$4K CAD workstations

[da na]

Budget (including currency): $3500-4000 USD

Country: US

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Unreal Engine 4/5, Unity, Godot, Maya, Autodesk 3DS, Choregraphe

Other details: Upgrading from Ryzen 3600/GTX1070/16GB RAM workstations. 

 

I've been tasked with assembling four $4,000 workstations for a school game design course. I'm well aware that this price is absolutely ludicrously overkill. (4K per, not for all four.)

Was thinking of a Ryzen 7800x3D and RTX 4080 TI with 64 GB RAM, and a workstation-class motherboard. No RGB etc. 1TB-2TB of NVMe storage should suffice. 

A rather plain case with a lot of vents is preferable. Corsair 4000D Airflow comes to mind, I know Fractal has some nice function-focused high airflow cases too - the case just can't be too massive. Height is less of an issue, any ATX case should be fine but the workstations this system is replacing are almost twice the width of most ATX cases for ...some reason, which makes them remarkably unwieldy. 

I have very little knowledge of hardware from after 2010 though so I want to triple check to make sure these workstations will be solid. 

 

[ThePCNerd129]

With that budget you might want an i9 14900k and dual 40 series gpus.

[da na]

4 minutes ago, ThePCNerd129 said:

With that budget you might want an i9 14900k and dual 40 series gpus.

Dual 40 series GPUs are pointless, no? No NVLink.....

[Shimejii]

id prob go 7950x. Since its a workstation rather then a pure gaming system. Dont need a workstation class Mobo, just one with exactly what you need with a 10Gbe integrated and the amount of USB ports.

 

You could  go 14900k, but expect it to also need a slightly bigger case and some tuning. 360mm AIO minimum.

4080ti doesnt exist o.o did you mean 4080/4080Super?

 

Case wise you can easily just get an ATX board and case, you dont need a super large case for this.

[da na]

4 minutes ago, Shimejii said:

id prob go 7950x. Since its a workstation rather then a pure gaming system. Dont need a workstation class Mobo, just one with exactly what you need with a 10Gbe integrated and the amount of USB ports.

 

You could  go 14900k, but expect it to also need a slightly bigger case and some tuning. 360mm AIO minimum.

4080ti doesnt exist o.o did you mean 4080/4080Super?

 

Case wise you can easily just get an ATX board and case, you dont need a super large case for this.

Apologies, 4080 Super. See, I really don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Thanks for the 7950X suggestion. 10GBe is absolutely not a requirement since the building is still on gigabit and will be for a long time, I'll shoot for 2.5gbe though. And I'll stick with a workstation board for reliability.

[Shimejii]

7 minutes ago, da na said:

Apologies, 4080 Super. See, I really don't know what I'm talking about.

 

Thanks for the 7950X suggestion. 10GBe is absolutely not a requirement since the building is still on gigabit and will be for a long time, I'll shoot for 2.5gbe though. And I'll stick with a workstation board for reliability.

They are no more reliable then normal boards. That isnt really a thing with motherboards for consumers. Its usually just the USB and 10 GBe that makes them "workstation". Not anything to do with reliability.

[Why_Me]

The X3D cpu's are not meant for productivity ... google the benchmarks. 500GB for your o/s, 4TB for storage.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: *Intel Core i7-14700 2.1 GHz 20-Core Processor  ($399.99 @ Amazon) 
CPU Cooler: *ARCTIC Liquid Freezer III 72.8 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler  ($98.55 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: *Gigabyte Z790 AERO G ATX LGA1700 Motherboard  ($269.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: *G.Skill Ripjaws S5 64 GB (2 x 32 GB) DDR5-6000 CL30 Memory  ($199.99 @ Newegg) 
Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($47.98 @ GameStop) 
Storage: *Samsung 990 Pro 4 TB M.2-2280 PCIe 4.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($319.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: *MSI EXPERT GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER 16 GB Video Card  ($1169.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: *Lian Li LANCOOL III ATX Mid Tower Case  ($144.99 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Power Supply: *be quiet! Pure Power 12 M 1000 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply  ($129.90 @ Amazon) 
Total: $2781.37
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2024-02-24 18:45 EST-0500

 

A better look at those components.

 

https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/Z790-AERO-G-rev-10#kf

 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/236781/intel-core-i7-processor-14700-33m-cache-up-to-5-40-ghz/specifications.html  

 

https://www.arctic.de/us/Liquid-Freezer-III-420/ACFRE00137A

 

https://www.gskill.com/product/165/377/1649234605/F5-6000J3040G32GX2-RS5K-F5-6000J3040G32GA2-RS5K

 

https://www.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-RTX-4080-SUPER-16G-EXPERT  

 

https://www.bequiet.com/en/powersupply/4161 

 

https://lian-li.com/product/lancool-iii/  

 

 

[podkall]

55 minutes ago, da na said:

(4K per, not for all four.)

yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

55 minutes ago, da na said:

Was thinking of a Ryzen 7800x3D and RTX 4080 TI with 64 GB RAM, and a workstation-class motherboard. No RGB etc. 1TB-2TB of NVMe storage should suffice.

idk how well each program takes advantage of the 3D cache, Intel's better here, or AMDs with many cores

 

15 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

Storage: *Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500 GB M.2-2280 PCIe 3.0 X4 NVME Solid State Drive  ($47.98 @ GameStop)

is this supposed to be a boot drive, or did you forget to remove it?

[Why_Me]

2 minutes ago, podkall said:

is this supposed to be a boot drive, or did you forget to remove it?

You quoted the answer to your question. 500GB for the o/s, 4TB for storage. Full reinstall and you don't lose any data.

[podkall]

3 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

You quoted the answer to your question. 500GB for the o/s, 4TB for storage. Full reinstall and you don't lose any data.

ah, makes sense, yes, good build btw

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

15 minutes ago, da na said:

10GBe is absolutely not a requirement since the building is still on gigabit and will be for a long time, I'll shoot for 2.5gbe though

PCIE Network cards are cheap (e.g Iocrest). 1 gbe wouldn't be a deal breaker if it is noticeable lower cost.

If you want to spend on a mainboard checkout Asrock RACK, Gigabyte server or Supermicro. Most of the consumer "pro", "workstation", "creator" are nothing more than marketing and a motherboard for half the price is in similar quality and features.

 

 

 

On topic what $3.9k looks like:

random $250 mainboard as baseline, "random" useable 4TB SSD, random 128G RAM,  incl. W11 pro licence, the 4000D you mentioned for reference.

 

Instead of Corsair 4000D you could "downgrade" some parts (e.g. 2TB SSD) and get a watercooled 4090 with an ITX enclosure like the CoolerMaster NR200P (not the best quality but cheap and fit's a large air cooler like the Scythe Ninja 5; 280mm radiator and ATX-PSUs). Depending on the room/office this could improve the aesthetics. Let's it look clean with tiny PCs instead of large towers.

 

 

 

@Why_Me I wouldn't deploy any Samsung SSDs. Ensuring that critical firmware updates will be installed is a nightmare and Samsung SSD have developed a bad track record of being problematic.

[da na]

38 minutes ago, FlyingPotato_is_taken said:

PCIE Network cards are cheap (e.g Iocrest). 1 gbe wouldn't be a deal breaker if it is noticeable lower cost.

If you want to spend on a mainboard checkout Asrock RACK, Gigabyte server or Supermicro. Most of the consumer "pro", "workstation", "creator" are nothing more than marketing and a motherboard for half the price is in similar quality and features.

 

 

 

On topic what $3.9k looks like:

random $250 mainboard as baseline, "random" useable 4TB SSD, random 128G RAM,  incl. W11 pro licence, the 4000D you mentioned for reference.

 

Instead of Corsair 4000D you could "downgrade" some parts (e.g. 2TB SSD) and get a watercooled 4090 with an ITX enclosure like the CoolerMaster NR200P (not the best quality but cheap and fit's a large air cooler like the Scythe Ninja 5; 280mm radiator and ATX-PSUs). Depending on the room/office this could improve the aesthetics. Let's it look clean with tiny PCs instead of large towers.

 

 

 

@Why_Me I wouldn't deploy any Samsung SSDs. Ensuring that critical firmware updates will be installed is a nightmare and Samsung SSD have developed a bad track record of being problematic.

Great, thanks for the suggestion. Probably going with 7950X3D, NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 4, 4x32GB, EVGA RTX 3090. Need the VRAM more than horsepower.

[Why_Me]

25 minutes ago, da na said:

Great, thanks for the suggestion. Probably going with 7950X3D, NH-D15 or Dark Rock Pro 4, 4x32GB, EVGA RTX 3090. Need the VRAM more than horsepower.

I'll say it for the last time. The x3D cpu's are not meant for productivity. They are great at gaming and that's where it begins and ends. Do some homework and Google the benchmarks. Your school trusted you to get the most for the money in regards to the programs you posted in the OP. 

 

[da na]

1 minute ago, Why_Me said:

I'll say it for the last time. The x3D cpu's are not meant for productivity. They are great at gaming and that's where it begins and ends. Do some homework and Google the benchmarks. Your school trusted you to get the most for the money in regards to the programs you posted in the OP. 

 

and t

Others suggested the 7950x (non-3D), how can the extra cache be worse? Genuinely asking. 

[Why_Me]

18 minutes ago, da na said:

Others suggested the 7950x (non-3D), how can the extra cache be worse? Genuinely asking. 

Stacking cache has its limits. As far as the 7950x being recommended ... that's not a bad cpu even though the scheduler can be buggy on those cpu's at times. 

[da na]

2 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

AMD is all most of the posters on this board know

I'm a bit reluctant to go with AMD myself as every single CPU of theirs I've owned has been the scummiest filth imaginable, but on the contrary I've heard of contact issues with Intel's new socket.

4 minutes ago, Why_Me said:

the result of AMD stacking cache

Now I see it's due to communication between the cache chips. I thought until now the cache was just one big block. Makes quite a lot more sense now...

[da na]

Also this thread

kinda scared me off Intel - if UE games are evidently having issues with high end Intel CPUs it does not seem like a great plan to use the same chip for development. 

[Dabombinable]

17 minutes ago, da na said:

Also this thread

kinda scared me off Intel - if UE games are evidently having issues with high end Intel CPUs it does not seem like a great plan to use the same chip for development. 

You can also shop around for consumer AM5 boards that support ECC RAM - something that Intel has never and will never have on consumer platforms due to how much they make off their Xeon lines.

[da na]

Just now, Dabombinable said:

You can also shop around for consumer AM5 boards that support ECC RAM - something that Intel has never and will never have on consumer platforms due to how much they make off their Xeon lines.

Wow, consumer AMD boards support ECC? Fascinating. 

Thanks for the tip. Will definitely be on the lookout

[Dabombinable]

26 minutes ago, da na said:

Wow, consumer AMD boards support ECC? Fascinating. 

Thanks for the tip. Will definitely be on the lookout

Even my old Gigabyte X570 UD supported ECC - and that was one if if not the cheapest ATX X570 board. My current MSI X570S board however does not, as it all depends on the manufacturer and how they tweaked the BIOS:
https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/X570-UD-rev-10#kf
 

All of my old VIA Slot 1/Socket 370/Socket 462 boards support (unbuffered) ECC as well. Only my Intel chipset boards don't.

[FlyingPotato_is_taken]

11 hours ago, da na said:

Wow, consumer AMD boards support ECC? Fascinating. 

 

Yes (only udimm) and no.

It's on the feature list but it feels like it's not tested. Similar situation with RAID.

 

If you want "server" features in a consumer mainboard I would look at Asrock. In the past they often had the best BIOS (e.g. SR-IOV, bifrucation).