Dell T5500 Workstation Xeon E5640

What is SW?

jmcom111,

The Xeon E5640 4-core @ 2.66 / 2.93 is a good CPU. It's a later LGA1366 32nm design and only uses 80W.

On Passmark, the E5640 averages a CPU mark of 5446 and Single Thread Mark of 1157.

However, while Solidworks has the best multi-threaded rendering- fully scalar to use all the cores- the single-threaded performance of the E5640 that would be important in modeling is quite low. I think of the E5640 as a higher end server CPU rather than desktop visualization processor.

On Passmark, the Precision T5500 / E5640 / Quadro 4000: with the highest CPU mark:

Rating: 2172
CPU: 9514 (2X E5640)
2D: 475
3D: 1915
Mem: 1473
Disk: 766 (WD1600HLFS)

On Passmark, the Precision T5500 / E5640 / Quadro 4000: with the highest system rating:

Rating: 2729
CPU: 5478 (1X E5640)
2D: 545
3D: 2053
Mem: 1515 (16GB)
Disk: 2648 (Kingston SV300 240GB)

Demonstrating for one thing, the value of a faster disk in overall system performance experience.

Overall, if you are considering buying a system for Solidworks, if you have the time and inclination, it would be advantageous to buy a system as cheaply as possible and upgrade selectively, or better, select a system that starts with a CPU with a higher performance. For example:

Dell Precision T5500 Xeon X5687 3.6Ghz/4GB RAM/250GB! > $250 or offer

This T5500 has a Xeon X5687 (4-core @3.6 /3.86GHz) which has the highest single-thread performance of any dual CPU LGA1366: CPU mark= 7195 / ST=1579. As core count increases, the calculation density increases but the single-thread performance deceases.

On Passmark, the Precision T5500 / X5687 / Quadro with the highest CPU mark:

Rating: 3728
CPU: 12600 (2X X5687)
2D: 664 (Quadro 5000)
3D: 2841
Mem: 1883 (96GB)
Disk: 2651 (CT240BX200SSD1)

On Passmark, the Precision T5500 / X5687 / Quadro: with the highest system rating:

Same as above

The much higher CPU performance and single-thread rating I believe will make for a much better SW experience, especially as the assemblies are more complex and there is any simulation /animation.

By the way, if you buy a T5500:

1. Solidworks is possibly the most Quadro-oriented program ever, and only consider a Quadro as the GPU, preferably 192-bit or better.

2. The memory is triple channel and best results will be had when adding modules in sets of three identical modules according to the specified layout sequence.

3. The disk system is 3GB/s but adding PERC H310 (used about $50) will make it 6GB/s. I added an H310 to a T5500 and without any other change the Samsung 840 240GB disk score improved from 1940 to 2649.

I use SW2015.Solidworks - poorly- on an HP z420 and T5500 which is a fantastic application and an industry standard, but it's sophistication does need a good CPU, Quadro, plenty of memory and fast disk.

And the Dell Precision T5500 is an excellent system, beautifully made, very good performance, and ultra-reliable.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

Modeling:

1. HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > Logitech z2300 speakers > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)>
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]

Rendering:

2. Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 (6-core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz), 48GB DDR3 1333 ECC Reg. > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > PERC H310 / Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Logitech z313 > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (27", 1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3844 > CPU = 15047 / 2D= 662 / 3D= 3550 / Mem= 1785 / Disk= 2649] (12.30.15)