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Generally speaking, the PCs I deal with at work are pretty uninspiring. Don't get me wrong, I pick out quality stuff, but they're off-the-shelf Elitebooks/Zbooks or NUCs 99% of the time. Gone are the days when I used to build most of the PCs that folks in the office/plant use.

Occasionally though, we have a need for something special, and I still insist on building those systems with my own hands. About 4 years ago I built 'Godzilla' as a workstation for CAD data translation. Godzilla lives on today, unchanged, an Ivy Bridge-E i7-4820K based system w/ 64GB of DDR3 2400. It's time to retire Godzilla though, our translation software is smarter about using more threads now and more people wish to use the system simultaneously (we're bumping up against the 64GB limit from time to time).

Those of you that happened to catch my post in last week's deals may know where this is going... That coupon code was the catalyst for replacing Godzilla sooner rather than later. I ordered that 128GB kit of RAM and the rest of the system last Thursday. NewEgg was insanely fast and a lot of the parts arrived on Friday, with almost all the rest slated for delivery later today, and the cooler arriving tomorrow.

Without further ado, here's the full specs of 'Gipsy Danger'

CPU: Intel Core i9-7940X
RAM: G.SKILL TridentZ Series 128GB DDR4 3200
Mobo: ASUS ROG STRIX X299-E GAMING
Cooler: Corsair Hydro Series, H115i PRO RGB
GPU: PNY Quadro P4000 NVIDIA Quadro P4000
SSD: SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500GB
Case: Fractal Design Define R6
PSU: EVGA SuperNOVA 850 G3

I hemmed and hawed over the CPU choice more than anything. I thought about more cores, fewer cores, or going with Threadripper. During my decision making process, I stumbled upon that RAM deal. I wanted to make sure I could use that RAM at full speed and that meant Intel (mobo compatibility confirmed by Asus). I settled on the 14-core i9-7940X due to its combination of core count, turbo clock, and price - it just seemed like the sweet spot to me. For the work it will be doing, singled threaded performance will still be king, even if certain assemblies will allow the software to farm out some work to the other cores.

This system will be coming together throughout the week and I'll post updates here as I go. Except for the beefy specs, it's not going to be anything fancy but I like to share anyway. Gipsy will be the most powerful and most expensive system I've ever built, wish me luck.

Obligatory pic:


Edit, more pics:

System is up and running, so far, so good.

I pulled out all the drive cages because who needs them?



I had to remove this screw from the top radiator mount because the filter wouldn't clip in with it in place.


The rear exhaust fan cable was annoying me, I tried to tuck it back out of the way and, surprise, there was a clip built into the case just for holding that cable back. Nice.


Working in the Define R6 was pretty smooth. It was the first time I've used a case with a removable radiator mount and that was very handy (collision issues aside). However, I would prefer the case to be a couple inches taller because the radiator hangs down too far over the motherboard. Thankfully, this isn't a deal breaker due to the removable mount.

Memory is solid at 15-15-15-35 @ 3200 with all eight sticks. Need to run some stress testing though. I'm still not used to motherboards that can update themselves over the internet. I'm also still not used to builds being over nearly as soon as they start, feels like there's hardly anything left to plug in these days.

Well I guess it will get the job done.

Nobody's going to write an Epyc poem about it though.

And watch out in a street fight: That thing looks unARMed.

I am triggered! These images must come with an "E-penis Warning."

Not cool, not all!

uni-mitation

Sadly, these images are exempt from Penis Points™ because it's a work computer and not a personal build.

drfish wrote:

Sadly, these images are exempt from Penis Points™ because it's a work computer and not a personal build.

I do like all the crazy cooling & fan setup with a -- gasp -- single-slot GPU!
Fine for workstation use obviously, but we really want to see a triple-slot monster GPU with a heatsink so heavy it needs additional support bracing.

It was seriously freaky to handle/install a full-size single slot video card. I can't remember the last time that happened, maybe a 7600GT?

128GB of ram. OK I got this: Spin up a bunch of Virtual Machines each with their own instance of <popular game here>. Then just tab to the one you want to play. Goodbye initial loads.

steelcity_ballin wrote:

128GB of ram. OK I got this: Spin up a bunch of Virtual Machines each with their own instance of <popular game here>. Then just tab to the one you want to play. Goodbye initial loads.

I like your idea. Please subscribe me to your newsletter.

Nobody ever got fired for choosing Intel!

For anyone following along. I queued up just 4 files for conversion just to get a real utilization screenshot from Task Manager. This is actually a great example, you can see memory usage already approaching 64GB, and CPU usage of four cores constantly with the occasional spike as other cores are used for parts that can be broken off from the main assembly, which causes even more RAM utilization. Good times.

I ran the rendering face-off I mentioned in the article real quick this morning...

Here's the results for Godzilla:


And with the exact same settings, here's the results for Gipsy.


That's almost 5x quicker for Gipsy thanks to her extra cores, higher IPC, and faster memory. Not too shabby.

drfish wrote:

I ran the rendering face-off I mentioned in the article real quick this morning...

. . .

That's almost 5x quicker for Gipsy thanks to her extra cores, higher IPC, and faster memory. Not too shabby.

Yes, but who cares about "3D rendering" like anybody does that!

We want single-core Geekbench scores so we can whine that there's no reason to upgrade! :-p

Windows 10 is a good enough multitasking platform to let you run muptiple instances?

Mr Bill wrote:

Windows 10 is a good enough multitasking platform to let you run muptiple instances?

Is this even a serious question... _(:3」∠)_

auxy wrote:

Mr Bill wrote:

Windows 10 is a good enough multitasking platform to let you run muptiple instances?

Is this even a serious question... _(:3」∠)_

Its a legit question. Mostly motivated by my ignorance of Win10 and solidworks. I recall when you you would get the server version of windows to get better multitasking (as well as more seats). For that matter some apps don't cotton to being run multiple instances. OP indicates solidworks is intended to be run in multiple instances. I wondered if you needed a server version of windows to do it.

I believe these days the licensing is done per socket? The last time I looked into it even the Home version of Win10 supports many more threads than a home user would ever use. An application can still enforce a restriction on running multiple instances for any number of reasons, but unless you're doing something very bad and wrong(meaning, something even this machine couldn't handle) the OS shouldn't be a problem.

We can and do run multiple instances of SolidWorks, even though it complains about it's journal file/auto recovery not being able to work. However, in this case, running multiple instances of SolidWorks is less common than running multiple instances of the dedicated translation software.

Gosh, it would be a shame if the system disappeared from the office and an almost but not quite the same system was generously available at the barbeque to be given away as a prize. drfish, what's that office access code again--I forget?

drfish wrote:

We can and do run multiple instances of SolidWorks, even though it complains about it's journal file/auto recovery not being able to work. However, in this case, running multiple instances of SolidWorks is less common than running multiple instances of the dedicated translation software.

My bad, I got confused about what you were running in multiple copies.