Is this Workstation Build good enough for CFD Simulation (Medium to Heavy) on COMSOL, ANSYS, etc.

[Kevv__Smith]

Hey Guys,

This is my first build. I need some advice for building a workstation to carry out modelling and simulation work on COMSOL, ANSYS, Solidworks, etc. The specifications are as follows

CPU Intel Core i5 7600K 3.8 to 4.2 Ghz. Socket 1151
MB 4Intel Asus Prime B250-Pro 1151 Socket B250 CS M.2 VGA DVI HDMI DDR4
Memory DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R 16gb Kit 8gb 2pcs Red LED 3000 MHz
HDD Seagate SATA 1Tb Barracuda ST1000DM010
Solid State Drive Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata 250gb MZ-N5E250BW SSD
DVD Writer Samsung OEM SATA Black 24X
SMPS Corsair 650W VS650
Graphics Card Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 OC 2GB DDR5 GV-N1050OC-2GD
Fan CPU Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Turbo
Cabinet Corsair Carbide 100R Side Window without SMPS

This would be costing me around INR 70k (or close to $1100).

Please let me know if this would be good enough for my requirements at this price. Please do suggest if I should make any other changes to it to increase the value for money.

Thank You.

 

[bambiboom]

Hey Guys,

This is my first build. I need some advice for building a workstation to carry out modelling and simulation work on COMSOL, ANSYS, Solidworks, etc. The specifications are as follows

CPU Intel Core i5 7600K 3.8 to 4.2 Ghz. Socket 1151
MB 4Intel Asus Prime B250-Pro 1151 Socket B250 CS M.2 VGA DVI HDMI DDR4
Memory DDR4 Corsair Vengeance LPX CMU16GX4M2C3000C15R 16gb Kit 8gb 2pcs Red LED 3000 MHz
HDD Seagate SATA 1Tb Barracuda ST1000DM010
Solid State Drive Samsung 850 EVO M.2 Sata 250gb MZ-N5E250BW SSD
DVD Writer Samsung OEM SATA Black 24X
SMPS Corsair 650W VS650
Graphics Card Gigabyte Nvidia Geforce GTX 1050 OC 2GB DDR5 GV-N1050OC-2GD
Fan CPU Cooler Master Hyper 212 LED Turbo
Cabinet Corsair Carbide 100R Side Window without SMPS

This would be costing me around INR 70k (or close to $1100).

Please let me know if this would be good enough for my requirements at this price. Please do suggest if I should make any other changes to it to increase the value for money.

Thank You.

Kevv_Smith,

First, if you are using Solidworks, you will have poor performance using a GTX less than the very highest model- a Quadro is necessary fro good results. I am not a high-level user of Solidworks, but do use a Quadro K4200 4GB for good results. This is going to be replaced in a few days by a new Quadro P2000 5GB. Consider changing the graphics card to Quadro P1000 or at minimum P600.

It is quite difficult to have a single system having high performance in both 3D modeling and simulation. The 3D modeling in Solidworks would be very good using the i7-770K as it has a high clock speed of 4.2 /4.5GHz, but Soldworks, COMSOL, and ANSYS simulation are well-threaded and benefits from more cores rather than high processor clock speed. We use a 4 GHz 6-core Xeon for 3D modeling, but for simulation, analysis, and rendering, use a dual 8-core Xeon - that's 16 cores at 2.9/3.8GHz.

I would suggest trying a system using the Ryzen 7 1700 8-core processor.

Sorry this is US prices and over the budget, but gives you the idea:

Workstation: 2D /3D CAD / Simulation_4.13.17

CPU: AMD RYZEN 7 1700 3.0GHz 8-Core 3.0 / 3.7Ghz Processor ($329.99 @ B&H)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master MasterAir Pro 3 28.0 CFM CPU Cooler ($29.99 @ Newegg)

Motherboard: ASUS PRIME B350-PLUS AM4 AMD ATX Motherboard ($99.99 @ Newegg)

Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 Memory ($94.99 @ Newegg)

Drive 1: Samsung 850 EVO-Series 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($97.88 @ OutletPC)

Drive 2: Western Digital Blue 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive ($64.99 @ NCIX US)

Video Card: Quadro P1000 > ($314 @ SuperBiiz)

Case: Thermaltake Suppressor F31 ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.99 @ SuperBiiz)

Power Supply: Corsair CXM 550W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($68.98 @ Newegg)

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($17.88 @ OutletPC)

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro OEM 64-bit ($128.31 @ OutletPC)

____________________________________________

TOTAL = $1,343

The Ryzen 7 may be overclocked for better 3D modeling- it may need a higher performance CPU cooler, and then there are 8 cores /16 thread for simulation.

For simulation the RAM really should be a minimum of 32GB, but the 2X 8GB allows the other 16GB to be added later.

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= 14226 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 4694 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2098 [3.24.17]
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1031cb / Single Core = 142 cb / OpenGL= 127.39 fps / MP Ratio = 7.24x] 3.2.17
[FryBench: 3:24 /Efficiency 2177.13] 3.11.17

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 Single Thread Mark = 1903
[ Cinebench R15: CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / OpenGL= 119.23 fps / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

 

[Kevv__Smith]

Thank you very much for your inputs.

Regarding gtx 1050, as i would not be doing high levels of 3d rendering, i choose a mid range graphic card.

The hyperthreading in 7700k doesn't help in softwares such as COMSOL, ANSYS as they utilize only the real cores. And the 7600k matches well with the 7700k on single core performance along with the value for money it provides. Please do correct me if i am wrong.

Regarding Ryzen 7 1700, no doubt these processors pack in the cores along with performance. But would it be advisable to go for such a new processor over the reliable i5/i7 considering it in long run?

 

[bambiboom]

Thank you very much for your inputs.

Regarding gtx 1050, as i would not be doing high levels of 3d rendering, i choose a mid range graphic card.

The hyperthreading in 7700k doesn't help in softwares such as COMSOL, ANSYS as they utilize only the real cores. And the 7600k matches well with the 7700k on single core performance along with the value for money it provides. Please do correct me if i am wrong.

Regarding Ryzen 7 1700, no doubt these processors pack in the cores along with performance. But would it be advisable to go for such a new processor over the reliable i5/i7 considering it in long run?

Kevv_Smith,

I apologize as since posting, I've learned that in COMSOL- which I've not used- that there is an optimal relationship between core count and memory channels. My expectation was based on Solidworks and Inventor simulation which have a number of processes that are well threaded and Matlab which can be fully multi-threaded- will run on every thread available as will NAMB.

But, COMSOL is different to all those:

"Number of Cores on the CPU

All CPU's have at least one core per memory channel. Having additional cores on the CPU will enable an additional level of parallelization, but this introduces an additional computational cost. In many cases there is only a marginal benefit (and sometimes even a decrease in performance) to using more than two cores per memory channel. Therefore, for a CPU with four memory channels, consider either a four-core or an eight-core CPU, but not substantially more.

If you already have a computer with substantially more than two cores per memory channel, you can change the number of cores used by COMSOL Multiphysics by supplying the option -np to the COMSOL Multiphysics start command or by changing Number of cores in Preferences under Multicore and Cluster Computing. For example, on a dual-CPU machine with 18 cores per processor there are a total of 36 cores and 8 memory channels. On this dual-CPU machine using only 16 cores often results in optimal performance. The optimal Number of cores setting can depend upon model type, solver choice, and model size."

This relationship is based on the importance of the number of the memory channels, the amount of memory, and the memory /I/O speed:

"Number of Memory Channels

COMSOL Multiphysics models are typically very memory-intensive, they pass a lot of data back and forth between the CPU and the RAM memory. This is the primary bottleneck in simulation speed. To maximize the speed at which data is passed back and forth between the CPU and RAM, computers use multi-channel memory bus architecture. Having multiple channels lets data get passed back and forth over different channels at the same time, parallelizing the data transfer. Current generation high-end CPU's all have four memory channels.

Memory Speed

RAM memory chips (DIMM's) have a listed maximum clock speed. Current generation maximum memory speed is 2400MHz. However, some entry-level processors cannot support the maximum memory speed and will use a lower memory speed. Your hardware vendor should be able to provide this information.

The maximum memory speed also depends upon how many DIMM's are installed. For example, a typical four-channel single-CPU computer will have four banks (one for each memory channel) and each of these banks has four open slots for a total of 16 open slots. However, if more than two slots are used in any bank then the memory speed does get reduced. For example, if you want to install 16GB of RAM, then install either 4x4GB or 8x2GB DIMM's, rather than 16x1GB. Also, do not install 1x16GB or 2x8GB DIMM's since then some of the memory channels would be unused.
"

__ On this basis, and taking into consideration the budget, your CPU specification and the high memory speed is correct. Leaving space for another 16GB is a good idea, but based on the article it appears that for all four cores to be useful, both memory channels should be filled.

Sorry for the uninformed assumptions.

If you are rendering in Solidworks, that is CPU-based unless you are using Visualize. The Quadro is reccommeded epsecially for the veiport support and CUDA acceleration of the polygonal positional calculations. SEE:

Why you should use a Quadro video card in Solidworks 2016

> Which is based on tests done by Puget systems who supply specialized professional workstations.

A very interesting project. What kind of work are you doing?

Cheers,

BambiBoom

 

[Kevv__Smith]

Bambiboom,

I read that article as well. I will look into the prospect of putting in the quadro card.

I am working on simulation of transport phenomena inside a CVD reactor.

I had some concern if the b250 motherboard would suffice the requirements, also would the SMPS and cooler be good enough for the system?

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers.