Seeking guidance on building a new system for computer lab

[Master]

Hello everyone,
I was asked to present a list of computer components for building two computer labs which are used extensively for high volume and heavy computations.( research based)
components such as mouse, keyboard, case, dvd writer, all these component and peripherals are not needed.

1. Mother board,
2. CPU,
3. RAM,
4. HDD,

and possibly a VGA card are needed.

These systems are possibly used for the next 5~7 years (even more ) so they should be able to be capable enough and dont face any kind of component shortage ( I mean like ddr, ddr2 stuff that are not common these days )

The systems should be able to run like couple of virtualization softwares at the same time, each running their own OS, running possibly a heavy computation.
I was told for example, in one case, one software needs 8G of RAM, and should be run in a windows server OS in a VM (possibly vmware) (this was as a clue for how much capable the system should be)

apart from all of these , the technology is very important to them , they dont want to spend their money on something that gets obsolete quickly and they face difficulty for upgrading parts of the systems in the future if the needs be, so they put specific emphasis on the technology .

The budget is 2100$ ~2300$ for these two systems.
I know the budget is not that much, but I'd be grateful if you could suggest and guide me to get the best list proportional to the price .

I found someparts , I have no Idea if they are a good candidate for what is specified above :

1. CPU: Intel i7 6700k
2. MB: ASUS z170 pro gaming
3. RAM: 2*8 bus 3000 gskill
4. HDD: western 1 t blue
5. Asus gforce gt 630 (this is not very important, since If the needs be, they can buy it at any time, and they are not bound to a specific technology)

Notes:
I have heard that SSD drives are not safe, and if they break or malfunction, the data can not (easily?!) be recovered at all like the conventional HDDs, so they opted for HDDs. I would like to know your opinion on this as well.

Thanks in advance

 

[tabascosauz]

I don't really see a lot of issues, except that:

1. No computers that belong to an educational institution or a business should be overclockable. Forgo the 6700K in favor of a 6700 instead, and the DDR4 doesn't have to be so fast. You can keep the Z170 board if you want to be future-proof when DDR4 gets faster, but I doubt it's necessary and you can consider moving down to a B150, H170 or Q170 board (the Q170 is probably the best fit, as per Intel's guidelines).

2. Some say that SSDs are not "tried and true" like HDDs. This may have some degree of truth, but the notion that data cannot easily be recovered is not exactly accurate. Most of the time you can read off of an SSD anyways; the days of OCZ Vertex time bombs are in the past. Today's SSDs are rather reliable, if you know what to buy (Samsung's 850 Pro and really all of Intel's SSDs basically sell themselves on reliability). That said, here at UOB most PCs are running plain old 500GB WD drives (presumably some enterprise model or just Blues) and they are so fast that at first glance I thought they were SSDs. They may be accelerated via Intel SRT (look into that as well) if you have a compatible chipset. I would settle for a 250GB BX100 or similar, but your needs may vary in terms of storage space so an SSD may not be the best choice.

3. The board I had in mind was more along the lines of the Z170-Pro from Asus (you know, the one that looks like the Deluxe with a black/white scheme) rather than the Pro Gaming since, well, the PC's going to be in a more serious environment. I realize that the Z170-Pro may be more expensive; I still think that a Q170 board is better. I'd put a UD5 from GB here if Z170 is a must, but that's just personal preference.

 

[n-ster]

IMO anything above 2666/2800 RAM is probably going to be a waste.

In my personal experience, SSDs have been more reliable, and I haven't had any sudden deaths with them. If you want extra piece of mind, stick with the Samsung 850 Pro or Intel 730, they are very very reliable. Alternatively you could look at Sandisk Extreme Pro as it has a 10 year Warranty as well and is perhaps a better value than the other two. I tend to also over-provision my SSDs by 15-25%. You can always have a daily/weekly image saved on a local HDD if you don't trust SSDs yet.

i7 6700K's only advantage for your case would be that the base clock is 600MHz faster and turbo 200MHz faster. You do lose the Intel HSF if you go with K version as well. You can always put an aftermarket HSF though, and TBH I always think it's a good idea, in the long run you have to worry less about dust or noise, my favorites right now are BeQuiet! Shadow Rock Slim and NH-C14S.

Alternatively, if you are going to get a GPU anyways, you can look at the X99 platform. i7 5820K or even Xeon, ECC RAM and AsRock X99 board for the ECC support. TBH I think you should stick to LGA1151 and it's IGP, it's just a better value.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

personally, I'd would opt for the socket 2011-3 Xeon option and choose something like this- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/9pjfbv

While I would definitely choose a workstation GPU over a gaming GPU, I can't say for sure that the FirePro V4900 is the best choice for your situation. More research and information about the exact programs to be run are needed.

 

[ne6togadno]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2vw96h

edit:

personally, I'd would opt for the socket 2011-3 Xeon option and choose something like this- http://pcpartpicker.com/p/YZ46Hx

While I would definitely choose a workstation GPU over a gaming GPU, I can't say for sure that the FirePro V4900 is the best choice for your situation. More research and information about the exact programs to be run are needed.

ssd/hdd

 

[BarbaricSoul]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2vw96h

OP said the budget for BOTH computers was $2100-2300

 

[ne6togadno]

OP said the budget for BOTH computers was $2100-2300

with 2 cpus you dont need 2 pcs.

 

[BarbaricSoul]

with 2 cpus you dont need 2 pcs.

Oh, I see what you did there now.

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2vw96h

edit:

ssd/hdd

Yeah, that was the wrong link I posted, fixed now

 

[Ahhzz]

I'm partial to the Xeon class, or Opteron, for a workhorse environment like a research lab. The Xeons and Optys are designed with a higher tolerance, and should last longer with fewer issues. If you do fall back down to an i-series, there's absolutely no reason to get a "k" line, as
tabascosauz says, you won't be overclocking.

 

[That Guy In The Shirt]

Well my option is a bit more expensive, but it's within your budget and it will definitely last you at least 5 years, and should last you 7. The cpu is significantly better than the Skylake series, the gpu is better (though if you don't want a decent vga card, you can just get the other one you had in mind and save some money), and it comes with a 1TB SSD instead of a 1TB HDD. I'm fairly certain that it's not any easier to recover data from a broken SSD than a broken HDD, and I'm 99% certain that HDDs are far more likely to fail than SSDs, because with HDDs the actual disk that the data is kept on can be scratched and damaged irreparably. SSDs don't have that problem. If you want something cheaper you should consider getting a Xeon processor on the same par as the processor I suggested, as those cpus are great workhorse cpus. Though I'm fairly certain that for a Xeon cpu in your price range you'd need to get a motherboard that doesn't support DDR4 RAM. Not a huge deal, but DDR4 might benefit you in the tasks these computers need to do. The only reason I included a cpu cooler by the way is because this cpu doesn't come with a stock cooler.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Xw4F23
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/Xw4F23/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Core i7-5820K 3.3GHz 6-Core Processor ($378.99 @ SuperBiiz)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.89 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme4 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($154.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($83.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($294.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($106.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $1044.83
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-10-21 20:52 EDT-0400

 

[n-ster]

FYI, stick with 4x4GB for X99

 

[That Guy In The Shirt]

FYI, stick with 4x4GB for X99

For the quad channel RAM? Yeah, that's definitely the way to go, thanks for the heads up!