How can I buy a workstation pc and also add a good GPU ?

[Jesusisoursaviour]

I tried searching for a HP Z420 (The one which was mentioned in one of Linus tech tips videos) and Dell precision and I found literally no great options. So yea can somebody help me with this?

Also I need to buy a gpu. My max budget for a gpu is $250 Or less.

 

Thanks

Also god bless you my friend

[David A. Tatum]

Not sure about the workstation PC, but to the other question:  There's a pretty significant GPU shortage, right now.  At that budget, buying new, you MIGHT be able to find an Intel Arc B580 for sale at MSRP, if you're lucky, but even those are pretty rare right now. Used... checking a few used sites like eBay and Jawa, I'm seeing something like a 2060 or 2070 Super or an Intel Arc A770 as your best bets (all of which I'm pretty sure the B580 performs better than, but in each case it's a matter of what's available).

[Jesusisoursaviour]

10 minutes ago, David A. Tatum said:

Not sure about the workstation PC, but to the other question:  There's a pretty significant GPU shortage, right now.  At that budget, buying new, you MIGHT be able to find an Intel Arc B580 for sale at MSRP, if you're lucky, but even those are pretty rare right now. Used... checking a few used sites like eBay and Jawa, I'm seeing something like a 2060 or 2070 Super or an Intel Arc A770 as your best bets (all of which I'm pretty sure the B580 performs better than, but in each case it's a matter of what's available).

What about renewed Quadro or firepro? I need it for CAD and I believe that they perform best with softwares such as cad (also I need it for some light gaming like minecraft)

[Eigenvektor]

2 hours ago, Jesusisoursaviour said:

What about renewed Quadro or firepro? I need it for CAD and I believe that they perform best with softwares such as cad (also I need it for some light gaming like minecraft)

The main reason you might need a workstation card for CAD is because they come with certified drivers. Some software insists on that. They tend to be a little slower for gaming, because these drivers don't include game specific optimizations. Check the requirements of the specific program you're using, see if a workstation card is really a must.

[Jesusisoursaviour]

I see I mean fps don't matter that much to me. If it is running above 60 I am okay. I don't want to max out like all the graphics etc... but yeah thanks for that information 

[CDR_Xavier]

There is a extremely significant GPU shortage. I bought my Arc A750 (LE) last Summer (like July) for $230 (US). Now it's over $280, IF you can get one.

 

I mean, for the price Arc is hard to beat, especially when it comes to hardware features, if you don't care about efficiency. Don't care about what people say, they don't have the revision 10 billion driver.

 

Oh hey but the 3rd party ones are down ... sort of. ASRock have a A750 for $189.

 

And Sparkle have a B570 for $230 ... yeah.

 

7600 for like $270 sounds alright?

 

Also, WEELIAO is 200% a scalper. Do not buy from him.

 

4 hours ago, Jesusisoursaviour said:

renewed Quadro or firepro?

FirePro is the extremely old branding. They call it "Radeon Pro" now.

 

There's no real incentive to go Quadro or Firepro, unless you work on a lot of CAD. Their professional drivers also do help.

 

If you are amateur CAD, you probably don't need a GPU. Straight up. Just don't anti-alias. People have lived for so long without.

 

They have a Radeon Pro W5700 (5700xt) equivalent for like $130 on ebay. Now it's $170, but not THAT terrible a price.

And I will not consider Quadros, anything decent is so expensive.

 

What's Nvidia's equivalent of .. say, RTX 2060 (TU-104)? The RTX A4000. They go for like .. $700?!

Ok. $260. $700s are prob. scalpers.

For a 2060, which should go for like $130 used.

 

Ok maybe we didn't go old enough. How about Pascal. 1070 equivalent. Quadro P4000.

Around $170. Single slot, though. Probably runs hot as heck. Not great for longevity.

P5000 is the same stuff. Seem to go about the same price.

P2000s (GTX 1060) is .. yeah $160. Twice of 1060.

Quadros are just much more expensive. AMD's tend to just fall flat on pricing (compared to consumer cards), but Quadros hold.

 

What don't hold are "cloud" GPUs (no outputs). So, Tesla(s), Radeon Sky, the sort. But you don't run a VM server, so you can't use any of that.

 

On the lower end side, WX 5100s, and 4100s, and stuff like Quadro P1000. They are low-power cards that don't do much, and as such they shouldn't cost more than $70.

 

I guess because you can run "Pro" drivers for your non-Pro cards. I tried it on my .. RX 470s. Worked more or less, but Radeon Pro Software don't have the featured I needed.

[Needfuldoer]

[ Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems ]

 

The Z420 is a very old platform; Ivy Bridge at best. Bare minimum you'll want to look at the Z440, which can take Haswell and Broadwell era Xeons and registered ECC DDR4 RAM. Next step up from that would be an HP Z4 or a Dell Precision 5820, which will have an LGA2066 socket. That will get you up new enough for official Windows 11 support.

 

All these systems take proprietary power supplies, so you would need to either acquire the beefier OEM power supplies or get adapters so you can use an ATX one. I've personally run an RTX 3090 in a Precision 5820 with the 950 watt power supply and an additional power cable. (It comes off an unused header on the power breakout board.) The only problem is that the side panel didn't fit back on because it squishes against the power cables.

[CDR_Xavier]

11 hours ago, Needfuldoer said:

Ivy Bridge at best

Z420 come with xeon v2s, which .. yeah is socket 2011 isnt it. Cause v3 and v4 use the same socket. Which means v2 is top of the line for its socket.

 

 

18 hours ago, Jesusisoursaviour said:

I found literally no great option

Search "hp workstation" and sort by lowerst price. You don't need either xeon or ecc., especially if it means losing out on modern hardware.

If you are adventurous, there are decent Supermicro boards used for .. not super expensive, but they can get really large (EATX/EEB).

 

Preferably anything taking DDR4. DDR3 is a bit too old, and is prone to row-hammering. For Supermicro that means at least X11 boards.

[Needfuldoer]

7 minutes ago, CDR_Xavier said:

Z420 come with xeon v2s, which .. yeah is socket 2011 isnt it. Cause v3 and v4 use the same socket.

Not quite. LGA2011 (Sandy Bridge v0 / Ivy Bridge v2) and LGA2011-3 (Haswell v3 / Broadwell v4) are mechanically almost identical, but not logically cross-compatible. You can't drop a v4 Xeon into a v2 board, for example. 2011 is also exclusively DDR3, and 2011-3 is exclusively DDR4. 

 

I believe cooling solutions are cross-compatible though.

[CDR_Xavier]

7 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

You can't drop a v4 Xeon into a v2 board

You can't. I am stating that V3 and V4, those two are the same socket. Which means the v2 use a different socket, but it is shared with v1 (or the non-v). Intel's "two gen" plan. V5 and 6 also share the socket. But server don't get a coffee-lake (8th gen Core equivalent). At least not "entry level" servers I used.
I am accustomed to seeing v3s around, that's why.