First Build! CAD/CAM and Engineering

[marriokart]

My current laptop just isn't cutting it for the workload that I'm asking it to do. I'm planning to build my first pc and would like some input.

 

I'm an engineering student in 3rd year from B.C., Canada, so if Canadian pricing is preferable. I'm not set to a specific constrained budget (which is sort of a problem as my build keeps getting more expensive), but I'd like to keep under 1000 CAD. My primary use will be for school, and possibly some light gaming, although to justify it to my parents it's for my school workload. The primary workload I have for school is design work, primarily with Solidworks, although I am also using the Altair software suite. Along with this design work, are simulations to validate the designs. While working on designs for my school's formula SAE team, we have quite large assemblies which really strain my current laptop ( open the file and come back 3 minutes later kind of performance). 

 

With that in mind here is my build. I don't have to pay for windows thanks to my school

 

CPU  

Ryzen 5 1500X 
CPU Cooler    

Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO    
Motherboard    

ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX 
Memory  

G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3200 
Storage    

ADATA - Premier Pro SP600 256GB 2.5" SSD
Video Card    

Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 
Case    

Deepcool - TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower 
Power Supply    

EVGA - B3 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Fully-Modular

 

https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/user/marriokart/saved/76jccf

 

I'm not set on the 1050 Ti, I may try to pick up a used quadro, as Solidworks can't make use of non-workstation cards. 

I would also consider an intel build, especially with coffee lake,as Solidworks is much better optimized for intel, although ryzen seems to be much better value.

I'm going to add a HDD at a later time,I don't tend to use a whole lot of storage.

 

Any tips or recommendations would be very appreciated.

[Gammett]

I do think that the 1050 TI is a great value for the price especially for cad work.  But you do bring up an excellent point with the quadro.  I just don't think that a quadro for that price would be that powerful.  What I would reccomend is to get the 1050 Ti for most cad work and then get a cheap quadro to also chuck in the system for when you do use solidworks.  I don't work in solidworks at all but is it just a artificial limitation that would allow you to use the 1050 for the processing if there is a quadro somewhere in the system?  If I can remember correctly then this is a thing in some quadro exclusive softwares.

[LienusLateTips]

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 1600 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor  ($259.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Motherboard: ASRock - AB350 Pro4 ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($114.05 @ Vuugo) 
Memory: *G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($169.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Storage: Western Digital - Blue 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($106.25 @ shopRBC) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4GB Video Card  ($189.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Case: Deepcool - TESSERACT SW ATX Mid Tower Case  ($44.99 @ Newegg Canada) 
Power Supply: Corsair - CXM (2015) 450W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($69.99 @ Amazon Canada) 
Total: $955.25
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
*Lowest price parts chosen from parametric criteria
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-09-24 01:39 EDT-0400

[marriokart]

1 minute ago, Gammett said:

I do think that the 1050 TI is a great value for the price especially for cad work.  But you do bring up an excellent point with the quadro.  I just don't think that a quadro for that price would be that powerful.  What I would reccomend is to get the 1050 Ti for most cad work and then get a cheap quadro to also chuck in the system for when you do use solidworks.  I don't work in solidworks at all but is it just a artificial limitation that would allow you to use the 1050 for the processing if there is a quadro somewhere in the system?  If I can remember correctly then this is a thing in some quadro exclusive softwares.

I believe it's a firmware limitatio, and that Solidworks doesn't release drivers for non-workstation cards. They don't support GPU scaling on Geforce cards

[Gammett]

Is there any way to bypass the limitation through flashing the Graphics Card's BIOS?

[marriokart]

4 minutes ago, Gammett said:

Is there any way to bypass the limitation through flashing the Graphics Card's BIOS?

AFAIK there isn't, there isn't too bad of a supply of quadros in Vancouver, there's a K4000 listed on craigslist for $150

[Gammett]

Didn't read much of this but this might work

http://archive.techarp.com/showarticleefc1.html?artno=539&pgno=0

[LienusLateTips]

1 minute ago, marriokart said:

AFAIK there isn't, there isn't too bad of a supply of quadros in Vancouver, there's a K4000 listed on craigslist for $150

Yeah I feel you, I'm from Richmond and all we get are 980s for $400