Entry level CAD workstation under $1000 (first time builder)

I agree with Moto, but i would probably get a 4690k and do maybe a small overclock so you can get a lil more performance.

Other than the workstation GPU, the rest of your build looks more like a gaming system or general consumer system than a cad engineering workstation. I'm not sure how interested in you are in solving that "problem" but it wouldn't cost much more to do it right....

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CPU: E3-1220V3 ~$200
HSF: Arctic i11 ~$25
MOBO: ASRock Rack C226M WS ~$170
RAM: 2 X KVR16LE11L/4 ~$90
GPU: W4100 ~$160
SSD: M550 256GB: ~$130
Storage: WD1002F9YZ ~$90
PSU: Seasonic G 360W ~$60
Case: N200, Corsair 350D, or Fractal Arc Mini R2 ~$50 or ~$90

That's $975 by my reckoning, $1015 with the optional "nice case" upgrade.

E3-1220V3 is basically a quad core haswell with a 3.5ghz turbo speed and 8MB L3 cache (same performance as similarly clocked i5's in solidworks). Like the i5, no hyper-threading, but as you know, solidworks doesn't scale beyond ~1-2 threads very well so that's irrelevant. The important distinction here, is that the E3 supports ECC memory, the i5 does not.

The Arctic i11 is an easy to install, great quality cooler for the money. Comes with paste.

A C22X series chipset is require for ECC memory support on the 1150 socket platform. Thus, the ASRock workstation motherboard.

Kingston ECC UDIMM's. The price of ECC memory is really no different than premium "gaming/performance" memory. Take advantage.

Solidworkds performs better with the W4100 than with the K620. Driver optimizations, memory bandwidth.

Yes the Seasonic G 360 is more than enough power (this system will rarely run over 150W draw from the PSU).

I like the N200 for the money, good pick! I would rather do a build of this quality in the 350D or Arc Mini R2 if the budget allowed, but the N200 is not bad at all. You're not going to need any additional fans for any of these cases for this build.

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If you don't want to go this route, your best value solidworks build is actually going to be an i3-4360 on H97 board.

For solidworks, I would go with something more like this. You will want an i7 class chip, for that kind of work.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($242.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M PRO4 Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Team Zeus Blue 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($67.97 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Crucial MX100 256GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($104.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($78.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB Video Card ($129.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Cooler Master N200 MicroATX Mid Tower Case ($39.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 450W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($64.99 @ Newegg)
Case Fan: Cooler Master R4-L2R-20AC-GP 69.0 CFM 120mm Fan ($7.99 @ Newegg)
Other: PNY Quadro K620 2GB 128-bit DDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card ($169.99)
Total: $987.88
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-19 15:58 EST-0500

ECC memory isn't absolutely necessary here, I do believe it to be the proper, professional choice though, especially where file corruption or compute errors could have devastating effects on a project and productivity. ECC not only has lower error rates, it also has a better track record of reliability, so there's a double bonus there for the system. Even if your system never corrects a single error with the ECC system active, you still get the "peace of mind" that comes with knowing that you're running a system component with nearly a 10X lower failure rate than traditional consumer memory. There are 2 fantastic articles over at pugetsystems concerning the use of ECC system memory, and those guys specialize in building workstations for professionals.

On the 1150 socket, ECC memory is supported by the C222, C224, and C226 chipsets. Most boards configured for workstation use are going to have the C226 chipset.

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Here's some ATX C226 chipset workstation motherboards:

Supermicro X10SAT ~$250
Supermicro X10SAE ~$200
ASRock C226 WS ~$200
ASRock C226 WS+ ~$250

The WS+ is nice because it was released around the time of the haswell refresh update, so would work with an E3-1231V3 out of the box, I can't confirm compatibility with the 1231 on the other boards, depends if they are shipping with the most recent BIOS or not. I think if you're in the market for the 1230V3 it would be worth finding out what BIOS version is shipping from the reseller and opt for the 1231V3 if it will be supported out of the box.

Obviously all of those boards are ATX, not microATX, and would require a new Case selection.

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Something to consider.... As we push into the hyperthreaded E3's on nicer ~$250 boards, Intel's own 2011-3 socket and C612 chipset is within spitting distance...

Supermicro X10SRA ~$280
E5-1620V3 is ~$300
1X8GB DDR4 ECC RDIMM ~$110

That would add about $100 to the implementation cost (vs an E3-1231V3+$250 board), and basically puts you on a platform that is ready to be expanded up to 18 core haswells and possible 24 core broadwells and up to 512GB RAM if your compute needs change in the coming years.

Sounds good! That will work just fine.

Did you pick up a decent workstation GPU for it?