New pc spec

[chessplayer]

Hi, would welcome advice on a new desktop PC specifically to play chess, which has some different requirements from high-end gaming:

1. No need for high end graphics
2. programs will use as much horsepower and memory as available
3. programs will use as many cores as available but run slower if hyperthreaded
4. would benefit from an SSD for database access but relevant database is 110gb
5. budget up to £1200k
6. interested in overclocking BUT analysis runs can be overnight so must be stable (and this would be my first O/C)

Grateful for suggestions as to a suitable spec...most the advice out there seem to be oriented to gaming or CAD with a very heavy graphics emphasis.

 

[bg92]

An overclocked system by pc specialist, with future SLI potential. This is without an operating system.
Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i5-2500k Quad Core (3.30GHz @ max 4.00GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67 PRO: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ / SLI SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
4GB KINGSTON HYPER-X SPECIAL EDITION GREY - DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 2GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX570 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DirectX® 11, 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
120GB OCZ VERTEX 2 SATA II 2.5" SSD (upto 285MB/sR | 275MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk
640GB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD6402AAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W TX SERIES (TX850) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£99)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD OVERCLOCK THERMAL PASTE
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,237.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-1155-overclocked/

 

[MickyG]

Hi chessplayer and welcome to the forums

I've put together the spec below, I've included the GTX470 graphics card, but, if you wanted to get a gen 3 SSD which are out in the next few weeks I believe (comparing them to the current SSD's they offer twice as much storage for the same cost as a half storage gen 2, and will have better read/write capabilities e.g. for the cost of an 80GB SSD gen 2 you could get a 160GB SSD gen 3)

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 932 FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.20GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® P8P67: USB 3.0, SATA 6.0GB/s, CrossFireX™ SUPPORT
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1280MB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX470 - 2 DVI,mHDMI - DX® 11, 3D (Special Offer!)
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W TX SERIES (TX650) 80+ ULTRA QUIET PSU (£78)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£59)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £1,187.00 including VAT and delivery.

Configure Here: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/intel-1155-overclocked/

Hope this helps

G

 

[Phoenix]

I really would bother getting anything higher than a Radeon HD5770 graphics card for playing chess, it's just a waste of money.

 

[chessplayer]

Thanks for all the advice...helpful to know about the new SSDs, I run this stuff on my i7 laptop at the moment and it is really hammering the hard drive as well as hitting system performance so getting that included would be great. Downgrading the graphics card versus those suggested specs should see me near to budget, I just need to do some more digging on i5 vs i7, as it turns out some chess programs do benefit from hyperthreading, others go slower with it on, and i7 doesn't beat i5 in every benchmark either for these 2xxx chips.