Why?

Useful Resources

Cables

CPU

  • Check the CPU Performance/Price list.

  • Look for something well represented on this list

  • Or look for an equivalent model, especially one that’s just being discontinued for the next new fancy thing

  • Try to find a CPU/motherboard combo.

Here’s one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1515357 Note that this is not necessarily a good CPU from my first tip, but I’ll let you find the convergence. But you can see that such things are out there. In one swoop, you get a better deal and solve any incompatibility problems between CPU and mobo. I picked this one because I wanted to make the point that I’m kind of a fan of ASUS. But use product ratings by customers wisely. They are worth paying attention to.

My very rough thinking these days (2015) is that AMD gives better performance per purchase dollar while Intel gives you better performance per watt. This may be backwards, but it highlights the thinking you should be doing. Note that a better performance per watt means a quieter machine, other things being equal.

Motherboard

  • Form factor needs to be right.

  • Enough USB ports?

  • SATA3 or whatever you need?

  • Note the power supply connector (pretty standardized now).

  • Make sure the CPU socket is what is needed. Note that in the past if the CPU physically fit in the socket properly, it probably would work. I think this is now a very bad assumption. I helped someone who had a Asus Z270-A and a 8th Gen i5 Core i5-8600K 3.6GHZ. They both claimed to fit a LGA 1151 socket, but they were in fact, incompatible. This article discusses this kind of mismatch.

Too bad they don’t make these any more: Asus Fanless MiniITX C60M1-I D2M0CS077437

I used to have a superstition about buying Asus. Now it is a policy thanks to nonsense like this from Gigabyte. You’d think that 5 years later, they might be shipping boards that weren’t so broken, but you’d be wrong.

Memory

Next you need memory for the motherboard in question. One trick here is to look at the "others who bought X also bought" and look for memory. Note this is not fool proof. You have to double check. But it gets you started. You can also go to http://crucial.com and generate a compatibility report. Memory has about a dozen parameters that all must be compatible. But annoying as this can be, it’s actually not too hard in practice to home in on the right modules.

Note that CAS (Column Access Strobe) timings are in clock cycles (so lower is generally better) but may be misleading depending on the clock speed. For example, compare two units from the same vendor; which is better if the price per byte is identical?

DDR3-1333 CAS 9

13.50

15.75

18.75

DDR3-1600 CAS 11

13.75

15.63

18.13

This shows the operation times in nanoseconds (so lower is better) for 1st, 4th, and 8th word access operations. These are actually very similar and it probably doesn’t matter. I would tend to favor the 1600 because I would assume (incorrectly?) that it enjoys a greater back compatibility.

Keep in mind physical setting too. Many times memory modules with fancy cooling fins have a hard time coexisting with a large CPU cooler/fan.

NOTE It looks like Intel’s Optane memory system is toxic. Here they say this.

Is Linux* supported when using Intel® Optane™ memory for system acceleration?

No, the accelerated SATA drive must be running Windows 10 64-bit to use the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology (Intel® RST) driver software. This enables the supported/validated method of using the Intel® Optane™ memory for acceleration of the most commonly used data. Using the device with other software for caching is is not supported or validated.

Power Supply

Then you need a power supply. I don’t have a brand name here, but I look for user reviews that gush about the quietness. You’ll thank me.

Here’s a new thing to think about - just had a protracted power outage where 1/2 of my computers died and half didn’t. The odd thing is that not all power was lost; the voltage was cut in half down to 50-60VAC. I don’t know exactly how to test for this but handling a robust diversity of input conditions should be considered worthwhile.

This modular Seasonic PRIME Ti 600 Fanless with a 12 year warranty may be worth $200. Apparently the cheaper ones (which I have used) are being phased out.

Checking A Power Supply

Use a paper clip to short out the green wire with an adjacent black one. If the fan comes on, the power supply isn’t completely dead.

Specialized testers are also quite cheap and can properly test all aspects of the unit.

Fans

Fans suck. Fans fail about twice as often as mechanical hard drives and for often the same reason, mechanical wear. Fans are noisy and bulky. If at all possible it is best to prioritize fanless designs. If that is not possible, buying high quality fans or parts using them is not wasted effort. The larger the fan is, the slower it can turn to move the same air. The slower it turns the quieter it is. The small high speed fans are not just noisy, but obnoxiously high-pitched and especially prone to failure. This can be especially awful on GPUs with small fans.

Here’s a nice site to get ideas to avoid the problem entirely: http://www.fanlesstech.com/

As an example of a reasonable choice for modest needs, I have on my desk an "Arctic Freezer 7 Pro Rev. 2" which still seems quiet enough for me after a year or so. https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-Freezer-Pro-Rev-Multi-Compatible/dp/B002G392ZI

Case Fans

Case fans are strangely challenging to measure properly. Look at the signal and noise here.

I think the nominal sizes for fans should be measured along one square edge in mm. Here are sizes I know about.

  • 80mm - a relatively small fan that I can’t find much use for. Maybe good for some GPUs. Found one on a special internal case fan. Approx. 101mm bolt circle diameter.

  • 92mm - the most common case fan despite the non round number. Approx. 117mm bolt circle diameter.

  • 120mm - a relatively big fan, often the kind filling the entire width of a power supply. Approx. 148mm bolt circle diameter.

The next worry is the connector. Those come in two flavors.

  • molex hard drive - 2 wire (fun fact, they’re AMP, not really Molex).

  • motherboard header - 3 wire

GPU Fans

While these are always the first things to fail on a GPU, on a cheap card it is unlikely that you will be able to replace the fan for less than you can just buy a new card. On expensive cards, the bigger the fans, the quieter and slower they will be and the less likely to fail prematurely.

CPU Fans

If the CPU didn’t come with a fan, you’ll have to buy that, but I’d say it’s pretty rare these days for the fan not to be included with the CPU. You pay $150-500 for 50g of plastic - they (Intel/AMD) can throw in a $5 fan. That said, fancy oversized heat sinks can really help keep an otherwise noisy whiny CPU fan under control.

These CPU fans can be a pain to match. This is extra annoying since they are the #2 thing to fail (after GPU fans and tied with PS fans).

The following good description of the situation is taken from this article.

  • Intel LGA775: Unfortunately, Intel heat-sink/fan combos differ across generations. If you have a LGA775 socket CPU, it will require either an LGA775 compatible Intel heat-sink/fan combo, or a complicated “universal” after-market HSF. An exception to this rule is the transition between LGA775 and LGA1155. You can also use LGA1155 heat sinks on LGA775, although there may be some compatibility issues, particularly with bracketed coolers.

  • Intel LGA1155: In general, Intel did not rationalize its fan design. Intel tends to use a different heat sink for each of its CPUs. However LGA775 and LGA1155 HSFs are mostly cross-compatible. The new Haswell LGA1150 socket appears to also work with LGA1155 and LGA11775 sockets.

  • AMD AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, FM1 and FM2: Conveniently, almost all modern AMD socket types use interchangeable CPU heat-sink/fans. If you have one of these AMD models, almost all heat sink/fans work interchangeably, provided they can handle the heat produced by the CPU.

An even more simplistic breakdown is this.

  • AMD - square holes that latch onto the plastic base, often with a cam.

  • Intel - four wonky plastic push pins sort of snap into the motherboard.

Trying this one for low profile.

Used this one to successfully eliminate high load noise on two machines (AMD and Intel): Enermax ETS-N30R-HE Note that to install one of these you usually need to remove the motherboard to replace the CPU mount backplate which is included with the fan.

Hard Drive

You need a hard drive, but this is not really a critical component. You can freely change this around any time. Consider buying two 1.5TB drives instead of a 3TB drive. Or buying a small solid state drive and a large mechanical drive (speed and capacity respectively). For hard drives, a long warranty is good (3 years or ideally 5). Even a very small $50 hard drive will get you going just fine and you can add drives as you need them for actual capacity. Or start by running only Linux from USB sticks and buy hard drives when the need arises and is better specified.

SSD

Also a secondary note about a couple of second-tier drive vendors changing the components in some of their drives after the reviews have been published.

Video Card

Most motherboards have a built in video chip (the GPU I spoke of). But this will often be an Intel graphics chip which are much lamer than Nvidia or ATI. I would strongly favor Nvidia which is really the gaming standard (and important for molecular visualization in my case). Be careful with video cards since they often have little fans which means faster rotation to do the job. And that means higher pitch (whiney). These fans are premounted on the card. Try to find reviews that are happy with the low noise of the GPU fan. Also, lots of video RAM is good (1GB should be a minimum these days probably). I actually like the GeForce 8400 http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Passive-Graphics-01G-P3-1303-KR/dp/B004KABG18 Because it is fanless and dirt cheap. These cards never fail and have surprisingly great performance (as good as a PS3, for example). But check specks and see what the latest hype is. I see that this has DirectX 10 and you might want DirectX 11 these days for the new breed of games that will be coming. If you’re a molecule worker, these passive cards work great.

My blog post thoroughly detailing my attempts to evaluate and compare graphics cards. Includes a side by side comparison video.

Wondering how awesome your awesome GPU is? Check out GPUBench.

Case

Then you need a case. It can be decent to buy all the other stuff first and assemble it on a table top and just make sure it all works. Then its simply a matter of buying a case with the right "form factor", probably ATX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_form_factor Oh, and make sure your power supply and motherboard agree about form factor.

I recently was impressed with a be quiet Silent Base 800 case that went out of its way to dampen vibrations. A lot of time noisy computers are a result of resonant frequencies from fans and hard drives vibrating the panels of the case like a speaker element. Cheap low tolerance, light weight cases will suffer more from this problem. Expensive cases will suffer from being expensive.

Here’s an interesting case, SuperMicro 7045A-WTB, for a serious build that can be a super tower or rack mount. It has an optional rail kit.

Keyboards

People typically spend huge sums of money fussing over the details of their computer and then neglect the most important part of the build, the human interface. Unless you’re building a server that is only ever accessed remotely, you need to physically interact with it. If you are a toddler, habitual drunkard, or farm animal it probably doesn’t matter much what kind of keyboard you use; in such cases you can probably even use something nonsensical like a mouse or a touch screen. But if you are a serious computer professional you will (by my definition of that term) be a proficient and exacting touch typist with specific and stringent keyboard requirements.

If you don’t know what the difference between a membrane keyboard and a mechanical keyboard is, then read this article. If you believe you are a serious computer professional and you’ve accepted that such people require mechanical keyboards, the next question to tackle is which kind of switch do you want.

To learn all you need to know to get started in the world of keyboard nerdery, this fine video is fine.

I’m pretty sure I’m currently using Cherry Brown switches. Here is a collected summary of what I know about switches.

Cherry

Brown

45g

Tactile

2/4mm

1994

Smooth and quiet - mild tactile

Cherry

Red

45g

Linear

2/4mm

2008

Quiet, gaming

Cherry

Pink

45g

Linear

2/4mm

aka "Silent Red", Red with o-rings

Cherry

Silver

45g

Linear

1.2/3.4mm

aka "Speed", shorter travel

Cherry

Blue

50g

Tactile

2/4mm

2007

"Clicky"

Cherry

White

2/4mm

aka "Chinese White"

Cherry

Black

60g

Linear

2/4mm

1984

Stiff, for technical use rather than typing

Cherry

Green

80g

Tactile

2/4mm

Stiffer Blue, spacebar

Cherry

Clear

65g

Tactile

2/4mm

Stiffer Brown, spacebar

Cherry

Grey

80g

Stiffer Clear, spacebar

Cherry

Dark Grey

80g

Linear

2/4mm

Stiffer Black, spacebar

Cherry

Super Black

150g

Linear

2/4mm

Extra stiff Black, spacebar

Gateron

Green

80g

Tactile

"Clicky"

Gateron

Blue

60g

Tactile

"Clicky"

Gateron

Black

50g

Linear

Gateron

Yellow

50g

Linear

Gateron

Red

45g

Linear

Gateron

Clear

35g

Linear

Kailh

White

50g

Tactile

Kailh

Brown

50g

Tactile

Kailh

Blue

50g

Tactile

Kailh

Red

45g

Linear

Kailh

Black

60g

Linear

Kailh

Gold

60g

Tactile

1.1/3.6mm

Kailh

Silver

40g

Linear

1.4/3.6mm

Kailh

Copper

50g

Tactile

1.1/3.6mm

Kailh

Bronze

60g

Linear

1.1/3.6mm

Kailh

Purple

50g

Tactile

1.7/3.6mm

Kailh

Green

50g

Tactile

1.7/3.6mm

Kailh

Burgundy

50g

Linear

1.7/3.6mm

The key caps are the things between the switches that you physically touch with your fingers. You can get replacement key caps to better suit your ergonomic preferences or color highlighting requirements. You may see keycaps made of ABS plastic or PBT which is another type of plastic Polybutylene terephthalate. PBT may be better for outdoor applications as ABS does degrade in UV (this SD company should know).

  • This company is serious about serious keyboards: https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/

  • Tom’s HW on mechanical switches

  • Reddit MechanicalKeyboards

  • This one is not mechanical, but I like it for harsh conditions - I use it while boating and it has taken severe punishment. Integrated trackball is helpful when such input can not be avoided.

  • I use this one and it has held up well. The key placement of the tilde and backtick is ugly for Unix people but I do like how easy this keyboard is to clean.

  • I’ve been using these since 2014.

  • Before that I had several Happy Hacking keyboards. I like both of these options but the HHKB eventually started to fail. I feel like the HHKB is more about a blank keycap gimmick than switch feel. If that keyboard let me hardware redefine all keysyms, I’d pay whatever it cost. But to just tepidly allow a few arbitrary key remappings is not enough. The big reason to endorse the HHKB is that they label the control key Control (or blank but in the right place) instead of "Caps Lock" which we all know is an abomination.

  • An interesting and rather comprehensive guide to keyboard layouts.

  • Good source of keyboard resources.

Example Builds

My Workstation

Motherboard: MSI - H55M-E33, Socket: LGA 1156 (only USB 2, so dreadfully slow with any USB stuff like web cams) CPU: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 870 @ 2.93GHz Memory: 12GB SDRAM - DIMM1 4096, DIMM2 2048, DIMM3 4096, DIMM4 2048 - 1333 MT/s Form Factor: M-ATX Power ATX 24-Pin + 4-Pin12V 1000Mb/s PCI: PCI-EX16 (1), PCI-E GEN Gen2(1x16), PCI-EX1 Gen1(2),PCI 1

voyage.auto Autonomous Car

Interesting Example Build: "The brains behind Homer, the first self driving taxi at Voyage, is a Gigabyte AORUS motherboard with an Intel Core i7–7700K Kaby Lake Quad-Core 2.4GHz [sic, 4.2GHz] processor and NVIDIA Titan X GPU. To make sure sensors have an ample data pipe, the machine has 64GB of RAM and 3TB of mass storage distributed across three Solid State Drives for redundancy." - CPU= 310 - Mobo= 160 - RAM= 560 - GPU= 1200 - TOTAL= At least $2200

Compare with Stanley’s QTY(6) 1.6GHz Pentium PCs. Or Junior’s (2) Intel quad core machines.

Cryo-electron Microscopy