coolhouse,
Your choices on the whole are very good. The Xeon E3-12XX series has to have the best cost / performance ratio of any Xeon. The memory bandwidth is half the E5, but a great mover of 0's and 1's.
My question though is to do with the proportional cost of the software to system- $20,000 of software on a $1,000 system. Of course, if the applications are necessary, that is the priority and AutoCad runs on anything, but I feel that running Catia on such a system could be "frustrating." I use Solidworks- the discount cousin to Catia ($8,000 cheaper), and models and resulting renderings quality are fantastic but I yearn for a faster system having a dual quad-core 3.2 Xeon (8 cores / 16 virtualization threads) and Quadro FX4800 (1.5GB).
Still, it's a great challenge. I would only suggest expanding the budget for two items , the motherboard and graphics card. to have a better chipset, slots, and less cramped layout >
ASRock Z77 Extreme3 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard > $100
____
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157330
> and for the graphics card, a used Quadro K2000 >
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-Quadro-K2000D-2GB-GDDR5-PCIe-x16-Mint-condition-/251310806597?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3a834a9645&nma=true&si=vfp6FILGsC5y3f%252BpvgSECZAU%252Fqc%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
> which is a used 2000D (2GB) that sold for $213. or about $60 more than a new Firepro V4900. These are typically closer to $300 used, but in my view, cheaper, as it means a longer period before having to upgrade.
Best of all would be to carefully shop for a used Quadro 4000 (2GB) which has better 3D modeling performance than the K2000 >
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-NVIDIA-Quadro-4000-57Y4480-2-GB-GDDR5-SDRAM-PCI-Express-x16-Graphics-/221249031313?pt=PCC_Video_TV_Cards&hash=item3383784c91
> a completed Buy It Now listing at $305.
I think that with + $30 more on the motherboard and + $60-$140 on the graphics card, the system would have worthwhile enhancements and extend it's useful life without upgrades that make it less expensive over time.
One other option to building is to buy a used Dell Precision with a good specification. this would be ready to use right away and be gradually upgraded >
http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-PRECISION-T5500-2x-XEON-3-33GHZ-QUAD-CORE-CPUS-36GB-MEM-2x-250GB-9800GT-/200944194880?pt=Desktop_PCs&hash=item2ec9351540
> a T5500 with 2X 3.33GHz quad core Xeons, 36GB RAM, and 2X 9800GT graphics cards for $1,000. The graphics card choice is a bit eccentric and the drives would need upgrading eventually, but just think of the 8 cores / 16 threads for rendering, Precisions great build quality and it would be ready to use quickly.
As comparison here's a Xeon E3 system I worker out a few weeks ago that is what I would consider an excellent performer for the cost for your applications, in my view a proportionate cost / performance build>
BambiBoom PixelDozer Cadarendagrapharific Blazomatic Modelrama V ™$#©™_ 7.6.13
1. Intel Xeon E3-1270 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1155 69W Quad-Core Server Processor BX80637E31270V2 > $344
2. COOLER MASTER Hyper 212 EVO RR-212E-20PK-R2 Continuous Direct Contact 120mm Sleeve CPU Cooler > $35.
3. ASUS P8B WS LGA 1155 Intel C206 ATX Intel Xeon E3 Server/Workstation Motherboard > $230.
4. Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G > $160.
5. NVIDIA Quadro K2000 VCQK2000-PB 2GB GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card $420.
6. OPT > SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD128BW 2.5" 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) $150.
7. Western Digital WD Black WD1002FAEX 1TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive > $90
8. SeaSonic M12II 520 Bronze 520W ATX12V v2.3 / EPS 12V v2.91 SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply > $80
9. ASUS DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS Black SATA 24X DVD Burner - Bulk - OEM $17.
10. LIAN LI PC-7HX Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case $100.
11. Microsoft Windows 8 Professional 64-bit (Full Version) - OEM $140
TOTAL= $1,650 > $1,796 w/ SSD [$1,796]
Cheers,
BambiBoom
[ Dell Precision T5400 > 2X Xeon X5460 quad core @3.16GHz > 16 GB ECC 667> Quadro FX 4800 (1.5GB) > WD RE4 / Segt Brcda 500GB > Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit > HP 2711x 27" 1920 x 1080 > AutoCad, Revit, Solidworks, Sketchup Pro, Corel Technical Designer, Adobe CS MC, WordP Office, MS Office > architecture, industrial design, graphic design, rendering, writing ]
Cheers,
BambiBoom
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