[migmolper]

Hi all,
I'm a recently graduated civil engineer and the next year I'm going to start a master in fluids mechanics, so I want to buy a new computer to use it for CFD. Right now my computer is an Acer laptop (2012) with Ubuntu 16.0 LTS. It has a i5 processor, 8 Gb of RAM, and his fan is broken, so it's really slow, so I'm going to buy a faster computer. I usually work with ANSYS Fluent, Gerris, Basilisk and MIKE21 for enviromental fluids mechanics. The number of cells I use is about 3 or 4 million. Taking all of these in to acount I designed a workstation with the following spec (Budget around 1500-2000 €):

Case :
Thermaltake New Soprano (146€)
Fractal Design Define R5 Black Pearl (120€)


Placa madre :
ASUS X99-DELUXE II (426,94€)
ASUS X99-PRO (340€)

CPU :
Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-Core 3.5GHz LGA 2011-v3 140W Desktop Processor BX80648I75930K (1069,46€)
Intel Core i7-6800K Processor (15M Cache, up to 3.60 GHz) FC-LGA14A 3.4 6 BX80671I76800K (476,17€)

CPU Fan :
NOCTUA NH-D15 (98€)

GPU :
ASUS NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 Graphics Card (206€)
Gygabyte GTX 970 G1 (318€)

RAM :
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2666MHz (PC4-21300) (187€)

SSD :
Samsung 850 PRO MZ-7KE128BW - 128 GB - SATA 6Gb/S (134€)

HDD :
WD Blue WD10EZEX 1 Tb (53€)

Power Supply :
Corsair 850i RM (155€)


Could someone confirm that all the components for this workstation are compatible for linux ubuntu and of corse any suggestion will be apreciated.

Cheers

[flotus1]

Case: I would recommend the R5 since it uses 140mm Fans and is cheaper.
Motherboard: Both are pretty expensive. Unless you need a specific feature of these boards, go with the Asus X99-E or X99-A II.
CPU: the price you quoted for the i7-5930K must be an error. It should be somewhere around 600€. However, it has no advantage for your setup so better get the newer I7-6800k.
CPU Cooler: excellent choice
GPU: a GTX 960 is definitely the better choice. Get one with 4GB of memory.
RAM: Use 4 DIMMs to make use of the quad-channel interface. Get DDR4-3000 or faster. 32GB in total should be enough.
SSD: for the same amount of money, you should get the 250GB version of the Samsung 850 Evo which will do just fine.
HDD: In my opinion 2TB is the minimum capacity for a new HDD. The price/capacity ratio is much better.
PSU: The system will draw 300W peak. Maybe you can get it near 400W with some advanced overclocking. I would recommend a BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 550W.

Linux support of these components should not be an issue.

[migmolper]

Great advices alex ! I will buy the motherboard that you recommend me, the Asus X99-A II . What is the cpu that you recommend me arround 600€? May be the i7-6800K or i7-6850K ? What do you think?

[flotus1]

The only advantage of the I7-6850k over the I7-6800k are 12 additional PCIe-lanes which you don't need. So get the I7-6800k. There is no better CPU for 600€.

[migmolper]

Thanks you alex for your advices, they has been very usefull

So the final design of the computer is:

Case : Fractal Design Define R5 Black Pearl (120€)
Motherboard : ASUS X99-A II (295€)
CPU : Intel i7 6800-k (476,17€)
CPU Cooler : NOCTUA NH-D15 (98€)
GPU : GTX 970 G1 4Gb (314€)
RAM : Corsair Dominator Platinum Series 32 Gb DDR4 3000 MHZ (276.4€)
SSD : Samsung 850 Pro - SSD (256 Gb, 550 MB/s, 2.5'') (123 €)
HDD : Samsumg ST2000LM003 2Tb 2.5'', 5400rpm (108.8€)
PSU : BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 610W (152.4€)
Final price : 1964 €

I think that all is ok, what do you think about it ? Some clarification ?

[flotus1]

That RAM is way too expensive. I found some DDR4-3000 kits starting at 150€.
The GTX 970 really is not worth the extra money. If you want to game on your workstation, get a GTX 1060 (6GB) instead. For a normal workstation, a GTX 960 with 4GB VRAM is more than sufficient. And I am not sure how well linux drivers deal with the segmented memory of the GTX 970...
There has never been a BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 10 with 610W. The current version is the P11.

Is computer hardware generally pricey in your country? The prices are around 20% higher than in germany.

[migmolper]

I've done all the modifications in the list. Do you say that the price range of the components are more expensive than in germany ? i don't know, i'm seeing the prices in amazon spain, maybe I can find more competitive prices looking at other stores. Thank for sharing with me your knowledge. it's the first time that I mount a computer by myself and I'm a little bit lost

Case : Fractal Design Define R5 Black Pearl (120€)
Motherboard : ASUS X99-A II (295€)
CPU : Intel i7 6800-k (476,17€)
CPU Cooler : NOCTUA NH-D15 (98€)
GPU : GTX 960 G1 4Gb (282,65€)
RAM : Corsair VEngeance LPX 32 Gb (4X8 Gb) DDR4 3000 MHZ (206€)
SSD : Samsung 850 Pro - SSD (256 Gb, 550 MB/s, 2.5'') (123 €)
HDD : Samsumg ST2000LM003 2Tb 2.5'', 5400rpm (108.8€)
PSU : BeQuiet Dark Power Pro 11 550W (164.75€)
Final price : 1874 €

Cheers

[flotus1]

I sent you a PM