Which one is more important?

[OliverGone]

I wanna build a pc for cad and pcb design, i also need run some simulators.however,my budget is limited.so i wanna know which part is more important for my need--gpu,cpu or big ram?

thanks a lot ?

[Jurrunio]

CPU and RAM are both important. GPU, not so much.

[NelizMastr]

Depends on the software. Software that is certified only for workstation graphics cards benefit from such cards greatly (i.e. solidworks). Others are usually mostly CPU bound.

[Origami Cactus]

cpu probably, and 16gb of ram atleast.

What is your budget?

Also AMD ryzen series are great for budget.

[vanished]

Those topics are rather broad.  It would help if we knew specifically which programs you will be using and how intensely

[Lord Nicoll]

17 minutes ago, OliverGone said:

I wanna build a pc for cad and pcb design, i also need run some simulators.however,my budget is limited.so i wanna know which part is more important for my need--gpu,cpu or big ram?

thanks a lot ?

PCB/CAD software, and the hardware to run it properly, is not cheap. It super depends whether you are using the free softwares, in which just look for like an i7 8700 or Ryzen 2600, both will be quite good, though you could probably get away with an i7 7700, I haven't found a massive reason to upgrade.

If you're using full professional software however, you may find to enable GPU usage, you may need a Firepro/Radeon Pro or Quadro card. Solidworks for example requires a bit of hacking to enable Geforce or Radeon cards. I use an old Firepro so I don't have to worry about software hacks so much for that kind of thing. 

[AskTJ]

Best to list your programs you need and workload, as well as budget and country.

[m4n14c]

Budget? what parts are you looking at now?
With a less powerful GPU, it will be slower, with less RAM it even not be able to run. It depends on the use case, rewatch the CAD video from Linus with Alex.

[Franck]

It depends on the CAD software. I can speak for Solidworks has i have been using and programming tools for it for couple years and specially this one is heavily single threaded and benefit from the highest clock speed you can. Some 4 to 5 hours execution got down to barely 2 hours long by switching for useless Xeon 2.3 / 2.8 ghz to I7 7700k at 4.5 / 5.0 ghz. Solidworks ram quantity is more important than ram speed for large assembly. 32 gb ddr4 3000 is nothing compared to 64 gb of anything else (even ddr3). Disk speed a standard SSD is well enough for 1 to 4 solidworks at a time running. NVME is not necessary in any case. For graphic cards quadro is the way to go. Geforce and Radeon are possible to use with hacks but there is a difference in performance and stability. We all know Solidworks isn't the most stable software and that is probably the reason why. AMD fireproGL are the amd cad cards and have lots of visual issues and driver problem with Solidworks. We were told they were great and when we made 30-ish new computer with them and most of them had problems. We bough 30 new Quadro M4000 to replace them and all the problems were gone.

 

So long story short, if your plan is to use Solidworks the most important is :

CPU clock speed. 3.0 ghz is just fine, anything above is sprinkle and only useful if you are doing heavy duty stuff

Ram quantity. Depends on the assemblies. you want at least 16 gb, but for real work scenario 32 gb highly suggested. Solidworks is hungry

Video card : anything quadro. I used to run flawlessly Solidwork 2016 on a Quadro 600 which is a 120$ videocard these days. not fantastic but does the job well.

Storage : SSD no question. Loading and saving is one of the only thing solidworks does multithread and SSD benefit for loading 2 gb project files.

 

For simulation i never tried with a Quadro 600 but a Quadro K2000 (which is a bit pricier) can do simulations without problems.

 

Over the years we have tested a lot the following cards (most common) in a real life case and we have tested others but those are the most commonly used ones

- low end dedicated video cards nvidia 750, 650, Radeon 6000 to 9000 series

- some have mid range gamer cards (670-680-970-980), Radeon X series

- wide range of CAD cards, Quadro FX370, FX570, FX580, Q400, K600, P600, Q600, K2000, K2200, K4000, M2000, M4000. Then ATI we have mostly tried firepro W7100 (worst pieces of garbage ever created for Solidworks and OpenGL programming. Got 1000 times less bugs with Radeon 7000 series than this)

[OliverGone]

12 hours ago, Franck said:

It depends on the CAD software. I can speak for Solidworks has i have been using and programming tools for it for couple years and specially this one is heavily single threaded and benefit from the highest clock speed you can. Some 4 to 5 hours execution got down to barely 2 hours long by switching for useless Xeon 2.3 / 2.8 ghz to I7 7700k at 4.5 / 5.0 ghz. Solidworks ram quantity is more important than ram speed for large assembly. 32 gb ddr4 3000 is nothing compared to 64 gb of anything else (even ddr3). Disk speed a standard SSD is well enough for 1 to 4 solidworks at a time running. NVME is not necessary in any case. For graphic cards quadro is the way to go. Geforce and Radeon are possible to use with hacks but there is a difference in performance and stability. We all know Solidworks isn't the most stable software and that is probably the reason why. AMD fireproGL are the amd cad cards and have lots of visual issues and driver problem with Solidworks. We were told they were great and when we made 30-ish new computer with them and most of them had problems. We bough 30 new Quadro M4000 to replace them and all the problems were gone.

 

So long story short, if your plan is to use Solidworks the most important is :

CPU clock speed. 3.0 ghz is just fine, anything above is sprinkle and only useful if you are doing heavy duty stuff

Ram quantity. Depends on the assemblies. you want at least 16 gb, but for real work scenario 32 gb highly suggested. Solidworks is hungry

Video card : anything quadro. I used to run flawlessly Solidwork 2016 on a Quadro 600 which is a 120$ videocard these days. not fantastic but does the job well.

Storage : SSD no question. Loading and saving is one of the only thing solidworks does multithread and SSD benefit for loading 2 gb project files.

 

For simulation i never tried with a Quadro 600 but a Quadro K2000 (which is a bit pricier) can do simulations without problems.

 

Over the years we have tested a lot the following cards (most common) in a real life case and we have tested others but those are the most commonly used ones

- low end dedicated video cards nvidia 750, 650, Radeon 6000 to 9000 series

- some have mid range gamer cards (670-680-970-980), Radeon X series

- wide range of CAD cards, Quadro FX370, FX570, FX580, Q400, K600, P600, Q600, K2000, K2200, K4000, M2000, M4000. Then ATI we have mostly tried firepro W7100 (worst pieces of garbage ever created for Solidworks and OpenGL programming. Got 1000 times less bugs with Radeon 7000 series than this)

thanks a lot

i will check the quadros and choose a 8700

[OliverGone]

14 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

cpu probably, and 16gb of ram atleast.

What is your budget?

Also AMD ryzen series are great for budget.

my budget is around 1800 usd

[OliverGone]

14 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Those topics are rather broad.  It would help if we knew specifically which programs you will be using and how intensely

I usually use the altium designer

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, OliverGone said:

I usually use the altium designer

Hm, I was hoping to find test results from Puget Systems but the official requirements will have to do:

https://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/Altium+Designer+-+((System+Requirements))#!SystemRequirements-RecommendedSystemRequirements

Quote

Recommended System Requirements

• Windows 7 (64-bit only), Windows 8 (64-bit only), or Windows 10 (64-bit only) Intel® Core™ i7 processor or equivalent
• 16GB RAM
• 10GB hard disk space (Install + User Files)
• SSD
• High performance graphics card (supporting DirectX 10 or better), such as GeForce GTX 1060/Radeon RX 470
• Dual monitors with 2560x1440 (or better) screen resolution
• 3D mouse for 3D PCB design, such as the Space Navigator
• Adobe® Reader® (version XI or later for 3D PDF viewing)
• Internet Connection
• Up to date Web browser
• Microsoft Office 32-bit or 64-bit (Microsoft Excel required for BOM, Microsoft Access required for DbLibs). 64-bit Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 (required for DbLibs) - this is included in Microsoft Office 64-bit, but not included in Microsoft Office 32-bit). If you are running 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Altium Design software, see Using Database Libraries with 32-bit and 64-bit Altium Design Software on the same Computer.

Minimum System Requirements

• Windows 7 (64-bit only), Windows 8 (64-bit only), or Windows 10 (64-bit only) Intel® Core™ i5 processor or equivalent
• 4GB RAM
• 10GB hard disk space (Install + User Files)
• Graphics card (supporting DirectX 10 or better), such as GeForce 200 series/Radeon HD 5000 series/Intel HD 4600
• Monitor with at least 1680x1050 (widescreen) or 1600x1200 (4:3) screen resolution
• Adobe® Reader® (version XI or later for 3D PDF viewing)
• Up to date Web browser
• Microsoft Office 32-bit or 64-bit (Microsoft Excel required for BOM, Microsoft Access required for DbLibs). 64-bit Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 (required for DbLibs) - this is included in Microsoft Office 64-bit, but not included in Microsoft Office 32-bit). If you are running 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Altium Design software, see Using Database Libraries with 32-bit and 64-bit Altium Design Software on the same Computer.

Looks to me like the requirements aren't in any way outlandish (no 10+ core systems, multiple quadros, etc.), but it's no walk in the park either.  Basically a mid-range gaming PC would fit the bill nicely.

[OliverGone]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Hm, I was hoping to find test results from Puget Systems but the official requirements will have to do:

https://www.altium.com/documentation/18.0/display/ADES/Altium+Designer+-+((System+Requirements))#!SystemRequirements-RecommendedSystemRequirements

Looks to me like the requirements aren't in any way outlandish (no 10+ core systems, multiple quadros, etc.), but it's no walk in the park either.  Basically a mid-range gaming PC would fit the bill nicely.

thanks a lot

[Franck]

10 hours ago, OliverGone said:

thanks a lot

i will check the quadros and choose a 8700

For design itself quadro are not technically mandatory. They really shine when doing things like FEA (finite element analysis). For solidworks it does make a difference but others like SolidEdge, NX i have seen it run very well on non CAD cards.

 

As per the specs the Altium program doesn't seems to care much about the card being CAD. It state a 200 series are minimum and other non CAD cards as recommended which mean a normal video card should be way enough. You shouldn't waste money in a CAD card if what you use don't require it. If they would have used OpenGL i would without a doubt say "get a CAD card" but since it's directX you are better of a gaming card. Performance are the same if not better on a gaming card.