Building a decent box for a developer

bobbytables

Lo all, it's been a while since I last built so I'm hoping to get some ideas for an upgrade. I'm a developer, and no longer game on my work PC. For those of you who are still reading and have refrained from blasting me with piss for such a decision, I need your help. It started with me moving completely away from Windows to Ubuntu a few years ago and I have never looked back. Here's what I need the box for:

An area that my current machine let's me down on is that it's based on an old 939 AMD64 x2 chip that does not support virtualization. This was fine at the time, but now I really want to virtualize Win7, OSX & Android guests (possibly simultaneously) on a Ubuntu host to speed things up for me. Will be coding on Ubuntu, deploying & possibly building on guests. I have already decided that 8GB of DDR3 RAM is the minimum I should be looking at to accomplish this level resource sharing or multitasking. I want the guests to be farily snappy on performance. What speed this RAM should be, I need to ask you (once you look at my budget).

I have an old Nvidia 8800GTS (the newer 512MB board with the G92). This is fine for a guy that demands very little graphically apart from the odd game of QuakeLive, watching the odd HD movie or flying between desktops using Compiz Fusion (or whatever the kids are using for eye candy on Linux workstations these days).

I'm also looking at a OCZ 60GB Vertex 2E SSD to host my host OS and guest OS'. This is probably tight, although I'm quite disiplined in terms of installing stuff. If I'm not using it regularly, it doesn't take up space, that sort of thing. I'm still going to spread all my docs / media / etc between a seperate high storage disk (7200rpm) and spin that up as needed, NAS, Cloud storage, etc. Development tools, OS, etc all on the SSD.

My trusty garden shed of a case (Coolermaster CM830 I think), will suffice. I also have a 600W OCZ Power supply, it's fine.

So really what I'm looking for here is the RAM, Mobo, Processor & SSD. Maybe a new keyboard if I'm good. I love my Razer mouse and ****ing hate my cheap Logitech keyboard that was bought in a blind panic on a day that I needed a keyboard cheap and quick. I was always an AMD fan, but now I'm wondering should I get an i5 and give Intel a shot. At the end of the day, I need a PC that will be on 18 hours a day, that is very fast (in booting and launching apps).

Given my usage habits/requirements, what would be best 4 components I could get for €500.

Thank you for reading this far, and if you can help me advTHANKSance

deconduo

€100.97 - ASRock P67 Pro3
€171.52 - i5-2500k
€63.13 - 8GB GSKill RAM
€104.88 - Crucial C300 64GB SSD

You could get a decent cooler + the tray version of the i5 if you wanted to overclock even more, but the stock cooler is actually quite good.

You could also get better RAM if you wanted.

bobbytables

Cheers mate. Exactly the sort of recommendation I was looking for

Trevor451

If you are not in any hurry to order parts I would wait for the bulldozer benchmarks which should come online sometime in June. If you decide to order now the i5 is still a great processor and you wont be disappointed

Edit: Most of the athlon ii and phenom ii processors can handle virtualization and still are great value for the money.

bobbytables

Hi, I'll be placing an order for the above components in the next few days, but have upped the budget slightly to include a new monitor.

Right now I have a 22" iiyama, which is not the best monitor in the world, but I've been very happy with it so far. So now (considering my needs), I want access to a higher resolution. I was looking at a 27" 1080p for approx €300, and retire my 22". However now I'm thinking that I should just get another 22" and have the two monitors on the go. I always liked the look of two monitors for coding, testing, etc.

Also I would imagine that having one 27" with a full HD native res beside a 22" (1680x1050 native) would look pretty crap.

Any suggestions, my budget is about €800 in total for the new monitor and the above components.

marco_polo

Just throwing out an alternative suggestion, lot of developers like to have a monitor that can pivot, so that it can be turned onto to the vertical plane and allow you tp see more lines of code at once. Perhaps it would be even better than a large 27".

This is a nice 23" LG that can do just that at a fairly reasonable price €209, as an added bonus it is also an LED backlight IPS panel with a height and tilt adjustable stand.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_01COM/16_MONITOR/03_MONITOR/productdetails/20079079/LG_IPS231P_BN_LCD_display_TFT_LED_backlight/IPS231P_BN/default.aspx

bobbytables

marco_polo wrote: »

Just throwing out an alternative suggestion, lot of developers like to have a monitor that can pivot, so that it can be turned onto to the vertical plane and allow you to see more lines of code at once.

Yes that would be useful indeed. Just looking through my nVidia settings on Ubuntu and can't seem to see how I could change the settings to account for a pivot(ed) display, but I'm sure it's possible.

The only other thing that really caught my eye is that you're suggesting a 23" full HD display. I'll be honest I'm not used to working off multiple displays, so I assumed that having one monitor running at one native resolution and another running at a different native resolution is going to cause problems. So my plan was to have two monitors of the same physical size & native res. or else a single full HD 27".

Also I thought Komplett were an absolute no go since the big feck up with their inventory & order management system a while back. This hardware is for work so I couldn't afford to be messing about.

marco_polo

bobbytables wrote: »

Yes that would be useful indeed. Just looking through my nVidia settings on Ubuntu and can't seem to see how I could change the settings to account for a pivot(ed) display, but I'm sure it's possible.

The only other thing that really caught my eye is that you're suggesting a 23" full HD display. I'll be honest I'm not used to working off multiple displays, so I assumed that having one monitor running at one native resolution and another running at a different native resolution is going to cause problems. So my plan was to have two monitors of the same physical size & native res. or else a single full HD 27".

Also I thought Komplett were an absolute no go since the big feck up with their inventory & order management system a while back. This hardware is for work so I couldn't afford to be messing about.

There is a distinction between an extended desktop and a spanned desktop. An extended desktop does not require the monitors to be the same native resolution or even orientation for that matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-monitor#Span_or_extended_desktop_mode

In Window the OS only supports 'extended desktop' and not spanning functionality. For a full proper spanning desktop currently it is GPU drivers must provide the support (Like ATI eyefinity does).

I can't really speak for multiple monitor in Ubuntu so I don't know what configurations of spanning/ extended desktops are supported. Rotation of one screen out of two certainly appears to be possible.

Komplett seem to be functioning pretty well again in fairness, I certainly would have no problem ordering from them (If the price is right of course). I only linked as that was the first site where I found the monitor I was looking for the specs, not nescessarly the best deal.

bobbytables

Probably a silly question, but a mate of mine (several years ago mind) ordered a laptop form Germany. When it arrived the keys were physically based on a German layout. IIRC Z was where Y is and visa versa. Of course he could soft remap them through his OS, but it was just crap looking.

Yes I'm not buying a keyboard, but my concern is, could the BIOS user interface be in German instead of English?.

Yes yes, I am already face palming that I have to ask this

deconduo

Everything I've ordered from them has been in English, so there shouldn't be anything to worry about. Just don't get a keyboard as you said, and make sure you have Irish power cords.

bobbytables

Holy crap!, that was a quick response. Cheers dude

As for power cables, there are boxes of the feckin things beyind me, so that I can definitely cover. I've upped the RAM, from your previous suggestion to: 8GB-Kit Corsair DDR3 PC1600 CL9 Dominator

Overkill, nice choice or get something else within that sort of budget?

deconduo

Expensive, practically no increase in performance and has irritatingly high heatspreaders. Get this kit instead:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44319&agid=1192

bobbytables

deconduo wrote: »

Expensive, practically no increase in performance and has irritatingly high heatspreaders. Get this kit instead:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=44319&agid=1192

Yeah the heatspreaders looked a bit awkward alright. Nice one, the G.Skill kit it is.

So my plan is to get the ASRock P67 Pro3 (B3), and throw the i5 2500k with stock cooling on that, along with G.Skill kit above. Now I just have to get myself a cheap 3.5" mounting kit for that SSD.

I'll probably order all of this during the week at work, and will keep you posted. Cheers for your help dude, I really appreciate it

deconduo

I didn't even bother with a bracket for my ssd, I just stuck it in the case :P

Fluffy88

haha living on the edge :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJMGAdpCLVg#at=150
If you watch that vid, you will notice a little bump or two won't affect an SSD So you probably don't need one, but it might keep things a little bit tidier.