Workstation for CAD/Videos

[tycheleto]

Hi All!

My friend asked me for some help in building a new workstation for him, and I'm not quite sure what to use because it's going to primarily be for CAD, and I'm not familiar with requirements.

 

Hope you guys can offer some advice.

Thanks!

 

1. Budget & Location

Budget is not finalized, but current estimations probably are between $1500 SGD and $3000 SGD. This includes everything(good 24" monitor, standard KB/Mouse, OS). Pretty much have zero parts to reuse.

 

Would be very helpful if you could either start with the low end of the price range or the high end, and then offer some alternatives if the budget is higher or lower respectively.

 

Just to note, $1500 to $3000 SGD translates into something like $1200 to $2400 USD, but parts are often more expensive here than in the US. In the event where some parts are really much cheaper in the US than in SG(such as in workstation GPUs which seem to cost 50% more here than at NCIX/Newegg), I may consider ordering online. Else I'd like to just buy the parts locally.

 

 

2. Aim

This system is going to be used as a workstation, there will of course be usual web browsing and day to day usage, but the main focus is in CAD work, and potentially some small amount of image/video editing in the future. He currently uses Autodesk Inventor, though it is possible he may use others such as AutoCAD/SolidWorks etc. in the future. He has also stated he might consider video editing such as After Effects.

 

He does not game at all, though it is certainly possible he plays some games on the system, though this is definitely not the main focus. He will in almost all likelihood not be playing current gen titles anyway, and can make do with a bit poorer performance in games, the workstation performance is the main focus.

 

Would be helpful if we could keep the size and weight of this system down, trying to keep it to an mITX or mATX build, as he frankly does not need that much expandability or upgradeability, and having some portability would help.

 

3. Monitors

The current plan is to get a single good 24" 1080p/1200p monitor. If we had a lot money, we would consider a 27" 1440p or even possibly an even larger 4k monitor, but I doubt that is doable since it is part of the budget right now.

 

Am currently looking at the ASUS PA248Q, and wondering what you all think of it.

 

4. Peripherals

All peripherals are needed. Probably can make do with a standard cheap KB/Mouse while he still learns his preferences. A 24" monitor is needed, and Windows too. Most likely option right now is Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, but unsure whether this should be changed as Home Premium has RAM limit and some other restrictions.

 

5. Why are you upgrading?

My friend is looking into doing more CAD and other design work for personal and school projects. He has his own sort of workshop where he builds things, again for school projects as well as for fun. However, till now he's been using a Macbook for work, and has found that his computers simply cannot even run Autodesk Inventor without crashing every few minutes.

 

As such, for a few months he's been coming over to my house to use my computer if he needs to do CAD work. My computer is not very optimized for design work(i5 2500K, GTX 560), but at least it runs what he needs for now, though it can begin to lag as the load increases.

 

The work that he does will only be increasing in complexity as time goes on, and I think there are real benefits to getting a proper workstation for his work, as he can make use of it.

 

 

 

 

So, based on the above, I came up with a few suggestions for parts, but not very familiar so nothing is finalized in any way. Comments on the parts and improvements would be great.

 

CPU: Either Intel Core i7-4770K, or an Intel Xeon of similar price, maybe even a little cheaper

 

Motherboard: Either a desktop motherboard or considering some SuperMicro motherboards, is ECC support necessary and is there a point to workstation boards?

 

RAM: 16GB of RAM (Is ECC necessary for workstations, does the speed make a real difference to CAD?)

 

SSD: 128-256GB (Final budget dependent. What SSDs are recommended right now?)

 

Secondary HDD: WD Red 2TB

 

GPU: Nvidia Quadro K600 or K2000 or AMD Firepro Equivalents(W5000 and the K600 competitor) - Also final budget dependent

 

Case: Cooler Master Elite 120/130 Advanced (Open to suggestions, chose this to keep cost and size down)

 

Monitor: AsUS PA248Q

 

 

Hope I can hear your comments and get some advice. Thanks!

[WoodenMarker]

What kind of content does he work on? Scale of projects?

[tycheleto]

What kind of content does he work on? Scale of projects?

 

As of now I have only seen him work with Autodesk Inventor, designing relatively simple projects. I believe his first main project involved a machine designed to test the strength of aluminium honeycomb, it had a swinging pendulum that would crush the honeycomb, and probably had between 20 and 50 individual parts. He's now working on a bench that will probably have 10+ individual parts when all is done.

 

Having known him for a while though, I do believe that he is going to move on to more complex designs quickly,and so it would be good to give some extra headroom. I think the goal is to make a system that will last a good few years at least, and be able to at least run all the necessary programs. If some of the renders end up a bit slower, he can probably live with it.

[WoodenMarker]

I'd recommend something like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HNal

As for the monitor and gpu, a k2000 and the PA panel you chose would be good. I don't think 1440p or 10 bit are necessary though.

[tycheleto]

I'd recommend something like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2HNal

As for the monitor and gpu, a k2000 and the PA panel you chose would be good. I don't think 1440p or 10 bit are necessary though.

 

Thanks for taking the time to spec out a full system.

 

Are you aware if LGA 2011 provides much better performance? Are the CAD programs I mentioned more CPU limited or GPU limited?

 

Also, are there any benefits to going with a Xeon, supermicro MB and ECC RAM, as opposed to the desktop class components?

 

Lastly, are there any performance benefits in Windows 8.1? Windows 7 might prove to be a nicer experience.

[WoodenMarker]

Thanks for taking the time to spec out a full system.

Are you aware if LGA 2011 provides much better performance? Are the CAD programs I mentioned more CPU limited or GPU limited?

Also, are there any benefits to going with a Xeon, supermicro MB and ECC RAM, as opposed to the desktop class components?

Lastly, are there any performance benefits in Windows 8.1? Windows 7 might prove to be a nicer experience.

The platform itself for 2011 doesn't affect performance but the motherboards are better built and the 4930k will outperform anything on the 1150 socket with 6 cores and 12 threads. 

3D work is generally cpu bound unless you're using the gpu for more specific tasks like with iRay for rendering, rough hardware rendering, and some simulations.

The gpu is generally just used to render the view port.

 

ECC ram is useful if you're doing long renders and can't have the system crash while doing so.

Windows 8.1 is just better in pretty much every way than 7. If it interrupts with workflow, that is when you'd want to stick with what you're used to. It also doesn't have the 16GB cap of Home Premium.

[tycheleto]

The platform itself for 2011 doesn't affect performance but the motherboards are better built and the 4930k will outperform anything on the 1150 socket with 6 cores and 12 threads. 

3D work is generally cpu bound unless you're using the gpu for more specific tasks like with iRay for rendering, rough hardware rendering, and some simulations.

The gpu is generally just used to render the view port.

 

ECC ram is useful if you're doing long renders and can't have the system crash while doing so.

Windows 8.1 is just better in pretty much every way than 7. If it interrupts with workflow, that is when you'd want to stick with what you're used to. It also doesn't have the 16GB cap of Home Premium.

 

Thanks for the clarifications. I think it's safe to go with non-ECC RAM and Windows 8.1 in this case. The only thing I'd need to check on is the CPU/MB as it does cost a bit more locally and may be tough to fit in budget.