First Build Recommendation: CAD Workstation

[Goosebumps]

I am planning on building my first system that will be used for Autocad and Solidworks. I am new to this so I would like to know what you recommend given my budget and usage.

Thanks.


1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.

Autocad, Solidworks, Matlab, and gaming (minimum)

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread

$2000 - $2200 USD

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.

USA - California

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.

None.

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.

None.

*

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.

Overclocking in the future.

8. What resolution will you be using?

I need monitors. I would like a dual monitor setup.

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?

Within 2 weeks.

*

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?

I'll get a copy of Windows through my school.

 

[DSF]

You said "purchasing" your first build, but I'm assuming from the context of the post that you intend to build it yourself, is that accurate?

 

[Ajay]

Uh, two good quality CAD monitors (24") will blow 1/2 your budget!

 

[Goosebumps]

You said "purchasing" your first build, but I'm assuming from the context of the post that you intend to build it yourself, is that accurate?

Yes. I will build it myself. I've edited OP to make it clear.

Uh, two good quality CAD monitors (24") will blow 1/2 your budget!

I'm a student so I don't think I can justify buying something too fancy.

 

[Cerb]

Solidworks

Quadro. Any one will do.

 

[Ajay]

I'm a student so I don't think I can justify buying something too fancy.

Check out the Catleap threads.

 

[mfenn]

OK, so $2000 with two monitors, mouse, keyboard, and no OS?

Xeon E3-1230 V2 $240
ASRock B75 Pro3 $80
Kingston DDR3 1333 16GB $78
GTX 560 Ti $200 AR - CUDA support
Crucial M4 128GB $110
Samsung F3 1TB $70
Lite-On DVD Burner $18
PC P&C Silencer Mk III 600W $48 AR AP
Antec Three Hundred Two $70
Subtotal: $914 AR AP

Dell U2412M x2 $580 - You want the best monitors you can afford. These are $90 (ea.) until tomorrow. I'd advise buying them immediately.
Logitech G400 $43
Logitech K120 $15
Total: $1552

For another $145, you can get an i7 3770K, ASRock Z77 Pro3, and Hyper 212 EVO, which is overclocking-capable. I don't know if I would do that on a machine that I relied on for school though.

 

[Goosebumps]

OK, so $2000 with two monitors, mouse, keyboard, and no OS?

Xeon E3-1230 V2 $240
ASRock B75 Pro3 $80
Kingston DDR3 1333 16GB $78
GTX 560 Ti $200 AR - CUDA support
Crucial M4 128GB $110
Samsung F3 1TB $70
Lite-On DVD Burner $18
PC P&C Silencer Mk III 600W $48 AR AP
Antec Three Hundred Two $70
Subtotal: $914 AR AP

Dell U2412M x2 $580 - You want the best monitors you can afford. These are $90 (ea.) until tomorrow. I'd advise buying them immediately.
Logitech G400 $43
Logitech K120 $15
Total: $1552

For another $145, you can get an i7 3770K, ASRock Z77 Pro3, and Hyper 212 EVO, which is overclocking-capable. I don't know if I would do that on a machine that I relied on for school though.

Is there any benefit in going with a 660 TI? I'll have to really think about having the overclocking capability in case I choose to do it later.

Thanks!

 

[bononos]

If you're planning on using 3d features in your cad applications, you'd better get a pro card (Firegl or Quadro), there are low-end ones which should fit into your budget.

 

[mfenn]

Is there any benefit in going with a 660 TI? I'll have to really think about having the overclocking capability in case I choose to do it later.

Thanks!

No, there's really no point unless you want the extra gaming performance. The GK104 is crippled from a compute perspective, so it doesn't perform that much better than GK104.

If you're planning on using 3d features in your cad applications, you'd better get a pro card (Firegl or Quadro), there are low-end ones which should fit into your budget.

This has been pretty much debunked for the products that the OP is interested in. Student versions typically don't come with any support either, so that argument is moot as well.

 

[Goosebumps]

No, there's really no point unless you want the extra gaming performance. The GK104 is crippled from a compute perspective, so it doesn't perform that much better than GK104.

I think I'll stick with the 560 TI.

 

[bononos]

............
This has been pretty much debunked for the products that the OP is interested in. Student versions typically don't come with any support either, so that argument is moot as well.

I wasn't aware of that. Do you have any links on the debunking?

 

[Bogie216]

Don't get a Xeon processor, AutoCAD is written as a single threaded program and not programmed to take advantage of the Xeon processor, get a high clock speed on whatever Intel processor you intend to purchase. I prefer the socket 2011 right now as they have a lot of good features to benefit ACad. You could get the 1155 socket and save some money and not sacrifice too much. A multi core processor would be best as you will most likely have other programs running in the background such as anti virus, mail, etc. Some rendering programs do take advantage of multi threading, and would use multiple cores and hyperthreading. Don't skimp on the amount of ram either and get a 64 bit OS. 2D autucad doesn't require much in the way of resources, but if you seriously draw you may have numerous windows open at once and more ram is better.

While many claim that you don't need a professional graphics card, you really do to take advantage of the drivers that NVidia offers. Up until the last version of ACad, Nvidia and AutoDesk partnered pretty well but AutoDesk dropped the performance drivers that Nvidia wrote. As a professional I would get the PNY Quadro 2000 or 4000 cards. The 2000 will do fine, the 4000 if you believe you'll be doing a lot of rendering and animations, etc and you have the budget for it but it is very pricey and probably not really worth the cost for what you may be doing as a student and young professional, then again, I don't know what you will be getting into, only you know that.

For 2000 to 2200 you should be able to build a very good system, I would recommend ASUS Motherboards, i7 processor, and if you get the 1155 socket you should be able to take direct advantage of a SSD as a cache, but you don't need a huge SSD, a 64GB will work nicely as a cache only, and then get a decent HDD. 16GB ram but make sure you populate all the channels the MBoard has to offer, I prefer GSkill or Crucial, The Quadro 2000 card, Asus CD/DVD Burner, and as for a montior, a 24" Dell (they have a great monitor that is eIPS), add a mouse, keyboard, and case and you're all set. I like the Antec Cases, I have a 300 and P180 but would go for the 302 next time.
Good Luck

 

[Cerb]

For AutoCAD, any GPU will do, but non-Intel will do better (it's all drivers). I'd be more concerned about Solidworks, which is one of a few apps still known to be somewhat picky. If you want to prioritize gaming, a 560 Ti is quite a fair GPU for the money.

 

[Phil L]

First, you do not need fancy monitors for CAD work at all, what mfenn suggested will do perfectly well. Who cares if your monitor is not 95% gamut when you are doing CAD work... it's not Photography or CG work.

As for for SolidWorks, it's all basically single threaded. It uses multithreading for UI only, so a faster CPU is better, not more cores. You can check out SolidMuse Punch Holder Benchmark for some bench result on the compute side of thing.

Additionally, SolidWorks does NOT leverage a pro graphics card. All the pro gpu driver will give you is RealView, pretty shadow and reflection, not worth the money at all (sometimes you can actually force pro drivers onto mainstream card to enable RealView, I was able to do it for Radeon 6850 for a coworker. And the bench number showed no appreciable performance difference between same level pro/mainstream hardware for SW.) So buy a nice mainstream gaming card so you can game and do CAD all for much cheaper.

I am not sure if AutoCAD and/or Matlab actually leverage GPU compute or not, but with a fast CPU like SB/IB, it should not matter much, especially for school usage only.

Just a few thoughts,

 

[mfenn]

Don't get a Xeon processor, AutoCAD is written as a single threaded program and not programmed to take advantage of the Xeon processor, get a high clock speed on whatever Intel processor you intend to purchase. I prefer the socket 2011 right now as they have a lot of good features to benefit ACad. You could get the 1155 socket and save some money and not sacrifice too much.

OK, lots of things wrong with these statements.

First, its internally inconsistent. You say that Autocad isn't written to take advantage of a Xeon processor (whatever that actually means), but then you go on to say that the OP should get Socket 2011? You do realize that all Socket 2011 parts are rebranded server-grade Xeons, right?

Second, the Xeon E3 parts are just non overclocking capable Ivy Bridge i7s that cost less. If you're not going to OC (which you shouldn't since it's a workstation), there's no benefit to paying another $60 for an i7 3770 other than a couple hundred MHz.

 

[mfenn]

I am not sure if AutoCAD and/or Matlab actually leverage GPU compute or not, but with a fast CPU like SB/IB, it should not matter much, especially for school usage only.

Matlab does use CUDA for certain functions if you have the right toolboxes installed.

 

[mfenn]

I wasn't aware of that. Do you have any links on the debunking?

Solidworks: The RealView feature being locked to Quadro cards is pure payola from Nvidia. It's literally a registry change to enable it on any card.

AutoCAD: Plenty of users who use AutoCAD on Geforce at home and on Quadro at work say they don't see any difference.

Matlab: Matlab graphics are all 2D and simple 3D using OpenGL. They really don't care at all.