Monster workstation/(personal)desktop for CAD

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rbx01x

New Member
YRHi everyone. I'm a CAD designer that never seems to have enough power at my finger tips. I'm hoping to start my own business soon and I need to build a computer that can deliver.

My first big choice was to choose between:

1) EVGA classified 2 motherboard with dual six-core Xeon processors (max ram 32gb I think? Can't remember atm)
2) Intel BOXDX79 motherboard with an Intel i7 3960x six-core (max ram 64gb)

I've seen setup #1 BLAST through a cini3D bench test with remarkable results. But to my knowledge, not every program makes use of every thread available. A program I use named solidworks is a perfect example of this.

Therefore, I'm leaning twards the i7 setup. I then plan on liquid cooling this processor and overclocking it to at least 5-5.5ghz.

Now possibly the most important part, what graphics cards to use?
By this point I would have already dropped a pretty penny on the motherboard, the processor and maxing out the ram.

I would almost have a platform from which I could begin working from, so if I choose a slighty cheaper graphics card, I could upgrade it a few months down the road after I get some business going.

So having that being said, the options I am thinking about are:
1) PNY Quadro 6000 (6gb workstation graphics card for a whopping $3,000)
Or
2) 3-way SLI graphics cards ( what cards, I don't know. I'm thinking at least 1.5-2gb cards)

I will be liquid cooling all video cards and each will have its own power supply. "Isn't that overkill" - Yes, I know. :)

So, I've put up my thoughs and some options. I would very much appreciate any feedback, correction, or opinions I can get!

Thank you!

-Ross
 
rbx01x said:
YRHi everyone. I'm a CAD designer that never seems to have enough power at my finger tips. I'm hoping to start my own business soon and I need to build a computer that can deliver.

My first big choice was to choose between:

1) EVGA classified 2 motherboard with dual six-core Xeon processors (max ram 32gb I think? Can't remember atm)
2) Intel BOXDX79 motherboard with an Intel i7 3960x six-core (max ram 64gb)

I've seen setup #1 BLAST through a cini3D bench test with remarkable results. But to my knowledge, not every program makes use of every thread available. A program I use named solidworks is a perfect example of this.

Therefore, I'm leaning twards the i7 setup. I then plan on liquid cooling this processor and overclocking it to at least 5-5.5ghz.

Now possibly the most important part, what graphics cards to use?
By this point I would have already dropped a pretty penny on the motherboard, the processor and maxing out the ram.

I would almost have a platform from which I could begin working from, so if I choose a slighty cheaper graphics card, I could upgrade it a few months down the road after I get some business going.

So having that being said, the options I am thinking about are:
1) PNY Quadro 6000 (6gb workstation graphics card for a whopping $3,000)
Or
2) 3-way SLI graphics cards ( what cards, I don't know. I'm thinking at least 1.5-2gb cards)

I will be liquid cooling all video cards and each will have its own power supply. "Isn't that overkill" - Yes, I know. :)

So, I've put up my thoughs and some options. I would very much appreciate any feedback, correction, or opinions I can get!

Thank you!

-Ross
Click to expand...

GTX 580 in 3-way SLI.

Hopefully they will be cheaper when everyone starts to buy the new Radeon 7970.
 
Don't bother with gaming graphics cards. If you are only doing cad work, use a card that is designed for that use. That quattro that you posted will outperform a 3 way GTX 580 setup by itself.

EDIT: I searches around a bit for a better explanation of why the professional graphics would be the better choice and I came across this PDF
http://www.lab2000.hr/download/materials/Graphics_Needs_for_AutoCAD.pdf

it does lay it out clearly how the two are different. I don't necessarily think that you need a $3000 card for your setup but I would definitely go for a professional card over a gaming card.
 
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Thank you very much for that article, it's really made me rethink the purpose of this machine and I'm again leaning twards the dual Xeons. Like the article says, reliability is not an option for CAD professionals. If I want to play games, I have a PS3 for that :)

Thanks again,

-Ross
 
the dual xeons would be faster right now, but evga is supposedly making a dual socket lga 2011 for early next year, or at least first half.
 
Dual i7's ?! (Jaw drops) that means even faster RAM! (Jaw hits the floor) do you have any links about this?

Thanks,

-Ross
 
I googled for some articles, but no release date was given. Dang technology... always so quick to outdate itself!
 
actually xeons and i7's aren't much different, xeons are actually made to support things like autocad or whatever and server uses better than i7's, but lga1366 xeons are considerably slower than lga2011 i7's. also by the time that board is out you can get some radeon HD 7XXX's or if it is out by then a few GTX 6XX's
 
What I would do is get a Less expensive LGA2011 board and the i7 and then if you need more latter after the Dual socket EVGA is released, then you can always upgrade. Then you will need 32 more GB of RAM to max it.

Overall, I think you should go with a quadro GPU. They are rock stable and pretty powerful, and coded for CAD work.
There is one for sale on the forum here somewhere. http://www.computerforum.com/205121-high-end-workstation-graphics-card.html. He only wants 1150 for it, so its a good bit cheaper than the Q6000 you were looking at, but not that much worse. You can always SLI down the road.
 
jonnyp11 said:
actually xeons and i7's aren't much different, xeons are actually made to support things like autocad or whatever and server uses better than i7's, but lga1366 xeons are considerably slower than lga2011 i7's. also by the time that board is out you can get some radeon HD 7XXX's or if it is out by then a few GTX 6XX's
Click to expand...

Xeons are made for servers. They are slower clocked, and have a higher degree of stability. Otherwise, they process the same 1s and 0s, and do the same job.

As for the GPU, he is doing CAD, not COD, so a 7000 or 600 won't serve him better than a professional GPU. There are big differences in them, and the Professional GPU will draw circles around a HD6970 or GTX580 with less cores and better coding.
 
i forgot he was looking at that q6000 for the gpu. and i thought xeons were a little better for this stuff, but i guess not. but since you said they are more stable, would one of the really high end xeons that do run at over 3ghz and all overclock better since it is more stable? just a thought.

and to the OP, if you're putting this much money in i'd def spend the extra on a good corsair H80 or H100 or something and put that cpu around 5ghz
 
If I were the OP, I would invest in a good Dual loop custom water cooling solution. Would net a high OC on both the CPU and all GPUs.

As for one that is above 3GHz, not worth the premium. Most i7s are really stable as is. Would you really reinforce a Bridge that can hold 10 Million tonnes anyway? And on top of that, The Xeons do not have unlocked multipliers. That means that they will be stuck to FSB overclocking, and that is less stable always, plus affects the RAM, and PCI/PCIe buses also. Best bet is a SB-E unlocked with the multi set way up there, say 50 or so (5GHz) and then if you want more, could set the FSB to 150 (7.5GHz), well thats a bit extreme, but you get the Idea. If 5GHz isn't enough, then you can mess around with the FSB to get it right where you want it.
 
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