This is my current generation trading computer buildout. I replaced the 2012 model with these. (4 year cycle) They undergo heavy stability testing before I put them into operation. ie hotroom 78f/45% humidity. Test phase lasts 72 hours. (running stress testing, linpack etc..) I have custom keyboard caps (Unicomp makes them on order, with different colors etc.. for your platform of choice) each key can be different colors with custom characters. The UB40P46 keyboard you can get if you are a heavy keyboard user. They are loud when you type due to the springs and internal buttons. This build is designed for heavy duty use/stability 24/7 never off and even when running 100% compute loads overnight. CPU will sustain over 110gflops no problem. It is silent and very power efficient and compact as well to fit in any space. I try to choose the best quality parts for high stability and longlife. Average idle watts is 34-35 watts. Less than a 60w lightbulb. Running normal trading it will run in the mid 40's watts. You can have up to 3 4K 27inch monitors with no latency Anyhow this machine will last years and years,the PSU has a 7 year warranty for example. My last system ran 4 years zero hangs/crashes for 24/7 (only time for reboots were patches) I Like to build them like Western Electric used to build phones. Trademaster workstation series 6700-16 ASRock - H170M-ITX/DL H170 High Density Glass Fabric PCB 89.99] CPU - i7 6700 [325.00] Mem - 2x 8gb corsair (red 16gb) CMK16GX4M2A2133C13 [88.99] FDD - Samsung 850 pro - 1TB [425.55] GPU - AMD R9 Nano 4tb HBM memory [529.99] Heatsink - Intel TS15A [30.88] Case - Fractal Design Node 304 [89.99] Monitor - Dual Dell P2715Q [499.99 x2 = 999.98] PSU - Seasonic 520 platnium fanless [139.99] Rear fan - Noctua NF-A14 PWM 140mm case fan thermal controlled[23.20] Keyboard - UB40P46 Unicomp Ultra classic Black PS2 [84.00] Mouse - Microsoft comfort mouse [24.00] ========================================================================== Total price = 1851.58 monitors 999.98 total price 2850.56
I use it for GPGPU purposes, Mathematica and some custom software in addition to driving 4k monitors. HBM offers 512gb/s memory bandwidth.
Ahh, good old Unicomp Ultra Classic! That bulletproof buckling spring keyboard is what reconciled me with modern computing. That's how programming should feel like! I tried a Topre but the cheaper and sturdier Unicomp won me over hands down. A bit surprised to see you went stock with the CPU cooling, though. I'm 100% fanless so I wouldn't know for sure, but I remember that not long ago, such Intel aluminium heat sinks were noisier and easily 10°C less efficient than good copper units. I'm guessing perhaps the case would be too tight for anything bigger?
Actually that stock intel heat sink has a copper core in the middle. It is quite effective and uses a nice delta brand fan. Its pretty quiet. And like you said the MB/case is small as well so it was the best fit for the buildout. That heat sink is designed for a 135w cpu heat dissipation, the 6700 is a 65w tdp so it provides plenty of headroom. The stock heatsink for the 6700 is short and stubby I left it in the box that shipped with the cpu. I really like the Unicomps most people today have never actually used a proper keyboard and are missing out. Nice to see "MADE in USA" on the bottom of them.
. 100% fanless; how? i've got 6 fans in my machine! although, i've solved My problem, by buying a bigger house, and putting the computer box in another room, and running Long cables through a small hole in the wall [i'm as close to no noise as you can get] thanks marc
Careful part selection. I have a NoFan (a.k.a. "NoFen") case (lots of honeycomb mesh, PSU located at the bottom) and the huge NoFan passive copper heat pipe flower I linked to in my previous post, a fanless SeaSonic 400W PSU, I'm fine with Intel's on-board graphics so that takes care of the GPU, I use a RAID pair of SSD's so no moving parts there, and finally the CPU is well-matched with the heat sink, a Intel Core i7-4790S @ 3.2GHz. (The build dates back to mid-2014, so that's a Haswell.) For everything I do normally, the machine is a rocket and never exceeds 35°C (CPU or chipset), and for prolonged video transcoding it still manages to stay very cool, maybe 65°C or so, 80°C in the very worst in the summer. That heat pipe does wonders. If I transcoded more often I might throw a single, normally-off 120mm case fan to keep the CPU below 60°C, maybe... Technically, I think the heat sink is heavier than the motherboard specifies, however that maximum is designed to withstand shipping vibrations and can safely be doubled with careful manipulation. My only regret is that I ended up with a mid-tower to have this much fanless power; I was hoping for NUC form-factor. Can't have everything! Nah, I thought about it years ago when I did my first near-fanless build (2001) but pumps hum way too much for me. I want dead quiet when I need it. Back then I just went with larger, temperature-controlled fans. Now if they could finally come up with decent Skylake fanless ultrabooks I'd have my mobile setup. For now I use a fanless Chromebook to connect to my desktop via VNC.