Workstation for CAD/CFD/FEA - Help needed!

Greek_geek · September 30, 2014

Hello all!

I'm a senior electrical and computer engineering student, currently in my 5th year of study (in Greece engineering school lasts 5 years) and Ι recently joined the newly formed FSAE racing team (electric vehicle) of my uni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_SAE , its a competion where each student team designs, builds and tests a prototype car based on a series of rules, whose purpose is both ensuring on-track safety and promoting clever problem solving).

One of the side-tasks that i undertook, was to build a workstation for our team. The budget is 2.000 euro (aprx $2500) , but its a bit stretchable. The purpose of the workstation is to efficiently run software like Solidworks, Ansys, Nastran etc.

After a lot of research, i'm still not sure about things like the cpu and gpu. Is xeon the way to go, or a high end i7 will do the work just fine? Should we get a quadro k4000 or just a k600? Or should we just get a pre-built Dell presicion, and forget about all that?

Long story short, i've "built" several systems, all within the same price range, but with different specs. What I'd love, is if you guys take the time to check them and help me decide which is the way to go.

So here are the builts : https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WQXA7_YF8c3lCqio8pT1Wqp1iryxYTKLqbJU44L7vtQ/edit#gid=223229652 ( i have also a build thats under 1000euros, in case we want to build 2 instead of 1 workstations)

I hope its ok that i use a google spreadsheet link. I didn't use pcpartpicker.com because a) prices are diffrent here, and b)we can't shop from USA. So please focus on the parts, and if you use the links for the parts on the excel, ignore the greek mambo jambo

--------------Please read after you checked the builts----------------------------------

For the 2k price, i like the i7 5820k build more than the 4930k, mainly because of the cpu itself and the DDR4 memory. As for the beasts, im not sure. As i mentioned before, i cant really justify the use of a xeon since i can get a better (at least in my mind) cpu with the same price, if not cheaper.That's also the reason you dont see a 2k build with a xeon. So do the extra technologies implemented in the xeon (apart from the fact that you can use ECC memory) really worth it?

I also like the Overall-Normal built, but i'm not sure if the 4790k is a good cpu for a workstation.

The other question is: Quadro k4000 with 16GB ram, or Quadro k2000 with 32GB? That is for the 2k builds, both the 5820k and 4930k.

Main question is: What is the optimal trade off between: Cpu - Gpu - Ram for a budget CAD/CFD/FEA workstation?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So that is all boys and girls, and sorry for the long post! Hope to be able to decide with your help! Can't wait to get to work

PS1: Usefull link :http://ark.intel.com/compare/75269,82930,77780,80807,82932

PS2: This is my 2nd post in the forum, yeaa!! (Please be gentle )