$2000 SolidWorks PC Build

Hey HEADSHOTPUNK,

I'm on vacation in China right now, so PCPartPicker isn't cooperating. I suggest a Ryzen R7 1700, coupled with a B350 board, 32GB of DDR4 2133 (don't go above 2666 Mhz, as Ryzen has trouble dealing with extremely fast memory), a 128GB M.2 boot drive, 4TB storage drive, and a GTX 1080 Ti.

What sort of tasks is is looking to do within solidworks? More rendering based or more 2D and 3D and creation based stuff?

Amd Ryzen would be more suited to them for the rendering but an i7 7700k is better for the 3D and 2D moddeling side of things

Isn't a graphics card what matters in 3D/2D modelling?

The card can be the main player yes but for CAD programs rely more heavily on single thread/core performance to go along with this when doing it.

An example of how core performance vs multithreaded CPU is here in the ryzen review http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/amd-ryzen-7-1800x-cpu,4951-9.html

A solidworks cannot fully utilize some of the higher end work station gpus anyway so for example a GTX 1080Ti like mentioned above would be vastly OTT for the system along with the fact that it isn't even officially supported by solidworks

RYZEN based build here for more render based solidworks usage

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700X 3.4GHz 8-Core Processor ($399.99 @ B&H)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15S 82.5 CFM CPU Cooler ($89.19 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: Asus PRIME B350M-A Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($89.99 @ B&H)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($189.97 @ Jet)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: PNY Quadro M2000 4GB Video Card ($424.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter ($12.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Acer G257HU smidpx 25.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor ($254.99 @ Jet)
Total: $1861.84
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-10 07:02 EST-0500

i7 7700K build more for 3D modeling

tbh I would go with this one my self due to the single thread performance being that bit better along with the fact it works out slightly cheaper.

I haven't bothered with a mouse or keyboard on either build as that is totally down to personal preference really and what works for one user doesn't always work for another

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700K 4.2GHz Quad-Core Processor ($329.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($24.88 @ OutletPC)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z270M-D3H Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($113.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($189.97 @ Jet)
Storage: Western Digital Blue 250GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($86.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($123.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Video Card: PNY Quadro M2000 4GB Video Card ($424.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Case: Rosewill REDBONE U3 ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: EVGA 500W 80+ Certified ATX Power Supply ($38.88 @ OutletPC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($99.99 @ Amazon)
Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN781ND PCI-Express x1 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi Adapter ($12.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Monitor: Acer G257HU smidpx 25.0" 2560x1440 60Hz Monitor ($254.99 @ Jet)
Total: $1751.52
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-03-10 07:24 EST-0500

HEADSHOTPUNK,

The suggestions by abaday789 are very good as they both would have good performance and also describe the problem of having a good Solidworks system.

The speed of the 3D modeling depends entirely on the single-thread performance of the CPU, while the rendering is entirely CPU-based but fully capable of using all available CPU cores. If your friend spend most of the time doing the modeling, then the i7-7700K is the way to go, but if a lot of high pass renderings are the priority, then the Ryzen 7 is a good idea. I use Solidworks and other 3D and in my experience, the 3D modeling is the vastly larger proportion of the time.

That said, my suggestion is to consider a middle ground- a 6-core Xeon E5. On of the current ones that have both a very good single-thread rating and can run renderings much faster having the 4 addition al threads is the Xeon E5-1650 v4. On Passmark benchmarks, the single-thread mark can run as high as 25480. The stock i7-7700K average is 2597, but at high overclocking runs at over 3000. I don't advide overclocking Solidworks however as there are all kinds of sub-programs and plug-ins running that could be made "unhappy".

The E5-1650 v4 however, quite expensive- $650, so the solution might be:

HP Z440 Workstation Xeon E5-1650V4 3.6GHz 32GB 256GB SSD No Graphics card no OS > sold for $940

OR:

Dell Precision 5810 Workstation - 1 x Intel Xeon E5-1650 v4 Hexa-core (6 Core) > New $1,310

That includes a Quadro K620 which is good enough to setup and do small scale SW projects.

Solidworks has to have a Quadro. A $175 Quadro K620 will outperforms a $1,000 Titan. So, to either of those systems add one of the new Pascal Quadro P2000 5GB- about $450. It uses the same GPU as a GTX 1060, but at 160-bit. The P2000 replaces the very good M2000 4GB and outperforms the Quadro M4000 8GB.

The RAM should be increased to a minimum of 16GB, but leave slots to eventually have 64GB.

The M.2 SSD are great in benchmarks- the Samsung 960 Evo 256GB at $130 is very fast and reasonably priced, but in real world use, it not noticeable and in SW, M.2 drives can run too hot. Better overall, have a Samsung 850 Evo 500GB and only backup to a mech'l HD.

So, there are a couple of alternatives. the attraction of the HP and Dell is that the system can be ready to go quickly and is designed for exactly this kind of work- reliable,under long slogs, quiet, and has very good single-point support. Even better, the Dell would be under warranty too.

As for the keyboard and monitor, the user should see those in person. But. I'd suggest if all possible in the budget have two monitors. Even if one is a good 24" and the other is a 19" from a thrift store- have two.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > 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 + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14046 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16]
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1031cb / Single Core = 142 cb / OpenGL= 127.39 fps / MP Ratio = 7.24x] 3.2.17

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card + Logitech z313 2.1 speakers / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16
[ Cinebench R15: CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / OpenGL= 119.23 fps / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

It would most likely be faster, as it is Pascal based. If you can afford it, go for it.