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Need Help With Workstation Build For CAD Software

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  • Workstations
  • Systems
Last response: in Systems
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October 6, 2013 3:17:25 PM

Hey folks,

My friend wants me to build him a rig for CAD work, the software is more specifically known as 'Catia', budget is £800, it's going to be for light use he says so nothing too extreme is required, something mid-range would be good.

I've built gaming rigs but don't have a clue when it comes to workstations, i've put together a rough list but would appreciate any further advice before i take the plunge, list is as follows:


Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - £170
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler - £24
Asus Z87M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard - £98
Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory - £115
Plextor M5S Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk - £130
PNY Quadro 400 512MB Video Card - £119
Fractal Design Arc Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case - £60
XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - £35
LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer - £12

Total: £763

Is this overkill/underkill for a mid-range workstation? I'm sure there's alot of improvements that can be made here, would appreciate any help.

Also, i'm guessing an SSD is obviously quite important for CAD but would i be better off spending £40 on a 1TB hdd and putting the extra money towards a better graphics card? Thanks!

More about : workstation build cad software

October 6, 2013 3:29:43 PM

CAD software usually only uses one or two cores. An i3 would be very capable. More than an i3 would only make sense if rendering is part of the workflow. But than an i7 (without K) or cheaper a XEON 1230 v3 would be fine.
On the other side memory is very useful, especially VRAM. Therefore you should prefer AMD-cards in the low price-segment, something like a ATI FirePro 3D V3900 or AMD FirePro 3D V4900.
A Samsung 840 EVO would do as well and save money.
PSU is overpowered, 300W would be more than enough. Maybe Sea Sonic G-Series G-360 or be quiet! Pure Power L8 300W.
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October 6, 2013 3:46:36 PM

I've been building the workstations for my architecture firm for a while now and have picked up on what runs well with the cad software. Like slsPCs said, you can get away for medium to light use on an i3 if necessary. You can actually avoid the dedicated video card all together with the haswell chips. The Haswell generation of processors actually has certified workstation graphics drivers available for the P4400 and P4600 integrated graphics.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/performance/perf...
and a toms article covering them.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xeon-e3-1275-v3-has...

E3 V3 Xeon family on newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=E...

Catia is multi-threaded so the more cores the better, so the hyperthreaded Xeon will work even more nicely.

Secondly, the SSD doesn't matter so much unless he is switching apps a lot. What you should improve is the system memory. In conjunction with a 4670 processor, not the xeon since it's memory controller only supports 1600 mhz, you should be looking at least a DDR3 2000, 2133 seems to have a lot of options. 16gb is a great amount. The higher speed memory will really let the models fly since the model will all be loaded into the memory, not really utilizing the SSD. Obviously with the 4670 you will still need the dedicated graphics card.
Ditching the SSD and going with a nice 1tb WD Black drive or something similar would be the way to go, save a few bucks that way that you can pour into the memory. Everything else on your build looks good to me, just focus on that processor and memory.

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October 7, 2013 8:47:46 PM

FlyingCamel said:
Hey folks,

My friend wants me to build him a rig for CAD work, the software is more specifically known as 'Catia', budget is £800, it's going to be for light use he says so nothing too extreme is required, something mid-range would be good.

I've built gaming rigs but don't have a clue when it comes to workstations, i've put together a rough list but would appreciate any further advice before i take the plunge, list is as follows:


Intel Core i5-4670K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor - £170
Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler - £24
Asus Z87M-PLUS Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard - £98
Corsair Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory - £115
Plextor M5S Series 256GB 2.5" Solid State Disk - £130
PNY Quadro 400 512MB Video Card - £119
Fractal Design Arc Mini MicroATX Mini Tower Case - £60
XFX ProSeries 450W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply - £35
LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer - £12

Total: £763

Is this overkill/underkill for a mid-range workstation? I'm sure there's alot of improvements that can be made here, would appreciate any help.

Also, i'm guessing an SSD is obviously quite important for CAD but would i be better off spending £40 on a 1TB hdd and putting the extra money towards a better graphics card? Thanks!


FlyingCamel,

I'm a bit perplexed on this one. Are you sure your friend is using Catia by Dessault Systemes? The reason I ask, is that I use another software by Dessault, Solidworks which is that firm's junior 3D modeling software- and can cost $10,000.

Catia is an extremely sophisticated industrial design software that can precisely model and the assemblies of entire commercial aircraft. In the US, Catia typically costs more than $30,000 for one license, plus another $5,000- 6,000 per year support subscription fee. It is, contrary to other comments here, supporting multiple cores (since V5) and the rendering subprogram uses all available threads. If I were specifying a Catia system for myself, I would expect to spend at least $7,000.

That said, Catia, is a very carefully developed software and in light use will run on more modest systems- just don't plan on doing the Airbus A440. A Xeon E3 is probably minimal and I can say that in my view, it would be better to use if possible a Xeon E5, LGA 2011 CPU as these have a wider memory bandwidth, support more PCIe lanes, and can be upgraded in the future to 6, 8, and soon- 12 core CPU's. A Quadro with strong 3D performance is essential. The Quadro 400 would work up to a point as the drivers will run the Catia viewports, but my experience with the much more modest Solidworks is that a Quadro FX 4800 (380-bit, 1.5GB, $1,200 new) has only enough 3D power. Perhaps you could consider a used Quadro 4000?

Here's an idea for a system for your friend. I think everything is from Scan UK, plus I checked completed sales of Quadro 4000's on Ebay UK >

BambiBoom PixelDozer Cadaedimatharendagrapharific iWork ExtremeSignature Turbo 5000 ®£©™®$™_ REV 10.7.13

Intel Xeon E5-1620 (LGA 2011, quad core 3.6 /3.8GHz) > £268.05 (Note the very high clock rate- one of the highest for Xeons, but not too dear.)

Cooler Master Hyper 412s Tower Cooler for CPU > £29.99

AsRock X79 Extreme3 Motherboard Socket 2011, 3x PCI Express 3.0, DDR3, ATX, 7.1 HD Audio, ASRock XFast RAM > £144.98

16GB (2 X8GB) Kingston Technology DDR3 1600Mhz ECC > £132

Quadro 4000 > USED, about £140 Ebay

Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black Performance Hard Drive SATA III 6Gb/s7200rpm 64MB Cache WD1002FAEX £65 ( I don't feel an SSD is necessary. The starting and loading is faster, but good results may be had with an OS / Applications partition and separate files partition. Add an SSD later perhaps.)

LG GH24NS95 DVD/CD Writer - £12

600W Corsair Builder Series CX CP-9020048-UK, 80 PLUS Bronze, SLI/CrossFire, EPS 12V, Quiet Fan, ATX, PSU > £56

Lian-Li PC-7HX ATX Mid Tower Case > £94

________________________________________

Total = about £945

So, yes, a bit over the budget, but I feel that having an LGA 2011 with that expandability to six or more cores, and a very good GPU, even though used, is worth the effort.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. Dell Precision T5400 (2009)> 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

2. HP z420 (2013)> Xeon E5-1620 quad core @ 3.6 / 3.8GHz > 24GB ECC RAM > Firepro V4900 (Soon Quadro K4000) > Samsung 840 SSD 250GB / Seagate Barracuda 500GB > Windows 7 Professional 64 > to be loaded > AutoCad, Revit, Inventor, Maya (2011), Solidworks 2010, Adobe CS4, Corel Technical Design X-5, Sketchup Pro, WordP Office X-5, MS Office




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October 8, 2013 6:36:35 AM

It's definitely Catia by Dassault Systems, he says when he's using the software he'll be working with one 3D model/part and a 2D drawing, would that change anything?
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October 8, 2013 7:14:44 AM

Catia would require a system such as bambiboom outlined for the models that were in the same rundown, but if your friend is working on smaller models or segments of larger models, the requirements become much more realistic along the lines of what I recommended before.
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October 8, 2013 2:58:20 PM

Thanks guys, only thing i'm not sure about yet is the processor, the i5 won't support hyperthreading (Which my friend is now interested in) and the one that bambiboom suggested is just over budget unfortunately, is it possible to get a Xeon for less than £200 which has hyperthreading?
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October 8, 2013 3:13:22 PM

FlyingCamel said:
It's definitely Catia by Dassault Systems, he says when he's using the software he'll be working with one 3D model/part and a 2D drawing, would that change anything?


Flying Camel,

Yes, the use does change things, as computer capability and performance are always a question of degree. Catia can be run on a reasonably priced modest system drawing parts / simple assemblies, but the limit will be reached quickly such that the extremely expensive software is wasted. An analogy is that your friend bought a Ferrari 599 and only wants to drop round to the corner shop for some Marmite, so why not just use some tyres he found in a skip and add paraffin to the petrol for additional savings? It's not impossible, but a severely imbalanced expectation.

I believe the best approach is to consider a system that could run Catia well up to a fairly high capability > good performance in 2D drafting, 3D modeling, and rendering while running the multiple programs simultaneously that are always needed.

Working backwards from the software capability to the hardware, it seems to me that a good Xeon E5, ECC RAM, and a Quadro graphics card strong in 3D are the best way to allow the software to stretch it's legs if necessary. Accordingly, a budget of £1,000 is a more realistic prospect and the extra £200 is well spent in redressing the balance between the high performance ( and £15,000) software and the system.

It won't save a lot of time going to the shops, and when there needs to be that quick toddle up the M1, the Ferrari will not be doing 200mph all the way, but the rozzers' Vauxhalls won't catch him either.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

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