CPU For CAD Workstation

CygnusA · June 20, 2016

I am in the process of spec'ing out a CAD workstation for my company to evaluate. The catch is I must use HP computers (due to a contract in place) so I am limited in configurations I can use. Since my CAD programs are single thread bound, I want to go with i7-6700k. But the HP workstations only offer Xeon processors. I can get a gaming HP rig, but those doe not offer the Quadro GPUs. So what should I do? Piecing it together myself isnt really an option. Is the e5-1630 Xeon close enough to the 6700k? Maybe HP will configure something else over the phone?

Thoughts on what I should do?

Side note: Why do the big prebuilt companies keep pushing Xeon's for CAD stations where it seems i7's outperform them ?

addywaddy · June 20, 2016

id go for i7 but im not the amazing aamzing at computers compared to others

Mark77 · June 20, 2016

Then get the Xeon E3 equivalent to the i7-6700k. But if your CAD software is only single threaded, then going with a hyperthreaded CPU is a waste of your money. You could go for a cheaper E3.

Xeon E3's are the same thing as i5/i7's, except with a few extra features, like ECC, turned on. And sometimes the embedded graphics disabled in certain SKU's.

The E5's are like the Socket LGA2011 CPU's.

Once you understand that Xeons and i-Series CPU's (and even Celerons and Pentiums) are all the same physical Silicon for a given socket, with features selectively enabled or disabled for yield or marketing purposes, it will make a lot more sense to you. And yeah don't buy a HP gaming rig under any circumstances.

SeanAngelo · June 20, 2016

34 minutes ago, CygnusA said:

I am in the process of spec'ing out a CAD workstation for my company to evaluate. The catch is I must use HP computers (due to a contract in place) so I am limited in configurations I can use. Since my CAD programs are single thread bound, I want to go with i7-6700k. But the HP workstations only offer Xeon processors. I can get a gaming HP rig, but those doe not offer the Quadro GPUs. So what should I do? Piecing it together myself isnt really an option. Is the e5-1630 Xeon close enough to the 6700k? Maybe HP will configure something else over the phone?

Thoughts on what I should do?

Side note: Why do the big prebuilt companies keep pushing Xeon's for CAD stations where it seems i7's outperform them ?

just get a Xeon equivalent of the 6700k

Mark77 · June 20, 2016

Yeah an E3-1225 v5 is the same as an Skylake i5. An E3-1275 v5 is the same as a Skylake i7-6700k. There are some other E3 Skylake Xeon parts, but they lack embedded graphics, which would be perfectly fine for you if a Quadro is going to be fitted to the machine.

SLAYR · June 20, 2016

1 hour ago, CygnusA said:

I am in the process of spec'ing out a CAD workstation for my company to evaluate. The catch is I must use HP computers (due to a contract in place) so I am limited in configurations I can use. Since my CAD programs are single thread bound, I want to go with i7-6700k. But the HP workstations only offer Xeon processors. I can get a gaming HP rig, but those doe not offer the Quadro GPUs. So what should I do? Piecing it together myself isnt really an option. Is the e5-1630 Xeon close enough to the 6700k? Maybe HP will configure something else over the phone?

Thoughts on what I should do?

Side note: Why do the big prebuilt companies keep pushing Xeon's for CAD stations where it seems i7's outperform them ?

The xeons are more orientated toward workstations since they are usually much higher binned chips, support ecc, and with the higher end xeons they are much faster in multithreaded tasks then the i7s.

The i7s will have a higher clockspeed and some CAD software is more single threaded so that is why the i7 is faster, but for a company computer I would not suggest getting the 'k' series 6700, as you probabbly will not get a z170 board with it, and overclocking a work pc is not a good idea.