Multipurpose CAD workstation $2-3k

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A

Adriantaylor09

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
3
0
1,510
Approximate Purchase Date:
Asap

Budget Range:
$2k-3k

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
1. CAD (solid edge, Solidworks, inventer, Autocad)
2. 3d scan data processing
3. Vr creation using Unity an Unreal dngines
4. Photogrammetry processing
5. Video editing



Parts Not Required:
Monitors, keyboard mouse

Preferred Website(s) for Parts:
-

Country:
New Zealand, but consider budget Tobe in USD

Parts Preferences:


Overclocking:
Rather not

SLI or Crossfire:


Monitor Resolution:
1080

Additional Comments:
Most of my computing is memory and gpu intensive. 64gb of memory is probably my minimum

This is my first ever build so go easy on a noon!! Thanks on advance for the help
 
Solution
basroil


You could, but just know that a decent workstation card will cost you as much as the 1080. You'll likely need to do a dual boot to avoid driver issues, and physically swapping out the cards is likely the most stable (though you can probably install both drivers and both cards and just swap the active monitor. personally never tested that setup though, so you'll be on your own there)
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
1
46,960
CAD and Unreal have two completely opposite hardware demands. I'm going to have to assume that the CAD demand isn't as heavy as unreal/unity:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6800K 3.4GHz 6-Core Processor ($409.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-L9x65 33.8 CFM CPU Cooler ($47.09 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X99-GAMING 5 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard ($197.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) DDR4-2400 Memory ($234.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($169.99 @ B&H)
Video Card: Asus GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Video Card ($629.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case ($54.99 @ NCIX US)
Power Supply: Corsair RMx 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($99.99 @ B&H)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($129.94 @ Amazon)
Total: $1974.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-12 01:46 EDT-0400

Yes, I know the cost is under $2000, I left a lot of headroom for NZ tax and a monitor of your choice
 
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A

Adriantaylor09

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
3
0
1,510
Thanks for taking the time to answer...

Yeah I figured that CAD vs Unreal/Unity is a bit different...

If I said that CAD was a greater requirement than the gaming side, what would change (if anything) from your suggestions... just the GPU or more?

Also, I see a lot of CAD setups using Xeon processors instead of i7s... I don't know a whole lot about processor architecture, cores and clock speed... are there any major differences I need to be aware of here in terms of CAD software?




 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
1
46,960


Xeon chips support (the much more expensive) ECC RAM for mission critical operations and dual/quad CPU configurations, but other than that they are pretty much identical to the i7 line (until you start getting to the really expensive chips, where internal differences start to show up). In fact, the i7s tend to have higher clocks for the same price.

For CAD vs Unity, using a workstation card with DX11/DX12 will absolutely cripple performance, not only because the same hardware performance is 5x the price, but because the drivers are geared towards OGL and not quite as good for DX. If you have any hopes for VR development, you'll have to either double your budget or sacrifice some CAD performance. innovator/autocad/3d max are all fine, solid edge/solidworks run better on workstation graphics solutions but it's not to say they won't be acceptably fast without. As long as you keep the models relatively simple (i.e. no 787 engine models complete thousands of blades and screws in wireframe mode, wireframe model of a cellphone should be fine), you will be very happy with the performance
 
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A

Adriantaylor09

Commendable
Aug 12, 2016
3
0
1,510
Excellent answer...

I've read that Inventor runs much better with gaming GPUs compared with other CAD packages.. unfortunately, I also need to use SE and SW frequently, and I will be working with large assemblies

Is it possible to run two GPUs.. one workstation and one gaming, and to switch between the two?
 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
1
46,960


You could, but just know that a decent workstation card will cost you as much as the 1080. You'll likely need to do a dual boot to avoid driver issues, and physically swapping out the cards is likely the most stable (though you can probably install both drivers and both cards and just swap the active monitor. personally never tested that setup though, so you'll be on your own there)
 
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Solution
Dynomite54

Dynomite54

Reputable
Jan 14, 2016
550
0
5,160
go with the i7 and now change it to a quadro trust me on this I have tryed a 1080 unreal engine render time. try the PNY NVIDIA Quadro M4000 blazying fast render times and it can hold 1080p on most new games.
 
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King Dranzer

King Dranzer

Splendid
Aug 16, 2016
5,052
321
29,140
Here is the perfect CAD setup:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz Quad-Core Processor ($319.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Corsair H100i v2 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($101.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z170 MARK 1 ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($239.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Corsair Dominator Platinum 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($229.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: NVIDIA TITAN X PASCAL ($1200.00 @ NVIDIA)
Storage: Intel 750 Series 400GB PCI-E Solid State Drive ($363.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Western Digital Gold 4TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($225.00 @ Amazon)
Case: Corsair 750D ATX Full Tower Case ($149.99 @ B&H)
Power Supply: Corsair 860W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $2972.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-08-27 00:30 EDT-0400

1. Go for i7-6700K and overclock it to its limits maintaining stability. CAD takes advantage of single core performance.
2. TITAN X PASCAL considered in top position standing only next to P6000.
3. Used PCIe SSD to make the loading process smoother.
 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
1
46,960


0 out of 10 for that build.
1) OP said 64GB ram was a minimum requirement
2) No operating system, some of his software requires Windows, so +$100 for windows is necessary
3) In NZ, where the OP is, that system would end up being well over $4000
 
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basroil

basroil

Glorious
Oct 19, 2013
8,698
1
46,960


In terms of CAD, no, having the required amount of memory is far more important than speed, especially when dealing with quad channel (see above suggestions)

The biggest issue though is that you're just resurrecting a zombie thread. OP's been gone for two weeks now, lets have him say something before continuing
 
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