Workbench for CAD/3ds max work

[mmartins94]

Hi all,

 

I'm currently helping a friend build a workstation for his sister. She's an architect and works mostly on Autocad and 3ds max.

 

1. Budget & Location

Budget would be $US1200 and I live in Uruguay. I'll mostly be using prices from Amazon.com though since it's way cheaper importing parts than buying them here in general (exceptions will be noted in the build). Other sources of parts in the US work too as long as they offer online purchasing.

2. Aim

As stated above the aim is to build a CAD/3D modeling workstation. No gaming will be done on it.

3. Monitors

One monitor, 1080 ultra wide (2560x1080). No plans of using any other monitors in the future as far as I know.

4. Peripherals

Peripherals and OS are available already so those are out of the budget.

5. Why are you upgrading?

Previous PC broke on her and she wants a new one rather than fixing the old one.

 

So far what I had in mind is as follows:

• CPU: Core i7 7700.
• RAM: 16GB kit (2x8). Thinking it should be fine for now to meet the budget, could be upgraded in the near future to 32GB.
• MOBO: GIGABYTE GA-B250M-DS3H.
• GPU: Nvidia Quadro P2000.
• Storage: Undecided between SSD+HDD or just HDD, depending on remaining budget. Cheapest option would be a 1TB HDD for $US69. An SSD could be added in the future so it would be no problem.
• PSU: EVGA 430 W1, 80+ WHITE 430W
• Case: Thermaltake Versa H21. Not many choices where I live and too heavy to ship it from Amazon so it'll have to do.

With that I'm about $US240 over budget so I need to cut somewhere. I'm thinking I could change the CPU but I'm not sure what other options are good for this. Any recommendations on that or other possible cuts? Feel free to use any US sources as if I lived there and it'll most probably work.

 

Thanks!

[The Sloth]

2 minutes ago, mmartins94 said:

3ds max

that can use up to 36 cores, i suggest a ryzen 1700 

http://area.autodesk.com/blogs/max-station/n268-how-many-cores-does-3ds-max-support

[ShadySocks]

You could get a Ryzen 1600 and overclock it, which will be much faster for rendering.

[Daveeede]

Maybe cut the gpu down from a quadro p2000 to something cheaper? Is there a decent market for used gpu's down there? She might not see a big difference betweent the p2000 and a previous gen quadro. Otherwise, get a cheaper monitor or consider dropping from the i7 down to an i5. Maybe a ryzen 5 build even?

[The Sloth]

Just now, Daveeede said:

an i5.

no, not even a option 

[Daveeede]

2 minutes ago, nerdslayer1 said:

no, not even a option 

What is she rendering exactly? I mean if it's like a single facade at a time how much time do you think she'll save? 8 minutes? Take a break have a coffee and enjoy life. Big projects are rendered on specialized machines. Not machines built by your friend's brother. 

[The Sloth]

3 minutes ago, Daveeede said:

What is she rendering exactly?

1

not how it works, "what is she rendering" how do you know what she will do? people should get whats best for the price, ryzen 1600 would be better, especially for CAD, because most CAD users will do heavy multitasking. 

3 minutes ago, Daveeede said:

I mean if it's like a single facade at a time how much time do you think she'll save? 8 minutes?

so? what if she can get a better CPU for cheaper? like rzyen 1600, seriously 4c/4t is a joke, 5% ipc is not worth it. 

 

3 minutes ago, Daveeede said:

Big projects are rendered on specialized machines. Not machines built by your friend's brother. 

we should recommend the best parts for the price. 

 

3 minutes ago, Daveeede said:

Big projects are rendered on specialized machines.

so....

[Daveeede]

1 minute ago, nerdslayer1 said:

people should get whats best for the price, ryzen 1600 would be better,

agreed

[arikatect]

Im an architect also and have built many CAD workstations for friends, I suggest Ryzen 1600, 1600x, or 1700. I use Rhino to Maxwell render workflow. More cores is what your looking for as in terms of GPU look at a 1050ti or 1060, at this point gpu rendering is available but that really does benefit from higher end GTX or Quadro Cards. See PC partpicker list below. Also I attached images of the budget workstation with the Cinebench R15 Scores, with stock and OC.  Hopefully this is helpful

 

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/w8NPBP

 

 

[mmartins94]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'll definitely look into a Ryzen. I've never built a CAD PC so I wasn't exactly sure what CPU to use so I just went with what I kinda knew as a start.

If I go with a 1600, would it have to be overclocked? I've never overclocked before and I wouldn't want to start experimenting on someone else's work machine. In that case should I go for a 1700?

In terms of GPU, I chose the quadro because from the research I did it seemed quadros are far superior to gtx for CAD (even people in these forums said so). Have you had any troubles with your 1050ti or ryzen arikatect? Driver problems or anything like that?

Again thanks a lot for the help.

[arikatect]

There are some pretty good Pre done OC in some bios (i.e Asus and MSI) its literally like flipping a switch. 

It is true that quadros are better optimized and verified for high end workflow. But Architectural Rendering doesn't require the verification of those drivers, unlike using a GPU for physics simulations. I've run most of my workstations on GTX cards and haven't been let down. I generally go with EVGA, ASUS, or reference cards for Nvidia GPUs, haven't had any issues with either Ryzen or 1050ti. For your budget buy the best CPU you can. CAD application can use most of the resources that your machine offer. If the client needs a better GPU down the line that a very easy upgrade.

[mmartins94]

Again thanks a lot for the advice. I'll finish the build with the info you gave me.