[tech] [committee] Purchase of 2 New Machines

Wed Mar 9 00:07:44 AWST 2016

I agree with most of the points raised here. DVD drives in each machine are
unnecessary and the i5 750 in Pinball can last another year (I have the same
in my own PC) if theres a core 2 duo that could be replaced instead.

The PLE centurion 6 has an included cheap 500W PSU, its closer to $100
without that
(http://www.vtechindustries.com.au/catalog/product/view/id/10420/s/cooler-ma
ster-centurion-6-black-case-rc-610-kkn1/ )
There are probably cheaper cases that are suitable but that looks quite
nice, and the power button being on the corner is convenient. If we're
buying from a single supplier the case will really depend on their stock.

When I built Corydoras it was recommended to me that we should spend at
least $120 on a PSU, 750W seems high and paying extra for modular isn't
really necessary, semi-modular is probably worth it though.

I didn't realise 240GB SSDs were down to around the $100 mark. I'm not
exactly sure how logins work, but would large /away directories cause issues
with how many times you can write to an SSD? Unless we need large amounts of
storage on the OS drive an SSD is probably worth it.

Given we're expecting these machines to last till 2020 at least, and likely
a move to 1440p/1600p in that time, I think a little extra GPU power will be
worth it. Most of the Windows machines have 960s in them currently iirc. The
benchmarks I've looked at show a 20-30% performance difference.

If you can find a Windows 7 Student license around they were about $80, but
apparently non-OEM copies of Windows 7 are getting quite hard to find. It
may even be worth buying a sub-$100 refurbished computer that has a windows
license installed just to transfer it.

[JDN]

-----Original Message-----
From: committee-bounces+kurama101=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au
[mailto:committee-bounces+kurama101=ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au at ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au] On
Behalf Of Andrew Adamson
Sent: Tuesday, 8 March 2016 8:33 PM
To: Mitchell Pomery <mjpomery at ucc.asn.au>
Cc: tech at ucc.asn.au; committee at ucc.asn.au
Subject: Re: [committee] [tech] Purchase of 2 New Machines

Hi Mitch,

That looks like a pretty solid build, but I think there's a couple of ways
we can trim it without compromising on computing power or reliability. 
This is particularly relevant given that the clubs income is about to halve.

For starters, I suggest we ditch the DVD drives; they barely get used on the
machines that do have them, and we bought an external DVD drive for this
exact reason (it lives in the tool cupboard). Time for that to pay for
itself: $40 saved across two machines.

When you say "Pinball" I assume you mean "Porcupine" - after all, Porcupine
is a C2D while Pinball is an i5 with decent specs. Porcupine happens to have
a decent case and PSU already, as we were careful in the past to try and get
generic cases that would last across a couple of generations and were
compatible with our security requirements. If I recall correctly it's a
CoolerMaster Centurion 5 case (mk 1 or 2, not
sure) and there's nothing wrong with it. We have spare blanking plates and
internal parts for it in the machine room. Its power supply is also fine: 
$120 saved on that combo. Cockgrunters case is not compatible with our
security as far as I know, and needs replacing. Might I suggest a
CoolerMaster Centurion?

A 750W power supply is pretty overkill in this case. The PSU recommended on
the geforce.com website for an i7 3.2 GHz with a GTX 960 is 400W. Given that
the trend is towards cooler and lower-wattage electronics, I don't think
750W is necessary even for future proofing. If you don't get a PSU with the
case, something like the $93 550W coolermaster GM RS550-AMAAB1 from msy
might be the go. NB: many of the clubroom machines have coolermaster silent
pro PSU's in them and they've stood the test of time.

As someone who helps maintain the clubroom machines, I'm pretty keen on an
SSD for the system disk. If nothing else, it makes maintenance more bearable
when things install quickly. Can we swap one of the 2TB disks for a
240GB/250GB ssd in each machine? I have had good results with Kingston
V300 at work, but I would understand if people want to go with Samsung
instead.

The GTX960 is only 6% more powerful than the GTX950 based on a range of
benchmarks I looked at. It's around 30% more expensive, and I would
challenge anyone to be able to tell the difference, given the games we
usually run and the resolutions of our screens. Given the number of graphics
cards failures we have, I think the money would be better spent on a card
with more reliable fans and slightly less power. By more reliable fans I
mean ball bearing fans. "Maglev" and sleeve bearings are shit. Gigabyte GPU
fans are shit and we have proven they don't survive in UCC. EVGA seem to be
the only company doing ball bearing fans on the GTX 950.

So based on your specs and the above suggestions, I took the liberty of
doing a more exact costing:

2 of
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620472/Intel-Core-i5-6400-Skylake-27GHz-6MB-
Retail-Box
2 of
http://www.msy.com.au/pc-components/16372-gigabyte-b150m-d3h-intel-b150-s115
1-4xddr4-2xpciex16-hdmi-dvi-d-sub-usb30-microatx-mb.html
4 of
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/620893/Kingston-8GB-Single-DDR4-Value-Series
-C15-2133MHz
2 of
http://www.msy.com.au/pc-components/5282-kingston-kinsv300s37a-240g-240g-ssd
now-v300-sata3-25-ssd-hdd.html
2 of
http://www.msy.com.au/waonline/pc-components/5103-seagate-35-barracuda-2tb-s
t2000dm001-sata3-7200rpm-64mb-cache-hard-disk.html
2 of
https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33067/evga-geforce-gtx-950-superclocked-
acx-2-0-2gb
1 of
https://www.ple.com.au/Products/611809/Cooler-Master-Centurion-6-Black-Mid-T
ower-Case---500W-PSU

Total cost without shipping: $2171

Andrew Adamson
bob at ucc.asn.au

|"If you can't beat them, join them, and then beat them."                |
| ---Peter's Laws                                                        |

On Mon, 7 Mar 2016, Mitchell Pomery wrote:

> Hey All,
> 
> As per meeting minutes, we are looking at purchasing two new machines. 
> Specs for both are as follows:
> 
> Mid Sized ATX Case
> 750 Watt Modular Power Supply
> Gigabyte GA-B150M-D3H Motherboard
> Intel Core i5 6400
> 16GB RAM (in 2x8GB Sticks)
> 2x 2TB Hard Drives (One for operating system, one for files/games) DVD 
> Drive GeForce GTX 960 2GB
> 
> Cost is just around $1100 per machine.
> 
> One machine will also need a Windows license (Roughly $200), with the 
> preference being to get a Windows 7 License if possible, otherwise 
> going with a Windows 10 one.
> 
> Total cost: Around $2500, depending on who we get it from.
> 
> Aim is to build two machines that could operate as either Windows or 
> Linux machines, with one of these taking the place of Cockgrunter, the 
> other taking the place of Pinball. The parts salvaged from these two 
> machines will be put into other machines where suitable, or be 
> disposed of/put into the parts bin where not.
> 
> Regards,
> Mitchell Pomery
> 
> 2015 President
> University Computer Club
> _______________________________________________
> List Archives: http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/tech
> 
> Unsubscribe here: 
> http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/mailman/options/tech/bob%40ucc.gu.uwa.e
> du.au
> 
_______________________________________________
List Archives: http://lists.ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au/pipermail/committee