need recommendations for a PC
 

Good (morning|afternoon|evening).

I'm looking for a new PC for the purpose of a personal project. My criteria are as follows:
[LIST][*]A fairly recent processor with at least four cores[*]An Nvidia GPU with at least 384 CUDA cores[*]My budget is $1,300[/LIST]
The computer isn't intended for finding primes, but the ability to get a high throughput with Prime95 and mfaktc/mmff are a plus. My current top choice is the the Alienware X51 with with a 2 TB hard drive; the total cost slightly over $1,100. Does anyone know of any better deals?

Thanks!

The only problem I have with Alienware is thee 'premium' you pay for the brand. But thats probably still a good computer.

IF you build it yourself... it shouldn't be that hard... to get that:flex:

EDIT: Or maybe it will. hmm..

Build it yourself, it'll be cheaper.

Regardless, you probably want something with an i5-2500, i7-2600, i5-3570, or i7-3770. Those are the best "mainstream" (meaning < $500) processors.

Don't get any Kepler GPUs, i.e. GTX 6xx. They were a leap forward for graphics, but a leap backwards for CUDA. Get a CC 2.0 (not 2.1) GTX [45][78]0 (any of the four).

If you plan to overclock, go with Sandy Bridge -- ix-2xxx.

you can build your own system, but these days the money savings aspect isn't all that great. What is great about it is that you can pick and choose the components and plan for future upgrades.

Alienware, I've heard, builds good machines. But, you do pay a premium and you don't get the cost savings of cheaper power supplies and motherboards that you would get with Dell or HP.

I have used and recommend [URL="http://www.hardware-revolution.com/"]Hardware Revolution[/URL] as an excellent resource for building systems.

I have never used, but have heard good things about [URL="http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/"]CyberPowerPC[/URL] which is a vendor who basically lets you choose what parts you want and builds them for you. Takes longer than pre-builts from Dell, costs a little more than building it yourself. But you get what you want and it will be tested as working by someone before you get it. (I'm sure there are other vendors like this--I've seen similar type things on Ebay)

I have a home-built i5-3570k system which I built for less than $400 plus some spare parts I had sitting around which for a little bit more money could have had a better powersupply and a Gtx-570 or 580 and still come in well under your $1100 (plus you'd have to run some operating system)

But, then you have that moment of truth where you have to swing that ZIF arm down on the processor and you wonder to yourself "was that $200s breaking? or was that the click of sucess?"

I had a good time making multiple trips to [URL="http://www.microcenter.com/"]Microcenter[/URL] for parts...you may just want the damned thing working.

[QUOTE=Dubslow;314888]Build it yourself, it'll be cheaper.

Regardless, you probably want something with an i5-2500, i7-2600, i5-3570, or i7-3770.
If you plan to overclock, go with Sandy Bridge -- ix-2xxx.[/QUOTE]

Can't I OC Ivy?

[QUOTE=petrw1;314895]Can't I OC Ivy?[/QUOTE]

It generates moreee heat, thanks to the new 22nm.

This begs the question: what is faster: OC Sandy or non OC Ivy of comparable size. Ie i5

[QUOTE=petrw1;314902]This begs the question: what is faster: OC Sandy or non OC Ivy of comparable size. Ie i5[/QUOTE]

Depends on the OC. I think Ivy gets ~5, maybe 10% IPC improvement, so your OC would have to be around that much faster.

[QUOTE=kracker;314898]It generates moreee heat, thanks to the new 22nm.[/QUOTE]

It's less the new process than some cheaper thermal solutions Intel used.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_Bridge_(microarchitecture)#Heat_issue_when_overclocked[/url]

[URL="http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-overclocking-core-i7-3770k,3198.html"]A nice article on OC'ing Ivy Bridge[/URL]

Hmmm me thinks ....
 

It suggests to me that even with modest OC I'm best to stick to Sandy.
Is that the majority consensus?

Thx

Actually looking at the benchmarks it appears that even a stock Ivy out performs an OC Sandy.
[CODE]
CPU Model Avg 17.55M 20.05M 24.93M 29.69M 34.56M 39.50M 49.10M 58.52M 68.13M Trial
(MHz) 20.05M 24.93M 29.69M 34.56M 39.50M 49.10M 58.52M 68.13M 77.91M 65
(1024K) (1280K) (1536K) (1792K) (2048K) (2560K) (3072K) (3584K) (4096K) bits
Intel Core i5-3570K @ 3.40GHz 3529 7.05 8.91 10.99 13.21 14.55 18.61 22.84 28.03 30.76 3.09
Intel Core i7-2600K @ 3.40GHz 4450 7.80 10.08 12.29 14.95 16.45 21.01 25.81 31.12 34.68 2.69[/CODE]