set the original HDD and OS up in RAID mode). I got two 2Tb Hitachi DeskStars for £60 each on Black Friday.

I have also been donated a GeForce GTX970 which I will soon be installing along with an LG Bly-Ray writer. Should be the last mod for a while!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top