Feedback Request for my coming CAD rig

[screwface10]

Intended Use

Mechanical CAD modeling, rendering, animation, and FEA analysis. Hardware should be capable of handling large assemblies of parts (5000+) without hiccup. General office, browsing, and web creation tasks. I don't plan on playing any games, and I'm not really into 3D action games, so no worries about making a gaming rig.

I'll overclock the hardware slightly, but not enough to warrant having a loud case fan setup. I want this rig to be quiet, peaceful, and stable, as I'll be working in a home office, and my girlfriend will be sharing the space for studying.

Since I'll be paying for this out of my own pocket, I'm trying to get the total cost under $1300 total including shipping and tax. It'll be a budget CAD rig, but enough to do the job.

Software

SolidWorks 2008
Autodesk Inventor 2008
Matlab
Rhino
Flash
Photoshop

Potential Hardware - Prices taken from NewEgg on 05/12/2008 and will be bought in the USA

CPU: Intel Q6600 2.4GHz - $220
Heatsink/Cooler: Stock - $0, ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro - $27
RAM: G.Skill 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800 SDRAM PC2 6400, Timing 5-5-5-15 - $85
Motherboard: ASUS P5K-E/WIFI-AP - $150
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda ES ST3320620NS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s - $90
Optical Drive: Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - $27
Video Card: PNY Quadro FX570 - $185
Case/PSU: Antec Sonata III w/ 500W PSU - $130
Monitor: Acer AL2223Wd 22" LCD - $230
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit - $100

Total - $1244 which leaves about $55 for tax, shipping, and upgrades/changes. Tax will likely be something like $100, so I'm over budget right now by like $100.

I'm willing to listen to any advice on changes made to the above configuration. I'm planning on picking up an old IBM Model M keyboard and I already have a mouse handy.

It's been a while since I built my own system (last one was an Athlon 1.2GHz box with 768MB RAM, which was blazing fast in 2001).

TIA.

 

[DSF]

With a Q6600 you don't need DDR2-1000, especially if you're only going for a mild overclock. I would save a little money and get some decent DDR2-800 instead. Is the integrated WiFi important to you? If not, you could probably save some money on the motherboard too. With those savings you could bump the hard drive up to something higher performance like the WD Caviar 640GB or Samsung Spinpoint 750GB. $90 is too much to pay for a 320GB hard drive.

As far as case, something like an Antec P182 should help keep things nice and quiet. Corsair's power supplies are known for their low noise, and I believe most Seasonics are fairly quiet as well. I don't know much about the power requirements of that graphics card, but I would think 450-500W should be plenty. If you do decide on the P182 and want everything as quiet as possible, you'll either need to run the stock fans on their lowest setting or replace them.

The most popular cooler recommendation right now is the Xigmatek HDT-1283. It offers pretty good cooling for the price. Other common choices are the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro and Tuniq Tower. The OCZ Vendetta seems to be getting a lot of looks lately, although I'm not sure why. (That's not to say it's a bad cooler, I just don't know much about it.)

 

[screwface10]

DSF, thanks for the feedback. The P182 is listed for $170, and that's without a power supply. Since I'm not OCing much, nor moving the case around, nor modding it at all, I think that $200+ is too much to spend on something that will have minimal effect on my ability to get the job done. So, I think I'd like a cheaper solution. Something around $100 for case+PSU.

The wifi is needed because I don't have a wired network in my apartment, but do have wifi. All other computers on the network are laptops.

The XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 is $37.00, the Tuniq Tower 120 is $50, and the ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro is only $27. I think I'll go with the latter, hoping that it's fairly quiet.

 

[DSF]

Sometimes the P182 goes on sale for around $90-100. I wouldn't recommend it for $170.

Some cases you might want to look at would be the Coolermaster Centurion 5, Coolermaster 590/690, Antec Solo or Antec Sonata III. The Sonata III comes with a 500W Antec Earthwatts PSU, which is a pretty good part. Don't buy a case & PSU bundled together unless you know exactly what the PSU is. Most PSUs that come installed in cases, especially budget cases, are low quality units. That runs the risk of damaging all your other parts.

As with the P182, the Solo is often on sale for a fraction of its MSRP. I wouldn't pay full price for it either.

 

[screwface10]

The Antec Solo is currently $90, and a Thermaltake TR2 430W ATX Power Supply is $35 for a total of $125. The Sonata III is $130 w/ 500W PSU, so that seems like a better deal to me.

 

[Slowlearner]

You need to be looking at 3 hard drive setup, a smaller one with large cache for the principal drive, a larger one for data, and an external hard drive for backup (there are other options too). For a pc being used for work, I recommend against very large hard drives, as the prospect of a damaging data loss is always there. Having used a Sonata II, I like it except for the fact that for optical drives you may need longer cables. While I have had no problems, there were issues with Sonata's psus in the past.

 

[screwface10]

OK, so I'm $100 over budget right now. What do I downgrade?

I just noticed that the Q6600 that I saw before was actually a retail box, so it includes the stock fan/heatsink. So that's a $27 reduction there if I keep the stock heatsink. How does that affect OCing?

Is it worth it to look for a cheaper CPU? Maybe the E8400@$199 or the E6850@$185? I'm not sure I want to skimp here though as it directly affects performance.

 

[screwface10]

Wouldn't a 3HD setup be cost prohibitive?

Although I already have an external HD I can use for back, two internal HDs would be an added cost. I'd have to look at a Raptor or other 10k RPM HD to get a 16MB cache, right?

Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s - $90
Western Digital Raptor WD740ADFD 74GB 10000 RPM SATA 1.5Gb/s - $140

36GB isn't very much for running the OS and software these days, especially with Vista.

 

[Modelworks]

I use a config very close to what you have listed for 3d work with 3dsmax, maya.
It performs fine.

I really don't see anything I would change with that setup.

 

[screwface10]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
I use a config very close to what you have listed for 3d work with 3dsmax, maya.
It performs fine.

I really don't see anything I would change with that setup.

What Video card do you have? What sort of problems have you run into? If you could change one thing, what would it be?

Have you compared the workstation cards to the consumer/gaming cards?

 

[Modelworks]

The video card I am using now is a 8800GTS 640MB, but I have also used professional cards.
The biggest issue with the video card is that some companies will not provide support if you tell them you are using a gaming card.
They will call it unqualified hardware and then your own your own.

Still I have not personally had a problem using a gaming card.

The only problems I have had really were vista related.
There is still quite a bit of professional software that has glitches with vista.
Things like viewports not updating properly, its mainly visual related stuff.
I suggest you check the websites and forums for any software you use to see if it has any problems.

I currently use Winxp X64.
If I could change one thing it would be probably the hard drive.
More space is always welcome.

 

[Slowlearner]

If you already have a external hd for back up thats good. But you certainly need two hard drives. A Raptor would be great, but I would settle for 16mb cache Sata drive for 60$ and data drive for 80 - available at all the usual places.

Otherwise, you setup is good and no major downgrades are warranted -except may be Win XP. Stick with the video card chosen, though a FX 370 would be a little cheaper.

 

[DSF]

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
You need to be looking at 3 hard drive setup, a smaller one with large cache for the principal drive, a larger one for data, and an external hard drive for backup (there are other options too). For a pc being used for work, I recommend against very large hard drives, as the prospect of a damaging data loss is always there. Having used a Sonata II, I like it except for the fact that for optical drives you may need longer cables. While I have had no problems, there were issues with Sonata's psus in the past.

I disagree with the three hard drive set up. That's just unnecessary expense. I can understand one for backup, but you really don't need two internals. As for the Sonata II, that was a different power supply. Antec's Earthwatts line is pretty well respected and doesn't suffer from the issues that the earlier Antec PSUs did.

You could definitely step down to an E8400 if you wanted to. It's still a plenty fast chip.

 

[screwface10]

Originally posted by: DSF

Originally posted by: Slowlearner
You need to be looking at 3 hard drive setup, a smaller one with large cache for the principal drive, a larger one for data, and an external hard drive for backup (there are other options too). For a pc being used for work, I recommend against very large hard drives, as the prospect of a damaging data loss is always there. Having used a Sonata II, I like it except for the fact that for optical drives you may need longer cables. While I have had no problems, there were issues with Sonata's psus in the past.

I disagree with the three hard drive set up. That's just unnecessary expense. I can understand one for backup, but you really don't need two internals. As for the Sonata II, that was a different power supply. Antec's Earthwatts line is pretty well respected and doesn't suffer from the issues that the earlier Antec PSUs did.

You could definitely step down to an E8400 if you wanted to. It's still a plenty fast chip.

Thanks for the insight. I don't plan on going to 3HDs, but maybe a faster main drive would be a good idea? What does a 10k RPM drive with a 16MB cache buy me?

Also, what's the exact difference between the Q6600 and the E8400 and how does that effect MCAD work?

 

[DSF]

The Q6600 is a 65nm chip that has 4 cores each running at 2.4GHz. The E8400 is a newer 45nm with two cores each running at 3.0GHz. One core of the E8400 gets slightly more done per clock cycle of the Q6600, but not by much. The question really becomes how many of your applications take advantage of multiple cores, and how many applications do you generally run at one time. Those aren't questions I can answer.