Hardware Recommendations - Chess Analysis

[CornfedForever]

Would the following Pre-built (not really interested in 'building my own') be good for chess work which mainly includes:

1. Checking multiple positions/games and particularly opening files (back to front) over an extended time...say all day or overnight with 2- 4 engines like Stockfish or Komodo / Dragon (if I re-subscribe), sometimes simultaneously. Deep analysis, basically and sometimes I use Aquarium...but much prefer Chessbase and some other tools because they are easier to use and more...'fun'.

2. Lots of database work/searches within Chessbase - hence the desire to go from my old 16 gb RAM to 32 gb as even with a decent but older processor the system seemed at times to get taxed too much.

3.Occasional (perhaps rarely) engine vs engine matches or playing out of set opening positions (Monte Carlo).

4. Low to Moderate gaming....really do not intend on doing a much at the moment but perhaps more when I retire. I had been looking at a RTX 3060 Ti as it is the lower end of the RTX cards offering ray tracing.

If you have suggestions, that would be appreciated as well. $2000 max would be what I would want to spend. I was looking today at this:

Alienware Aurora Ryzen™ Edition R10 Gaming Desktop | Dell USA | Member Purchase Program

Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop

Processor
AMD® Ryzen™ 9 5900 (70 MB total cache, 12 cores, 24 threads, up to 4.70 GHz Max Boost Clock)

Operating System
Windows 11 Home, English

Video Card
AMD® Radeon™ RX 6700 XT, 12 GB GDDR6

Hard Drive
1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

Memory
32 GB, 2 x 16 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz, XMP

[Ras]

Alienware Aurora R10

You better take a very close look at what exactly you buy, given the total garbage that Dell has put out in the Alienware line:




Ideally, you build the system yourself so that nobody can pull a fast one on you. Prebuilts generally suck because they are geared towards people who don't really know about PCs, but that audience is also easiest to dupe in order to rake in more profit - as exemplified by Dell.

[Magnum]

Would the following Pre-built (not really interested in 'building my own') be good for chess work which mainly includes:

1. Checking multiple positions/games and particularly opening files (back to front) over an extended time...say all day or overnight with 2- 4 engines like Stockfish or Komodo / Dragon (if I re-subscribe), sometimes simultaneously. Deep analysis, basically and sometimes I use Aquarium...but much prefer Chessbase and some other tools because they are easier to use and more...'fun'.

2. Lots of database work/searches within Chessbase - hence the desire to go from my old 16 gb RAM to 32 gb as even with a decent but older processor the system seemed at times to get taxed too much.

3.Occasional (perhaps rarely) engine vs engine matches or playing out of set opening positions (Monte Carlo).

4. Low to Moderate gaming....really do not intend on doing a much at the moment but perhaps more when I retire. I had been looking at a RTX 3060 Ti as it is the lower end of the RTX cards offering ray tracing.

If you have suggestions, that would be appreciated as well. $2000 max would be what I would want to spend. I was looking today at this:

Alienware Aurora Ryzen™ Edition R10 Gaming Desktop | Dell USA | Member Purchase Program

Alienware Aurora R10 Gaming Desktop

Processor
AMD® Ryzen™ 9 5900 (70 MB total cache, 12 cores, 24 threads, up to 4.70 GHz Max Boost Clock)

Operating System
Windows 11 Home, English

Video Card
AMD® Radeon™ RX 6700 XT, 12 GB GDDR6

Hard Drive
1 TB, M.2, PCIe NVMe, SSD

Memory
32 GB, 2 x 16 GB, DDR4, 3200 MHz, XMP

https://www.apple.com/mac/

[smatovic]

Another point in buying HP/Dell/Lenovo is that they tend to use non-standard parts (PSU, MOBO, case), I agree with Rasmus, better build your own rig, or find a system-builder (standard-parts) you can trust.

--
Srdja

[CornfedForever]

Alienware Aurora R10

You better take a very close look at what exactly you buy, given the total garbage that Dell has put out in the Alienware line:




Ideally, you build the system yourself so that nobody can pull a fast one on you. Prebuilts generally suck because they are geared towards people who don't really know about PCs, but that audience is also easiest to dupe in order to rake in more profit - as exemplified by Dell.

Expected words...

Look guys, forget the specific Dell PC - what I am interested in is the components (I simply found the AMD processor and pecs in Alienware PC). The subject line says it all: HARDWARE RECOMMENDATIONS for CHESS ANALYSIS.
Actual suggestions welcome.

[Ras]

Actual suggestions welcome.

For $2000, you could get this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9Ldnd9
Or, if you only intend to game in 1080p anyway, save some money on the GPU: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/T6Nnd9
(Disregard the cooler compatibility warning - it has had the AM4 mounting kit included since 2019.)

That's assuming that you are not interested in Lc0 for chess. If you were, you'd need a beefy Nvidia card like 3080 or 3080 Ti, but that alone is around $1000+. The case is largely down to taste and whether you might want to fit a DVD/Blueray drive - just make sure that it has a proper mesh front for air intake instead of a massive wall. Front glass walls are rampant with cases these days.

[CornfedForever]

Actual suggestions welcome.

For $2000, you could get this: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/9Ldnd9
Or, if you only intend to game in 1080p anyway, save some money on the GPU: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/T6Nnd9
(Disregard the cooler compatibility warning - it has had the AM4 mounting kit included since 2019.)

That's assuming that you are not interested in Lc0 for chess. If you were, you'd need a beefy Nvidia card like 3080 or 3080 Ti, but that alone is around $1000+. The case is largely down to taste and whether you might want to fit a DVD/Blueray drive - just make sure that it has a proper mesh front for air intake instead of a massive wall. Front glass walls are rampant with cases these days.

No interest in Lc0
'blue ray drives', GPU...really don't pertain to chess analysis.

Could you suggest various good configurations...CPU'S mainly and why. That's obviously the most important thing. Type/speed of RAM (does it matter). Yes, the case is important - particularly if the CPU gives off a lot of heat at extended peak load....type of fan/cooling for a CPU that might need it, etc.

Oh, and that Phanteks case you show - I think I read a very good review of it...haven't see it in any site that assembles your choices yet though...

[Ras]

'blue ray drives', GPU...really don't pertain to chess analysis.

If you don't want to spend more than $2000 on the whole PC, showing good example configs like I did also reveals whether the overall system will stay within your budget.

Could you suggest various good configurations...CPU'S mainly and why. That's obviously the most important thing.

That's the 5950X for now, unless financial constraints force you down to a 5900X. Intel's main attractive offers right now aren't in the high end, but the mid range like 12400 series. The 12900K has not only the power draw issue, but you also don't really want the efficiency cores for chess. Not only that they split the computing power more than avoidable for single engine position analysis, you also won't want them in an engine tournament. But if you deactivate them and go with the performance cores only, which you can do in the BIOS, you'll effectively end up with an octacore that cannot rival the 5950X.

[CornfedForever]

'blue ray drives', GPU...really don't pertain to chess analysis.

If you don't want to spend more than $2000 on the whole PC, showing good example configs like I did also reveals whether the overall system will stay within your budget.

Could you suggest various good configurations...CPU'S mainly and why. That's obviously the most important thing.

That's the 5950X for now, unless financial constraints force you down to a 5900X. Intel's main attractive offers right now aren't in the high end, but the mid range like 12400 series. The 12900K has not only the power draw issue, but you also don't really want the efficiency cores for chess. Not only that they split the computing power more than avoidable for single engine position analysis, you also won't want them in an engine tournament. But if you deactivate them and go with the performance cores only, which you can do in the BIOS, you'll effectively end up with an octacore that cannot rival the 5950X.

Thanks for the point about the 5950X. The only Intel CPU I was really looking at was one of the flavors of the i7-12700 - very close to the 12900 in performance/specs and at a cheaper price.

I had not considered the Sapphire video cards. I might be able to look up some comparisons online but they seem a bit more expensive (as I remember) than the RTX 3060 Ti I was looking into.

[Ras]

The only Intel CPU I was really looking at was one of the flavors of the i7-12700 - very close to the 12900 in performance/specs and at a cheaper price.

You'd still have to think about how to deal with the efficiency cores, which the 12700K has four of, and it still would then be like an octacore. It's not the best you can buy in a $2000 system.

I had not considered the Sapphire video cards. I might be able to look up some comparisons online but they seem a bit more expensive (as I remember) than the RTX 3060 Ti I was looking into.

Yes, the Nitro is Sapphire's high end series, and their equivalent Pulse models would cost less. However, you also get decent quality. For example, the cooler in the 6650 XT is redesigned and pretty large. All modern cards switch off their fans for desktop usage, i.e. when not gaming, but these Sapphire cards stay pretty quiet even when gaming. I myself actually have the Sapphire Nitro+ RX 6650 XT for that reason.

The Nitro series also offers clip-on fans: the one thing that is most likely to fail in a GPU are the fans because they are mechanical parts. With the Nitro 6650 XT, you loose one screw and clip off the fan - without disassembling anything else. Then you can get a new fan from Sapphire without sending in the whole card. The Nitro also has two different BIOS that you can select either via a Sapphire provided Windows software or via a switch on the card. One is more performance, the other more quiet. The larger Nitros, 6750 and above, instead offer a normal BIOS and an overclocked one.

You mentioned raytracing, and while AMD cards do offer that in theory, that costs so much speed that it's not useful with AMD because you'd need to buy a higher AMD model to match a mid-range Nvidia one, and that becomes a cost vs. value issue against AMD. A 3060 Ti is fine in 1080p even with raytracing.