Input for computer build

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by oska

Sweet Alex. Try to run as many hard jobs (stacks or system benchmarks etc) as you can as soon as you can for the first day or so. Just to make sure everything is hunky-dory. New parts, if they're going to fail, usually do it in the first 24hrs under load. Generally it's called "burn in". Besides I'm sure you've got a few thousand subs that need a good stacking

I yried s big stack today on the laptop and it said 8 hours to go so I stopped it...I cant wait to see how it goes.

Alex

[xelasnave]

Doing a similar stack on the new machine..so far so good

[KISSMAD (Bruce)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Doing a similar stack on the new machine..so far so good

How long did it take to do the stacking on your old machine compared to the new machine?

[Kimbo (Kim)]

Your new PC looks amazing Alex, your daughter did a great job, you must be pleased. Let us know what programs you’ve loaded & how well they are running.

I was going to do a similar build but a friend who has built several PCs suggested I go up in chip sets.

Here is what I’ve ordered:

Cooling - Noctua NH-D15 Chromax
Power Supply - Cooler Master V850 Gold-V2 850W 80+ Gold
Primary Storage - Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 2TB
Secondary Storage - Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 1TB
Case - Fractal Design Meshify 2 Black Solid
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5950X
Graphics Card - ASUS Radeon RX 6800 XT TUF Gaming OC 16GB Video Card
Memory - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3600MHz C18
Motherboard - ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
Logitech Mx 3S mouse
Logitech MX keyboard

I’m going to load Windows 10 for the time being & I haven’t decided on the HDD storage yet.

Wish me luck!!

Cheers
Kim

[oska (John)]

Hi Kim,
Nice rig.

Consider swapping your primary and secondary storage around. Unless you have heaps of modern A+ games I doubt you would need 2T for system but you can use nearly that much on big stacks.

Go for NVidia, whatever you want - doesn't matter. CUDA! All the acceleration is for cuda at the moment and near future afaik.

Don't forget to turn memory boost (depends on which bios for what it's actually called) on in the bios so you can use the ram @ 3600

[Kimbo (Kim)]

Thanks for the advice John. I typed the wrong SSD against the primary name! I’ll be using the 1TB for the OS.

I’m still trying to decide on storage HDDs, whether to get internal, external or both & what size. The PC will not be moved so I can go for the cheaper 3.5 drives for internal but I’m also considering whether to get a NAS for storage & backup.

Any advice from techies would be greatly appreciated.

Decisions Decisions!!

Cheers
Kim

[oska (John)]

I would get a reasonably big and reasonably fast internal first, like a WD black 10T. That will sort you out for the immediate future I expect. Whether you go NAS etc will depend on... how long is a piece of string.

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by KISSMAD

How long did it take to do the stacking on your old machine compared to the new machine?

Because the stacks were slightly different I recorded no times..shortly the new computer will be complete ( we are waiting on a scratch drive to see it completed 100%)

I then will do a direct comparison.

However even at this stage it appears much faster.

Alex

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Kimbo

Your new PC looks amazing Alex, your daughter did a great job, you must be pleased. Let us know what programs you’ve loaded & how well they are running.

I was going to do a similar build but a friend who has built several PCs suggested I go up in chip sets.

Here is what I’ve ordered:

Cooling - Noctua NH-D15 Chromax
Power Supply - Cooler Master V850 Gold-V2 850W 80+ Gold
Primary Storage - Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 2TB
Secondary Storage - Samsung 980 PRO M.2 PCI-E Gen4 NVMe SSD 1TB
Case - Fractal Design Meshify 2 Black Solid
CPU - AMD Ryzen 5950X
Graphics Card - ASUS Radeon RX 6800 XT TUF Gaming OC 16GB Video Card
Memory - Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB (2x32GB) DDR4 3600MHz C18
Motherboard - ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero
Logitech Mx 3S mouse
Logitech MX keyboard

I’m going to load Windows 10 for the time being & I haven’t decided on the HDD storage yet.

Wish me luck!!

Cheers
Kim

All luck is prortional to your effort input but as a friendly token of support I wish you luck.

Thanks for sharing.

Alex

[xelasnave]

Still waiting on the scratch drive ( whatever that is) fingers crossed but maybe today.
Alex

[Kimbo (Kim)]

Thanks John. I’m now looking at two 6 or 8 TB HDDs internal in a Raid configuration & in the future an external backup. What are your thoughts on this setup?

Cheers
Kim

[oska (John)]

RAID used to be a thing but not so much any more. Generally speaking it can be far more trouble than it's worth. Definitely NOT hardware raid, as you are trapped in the proprietary format hell. Unless you keep extra copes of the hardware your data is toast if there's a hardware problem down the line.
If you're after data integrity then do scheduled backups, at whatever frequency suits you, to external (several rotated, ideally) usb drives, plus NAS if you want a live local copy, plus off site if the data really matters.
If you're after speed use SATA SSD or better NVME SSDs. If you must raid them for the extra speed only use it for scratch and do very frequent [hot] backups.
Way overkill for astro, more for enterprise databases etc.

I use NVME for processing then move the data to a local HD. Then it's schedule copied to NAS for archive. Any important stuff is also copied to ext USB in the schedule.
Every year I replace my "work" drive with all my code (not astro) and stuff on and make a copy to the new drive. I label the old one and put it on the shelf. Not a fireproof solution, literally, but it's ok.

[oska (John)]

Originally Posted by xelasnave

Still waiting on the scratch drive ( whatever that is) fingers crossed but maybe today.
Alex

scratch space. fast drive space to help make data intensive processes like stacking faster, usually many times faster.

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by oska

scratch space. fast drive space to help make data intensive processes like stacking faster, usually many times faster.

It's done but I .cant use it cause others are using the power up there anyways no huge data stack in mind so I will wait..one more program that I want and doing it on the hill is better due to net connection.

I am in no rush as I have all the new bits for the scopes to set up...last of it arrived today and only openned everything moments ago...
But it is now close so I will slow down as I cross the line.

I need a nap now.

Alex

[Kimbo (Kim)]

Thanks for your great advice John. You can tell I’m an IT beginner with all these questions!!!
I’ll just get a big HDD as you suggested & think about an external backup later.

Cheers
Kim

[xelasnave]

I posted a photo in the other thread a out Asiairs but I guess the final result is best put here.
I am very happy, needless to say particularly that members contributed to the plans and that my daughter put it together ..it is very special to me.
Thanks for your interest.
Alex

[oska (John)]

Excellent!

[LonelySpoon (Neville)]

Very impressive!

Neville
LSO