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Thread: Help building a computer for CAD and simulation

  1. #1
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    Default Help building a computer for CAD and simulation

    Hey guys.

    So the computer I had built from 2010 has died. Motherboard went. I am now hurrying to build again.

    I am keeping the Samsung EVO 850 SSD. I would love to change the graphics card from the Ati HD 5850.. but I might just leave it if it can still work, because to be honest I haven't played a game in years as much I hate to admit it. The other components to replace would be the Motherboard, RAM and Processor. The power supply is still good I think (corsair 650 TX). The case is good.

    My main program of use is SolidWorks. When I check a Solidworks benchmark online AMD processor don't have good performance in CAD so this build would be an Intel build. For thermal and fluid simulation more cores help, but simulation is not the bulk of my time. 4 cores were fastest for most CAD tasks (modeling and such).

    I haven't really decided on a budget yet... I guess a medium budget?

    What are your thoughts on DDR4 memory frequencies? I heard 2666 Hz is the best value?

    And for the graphics card, can I convert a Ge-force into a Quadro? or a Radeon into a FirePro using software drviers? anyone tried before?

    On water-cooling.. I hate the fan noise sometimes, how much less noisy is a watercooled system? Any recommendations there? I currently have a big *** cooler master cooler two big fans.. it does a good job .. but the noise.

    Help appreciated!

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    Hey M,

    First up I would strongly urge you to reconsider the Intel only option. Look up AMD's new Ryzen Chips. They are roughly 10% slower than Intel clock for clock but you get far more cores/threads for your money ($240 Intel Core i5 - 4 cores 4 thread/$240 Ryzen 7 1600+ - 6 Cores 12 threads). Solidworks works benefits greatly from additional cores.

    Motherboard:
    I recommend ASUS or Gigabyte. If you're still leaning toward Intel, you'll want a Z270 Chipset. If you decide on Ryzen I would recommend the B350 Chipset. I have my eye on the ASUS ASUS Prime B350M-A when I upgrade this summer.

    Memory:

    DDR4 2666 Hz is indeed the sweetpot. If Intel, you could actually choose a 2400 Hz variant and not take much of a hit in performance. If AMD, you can get a decent boost from a higher clock speed. I'd go 3000 Hz for a few bucks more. The AMD early boards are known to be temperamental with memory so be careful.

    Graphics card:
    I haven't heard of converting either Nvidia or AMD cards to pro models recently. That kind of tinkering is not for the faint of heart. I have a Powercolor R280 lying around. If you're interested PM me.

    Watercooling:
    Hell yes it makes a huge difference. Besides being more efficient, the fans for the radiators are typically bigger than that of the air coolers and so do not require the same speed. Best bang for your buck these days seem to be Arctic Liquid Freezer 120/240.

    I hope this helps.

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    Thanks, Wolfman.

    Looks like it will be Intel for CAD according to this site:

    https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/ar...rformance-908/

    I don't do rendering a lot these days.. mostly mechanical drawings.. and every now and then flow simulation. AMD is fast in simulation with the cores.. but the money maker is the engineering drawings and such..

    Was shopping around.. and I getting stung by the crazy RAM and graphics cards prices! What happened? $120 for 16GB?!!

    Sad.. I will be holding only to my 8 year old graphics card until the prices fall..

    For the RAM I read a site saying some power outage affected samsung or something and the memory prices will remain high till Fall...gulp.. So I get juck right there no avoiding it. I have been using Corsair, but they are guilty in the price game.. the G-skill looks like a good value. What do you think of G-skill?

    Motherboard.. Gigabyte looks like a good value.. tho the ASUS dem look pretty.. might be gigabyte again this time..

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    Watch this rsub for deals on PC parts: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/new/

    I too will be re-building my system but I am going for the Ryzen 1700 and the ASRock X370 Taichi plus 16 GB of 3200 DDR4 memory. I mostly do PhotoShop/Adobe Premiere, web development and some light gaming. My future specs may seem a bit overboard but I am trying to futureproof for the next 5+ years.

    I already have a Cryorig H7 on my current Phenom II X4 940 and I am good with 7TB+ of storage space.
    1.8 Ghz Pentium 4 (OC'd.) / Intel P4 (478) Motherboard / 800MHz DDR / 256 Mb DDR RAM / 40GB Seagate / RIVA TNT2 Pro 32MB / 24X12X24 Sony CDRW+ / 18" View Sonic CRT / Windows ME Yes it will play Doom... i plan on trying Crysis 3 one of these days.

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    With those programs, more cores definitely help you I guess . I used to do a lot of design and video editing myself in early university days.. yeah was into art but the engineering side took over. I wish I had these fast processors that we have now back then. Rendering scenes on that AMD athlon 3200 not sure how I did that! took a few minutes to render one frame!.. A short 1 minute clip took a night to finish. haha.

    I stuck between the i5 7600k and 7700 now.. I too lazy.. haven't the time to overclock anything so I might just waste all those overclocking features.. But might just change my mind if anyone can say if the 7600k can be set a clock speed that is cool and comfortable on air cooling and deliver the i7-7700 performance and more?

    Thanks.

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    I'm currently running a Core i5 (4690K) and it overclocks like a champ (I routinely do 4.2 GHz) but in software that efficiently uses multi-threading I am never able to come close to Core i7 performance. There's just no way to do so with the lack of hyper-threading.

    Re: Overclock. I'm pretty much like you. I really haven't the time or interest to fiddle with a million settings. That's why I like ASUS boards. Their AI Suite makes it easy to do a quick and dirty overclock. No fanfare. No Stress.

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    I don't know about the Intel solution.

    That benchmark is 4 months old, just when Ryzen was released, and many optimizations to Ryzen has occurred since then.

    I will do some research
    Let's act on what we agree on now, and argue later on what we don't.
    Black men leave Barbeque alone if Barbeque don't trouble you

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    I want to wait for coffee lake six cores to see how that performs but I have to make a purchase now. Ryzen is interesting for futureproofing i guess. I emailed Puget systems and they said to go with the 7700k.

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    Sorry I could not respond earlier. The power to my router was failing for some hours before I found the problem.

    Really I did not find any other benchmark, at all with Ryzen, much less, a more recent one, than 4 months.



    Given that you mostly use General Modelling Tasks, I would recommend the i7 7700K. Still I would feel better with that advise if I knew how Ryzen benched now.

    In any case, the 7700K is the best option at this time.
    Let's act on what we agree on now, and argue later on what we don't.
    Black men leave Barbeque alone if Barbeque don't trouble you

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    Yerp. I emailed them about it. Even buying i5 7500 and i7 7700 or ryzen.. and they system builder guy said just buy a 7700k for that price bracket.

    They did a review on the X299 processors too. What AMD might wanna worry about is the i7 7800 six core. It is cheaper than the 1700X but faster overall in workstations.

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