[bernardolk]

Hello there! This is my first post, and i appreciate that you are giving a little of your valuable time to answer my problems.
I currently have a modest/old home PC that i want to invest a (very) little to make it more CFD-friendly.
The specs are:

Geforce GTX 460 Se - for graphics
i5 760 - 2.8 Ghz
4Gb RAM 1333MHz (what a joke)
2Tb HD storage
Gigabyte H55M-S2 motherboard - (1333Hz RAM cap and two slots, no SATA III, no 3.0 USB)

So, as storage goes, everything is fine. I was thinking of buying an SSD to speed everyday things up, but will it make a difference on Ansys? (considering something more than just startup time)

I'm planning getting a new motherboard that supports at least 1866MHz and getting 2x8gb RAM as well. The fact is that prices scale really fast here in Brazil. I would end my budget fast choosing a 2x8gb 2400 MHz kit and a new motherboard to even support it.
With that money i could choose 2x8 1866MHz + new motherboard + 128gb Sandisk SSD instead.
Consider that i'm NOT making a 'workstation', i'm trying to conciliate a regular home machine with a ansys supportable machine. I will note make huge simulations(my university workstations can be used for that if i really need) i'm going to simulate things like a wind tunnel, coolers and other not so crazy-geometry projects. I just don't want to spend money on something that still is going to make me wait 2 days to do even that.

The question is: My budget is low, so should i even bother buying all this RAM if i still going to have that i5 760 processor?
I'm going to buy a new motherboard anyway: USB 3.0, SATA III and higher RAM frequency cap are very attractive upgrades.

So, what you guys think? Will the 16gb 1866MHz RAM and i5 760 processor make me look like a bad bad joke or will it do OK on not so problematic geometries?

Thank you a lot!

[flotus1]

Upgrading with a SSD is always worth the money, even if the motherboard only has SATA 2 support.
Apart from that, I dont think spending money to upgrade your old computer will pay off. Unless you can get a motherboard for around 15$ to support faster RAM (keep in mind the memory controller on the CPU officially supports only 1333MHz) it is just not worth it. Make sure you have dual-channel memory enabled and enough total memory for your simulations.

[scipy]

Your current motherboard supports up to 16 GB of DDR3 and can go up to 1666 MHz (overclocked). If you were to get a new motherboard you could go up to 1866 MHz on the RAM but that would most likely require that you overclock the CPU (since these old models require a raise in BLCK and voltage to work with higher frequency memory clocks). IMHO, all of that is a waste of money.

As far as your question about the SSD goes.. No, it will not improve anything much in CFD except loading times and saving/writing case and data files. CFD almost exclusively takes place in the RAM. That said, I cannot imagine a life without a SSD and you should really get one (it brings any old PC back to life).

All of that said, this is what I would do if I were in your place (two options):

1. The better option: sell this whole PC into parts (prolly get more money like that, at least that's the case in my country) or at least the mbo/cpu/ram. If you are not playing any games you don't even need the GTX 460. It won't be any faster than new onboard graphics of the current generation i5's for CFD (since you still mostly need OpenGL graphics for all the vector crap and not Direct3D). So, sell the mbo/ram/cpu/gpu and buy yourself a recent generation i5 (latest is the i5-6500 series with some DDR4 2x8GB and a nice cheap H110 or H170 chipset motherboard with 2 DIMM slots). You could, however, potentially get your hands on a nice socket 1150 i5 like a i5-4590 if you need to go the DDR3 way. Just get a locked multiplier CPU, H chipset motherboard with 2 DIMMs and again 2x8 GB RAM (the faster the better).

2. The worse option: don't change your current MBO as it will support 1600 MHz DDR3 and that's all you need. Just buy a SSD and 2x8GB of 1600 MHz RAM, or, you could get a 1866 MHz RAM because it might work at tighter CL timings at 1600 MHz. For example, if you have DDR3-1600 9-9-9-24 and for a similar price you can get DDR3-1866 9-9-9-24 you should get that because in the end that RAM will work at DD3-1600 8-8-8-21 and that's more than half way towards the 1866 speed (I tested all this and it is a noticeable difference in iteration times). In fact, you could overclock your current CPU with your motherboard and this 1866 MHz RAM to get a nearly ~20% performance bump overall.

[bernardolk]

Thank you for your answers.

Indeed, getting a new machine would be a nice option but i'm afraid this is not going to payoff anyway: My price would have to be really low to attract any buyer (i tryed to sell it a while ago already). Piece by piece selling is an option, but i still think that replacing everything will take a lot more cost, even with the money i'll get from selling the old one.
So, i was told that there would be no real problem on overclocking the processor to use 1866MHz RAM as it probably would remain stable. Will this damage the processor anyway at long terms? I suppose it will at least heat up more, right? I was searching for motherboards and it seems they arent making LGA 1156 sockets anymore. Maybe that's a dead end for my CPU.

I really wanted to get a 4 slot RAM motherboard with SATA 3, so i could invest on more RAM in the future if needed. But that seems impossible without replacing the CPU...

[scipy]

For your 4 cores of the old i5, 16 GB RAM is more than you need. Fact of the matter is, you should aim to have around 2-4 GB per cpu core, otherwise even though you can fit your problem inside the RAM (mesh size/cell count) it will take an extraordinarily long time to solve anything like that.

As far as CPU overclocking goes, you can get the needed overclock to be at 1866 MHz DDR3 speed even on the Intel's box/stock cooler. It should be stable and run without problems. Since your pc is several years old, it might be a good idea to remove the old thermal paste and apply a new layer (but a very thin one!) and same thing applies to keeping your fan and cooler dust free (same with the PC case).

This is the best option for you... Keep the current setup with some more RAM and OC to your liking/ability. I've googled and there's a whole bunch of topics on overclockers/tom's hardware/anandtech on your setup (pretty much same cpu and motherboard combination). And get a SSD.

[bernardolk]

Alright, so 8gb should be OK for that CPU? I already have a 4gb DDR3 1333Hz stick, so i shall get another one like this. I will try to get the same brand to avoid system instabilities, but i guess this won't matter as i'm not going for 100% efficiency.
Since my CPU limits my RAM capacity that much, and considering everything else, i think i will invest in a SSD + 4gb RAM stick. I will study getting a new GPU for gaming as this is just half the budget i have for the upgrade anyways.

Any more commentary about parts or any complementary advice is apreciated. You guys helped me a lot already, thanks!

[scipy]

Hmm, you need to consider that the operating system, the usual programs and services and let's say a few instances of a browser can eat up 3-4 GB no problem. And if by any chance you want to run a case in the background on 3 cores and use the remaining core to post process or pre process a new case, it'd be much better to have more RAM (16 GB overall). With 16 GB you should be able to run some decent cell counts with reasonable time frames (let's say 2-4 million cells depending on the solver, the accuracy etc. within a few hours of solve time).