$1500 CAD/FEA system build First time build.

[cornilsn]

Hi,

I do alot of work in Solidworks, dealing with large, 1000+piece assembles. My current machine no longer does the job. I've built PC's in the past -back in the late 90's I was building water cooled PC's and overclocking and all that. went to college for Engineering and forgot it all!


Approximate Purchase Date: This week

Budget Range: $1500 before rebates

System Usage from Most to Least Important: CAD modeling, FEA, CAM, office work, light gaming

Are you buying a monitor: Yes - Acer 19" 5ms DVI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824009237


Do you need to buy OS: Yes -buying Windows 7 home premium, full.

Preferred Website(s) for Parts:newegg.com

Location: City, State/Region, Country - Portland OR
Parts Preferences: Intel CPU

Overclocking: no

SLI or Crossfire: maybe

Your Monitor Resolution: Don't really care, any native res on a 19 will be fine.

Additional Comments: Want to keep it simple and reliable. buying 4 hard drives to run in RAID 10 configuration to improve speed and redundancy. 4x4gb RAM sticks to get the quad-channel thing going.

My main question is - is a RAID 10 the best way to get an increase in speed and reliability? Is there a different way I should do this? Any other comments on what I've got there?

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:Old laptop doesn't have the power and is being retired for use as an ECU tuning device.

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2 92mm Fluid Dynamic CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16835186134

SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7850 100355OCL Video Card OC Version
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16814102999

ASUS 24X DVD Burner - Bulk Black SATA Model DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS

OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16817341018

Rosewell Challenger computer case
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16811147153

Acer V193WEJbd Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16824009237

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Full
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16832116716

Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 3.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16822136769

CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16820233143

Intel Core i7-3820 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 2011 Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16819115229

BIOSTAR TPOWER X79 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16813138346

 

[allanitomwesh]

x79 is not for your budget. Get the Asrock z77 Extreme 4 and i7 3770k for similar performance.
Coolermaster hyper 212 EVO is a better cooler
XFX/seasonic is a better psu.
check this out http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=CA-912KKN1&c=CJ

Get one 512gb ssd instead of raid 10. Crucial M4 is good.

 

[TheBigTroll]

this is probably better for you. you wont need a graphics card unless you actually do some good gaming

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/gI9H

 

[g-unit1111]

That Arctic Cooling fan is horrendous. Get a Hyper 212 Evo instead.

And then switch your RAM with this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231556

 

[spentshells]

the cooler is not adequate as mentioned above but there is not point in a 212 even due to no overclocking but it is a great referrrence.#

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106161
this is a little shorter than the cm212

This is almost the same thing only a little cheaper than the 212

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181012

I guess I kinda over did it on the fans as well you really don't need these but to find something more reasonable you will need to put in some time

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600238945&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA%202011

try that motherboard instead, I see not reason to ever buy a biostar from experience the most locked up brand I ever saw.

 

[g-unit1111]

the cooler is not adequate as mentioned above but there is not point in a 212 even due to no overclocking but it is a great referrrence.#

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835106161
this is a little shorter than the cm212

This is almost the same thing only a little cheaper than the 2212


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181012

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007627%20600238945&IsNodeId=1&name=LGA%202011

try that motherboard instead, I see not reason to ever buy a biostar from experience the most locked up brand I ever saw.

I'm personally not the biggest fan of Thermaltake but anything is better than Arctic Cooling's poorly made fans.

I definitely agree with the above though that X79 isn't in the budget - the 3820 is about the same CPU as the 3770K.

So go with this:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231558

And then get the 212 Evo, I think it's a better option than most of the fans listed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

 

[spentshells]

I'm personally not the biggest fan of Thermaltake but anything is better than Arctic Cooling's poorly made fans.

I definitely agree with the above though that X79 isn't in the budget - the 3820 is about the same CPU as the 3770K.

So go with this:

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116501
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231558

And then get the 212 Evo, I think it's a better option than most of the fans listed: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103099

Really poorly made ?

I was super satisfied with my Ac7 on my e5300 oc'd to 4Ghz but not really that great of a setup for anything for a 6 core cpu

 

[allanitomwesh]

Interesting build bigtroll,I notice you completely removed overclocking. Why is that? He seems pretty interested in it to be getting Arctic Cooling. He also might need a graphics card for a multi monitor setup,but that can come later with the extra monitors .

 

[cornilsn]

Thanks for the input everyone!

I will go with the processor, motherboard, and RAM suggestions, as it saves a bunch of money and should offer comparible performance. I also will get a pair of 1tb drives I plan on running in a RAID setup (the one that mirrors two drives) for data safety, and got a 128gb SSD drive.

In my experience, solidworks does run alot better with a good graphics card, so I'm thinking I'll stick with the card I spec'd out, also I will have two monitors.

 

[g-unit1111]

Really poorly made ?

I was super satisfied with my Ac7 on my e5300 oc'd to 4Ghz but not really that great of a setup for anything for a 6 core cpu

I got an AMD Arctic Cooling fan and the pieces started snapping off of the fan as I was installing it, and then the mounts didn't exactly align with the AMD brackets so I had to completely take the motherboard out of the case in order to install it. Still doesn't cool the CPU as well I'd like it to.

 

[allanitomwesh]

Thanks for the input everyone!

I will go with the processor, motherboard, and RAM suggestions, as it saves a bunch of money and should offer comparible performance. I also will get a pair of 1tb drives I plan on running in a RAID setup (the one that mirrors two drives) for data safety, and got a 128gb SSD drive.

In my experience, solidworks does run alot better with a good graphics card, so I'm thinking I'll stick with the card I spec'd out, also I will have two monitors.

128gb is sufficient for windows and your software. A raid array is a good idea,especially for the long term when the drive starts ageing.
A hd7850 is a good card,the sweet spot for 1080p at the moment. I'm okay with the selection.

 

[spentshells]

I got an AMD Arctic Cooling fan and the pieces started snapping off of the fan as I was installing it, and then the mounts didn't exactly align with the AMD brackets so I had to completely take the motherboard out of the case in order to install it. Still doesn't cool the CPU as well I'd like it to.

Oh yeah ! I installed one on an AMD x2 6400 and a 4200 rev2 and I had to throw it away and use something else in the shop because of that shitty pushpin setup, frankly the first model as a little easier to remove


EDIT we didn't have the pushpins at the shop cause we were kinda one of those ripoff places.... cough MDG

 

[spentshells]

Oh yeah get and NV card for cad most cad apps support cuda you would be fooling not to get one, maybe even wait for the new 660 vanilla

 

[TheBigTroll]

Interesting build bigtroll,I notice you completely removed overclocking. Why is that? He seems pretty interested in it to be getting Arctic Cooling. He also might need a graphics card for a multi monitor setup,but that can come later with the extra monitors .

i was trying to achieve the cheapest build for his usage. he said no overclocking so i dont include those parts. of course you can but trying to achieve a much lower price point but get the same performance. if he needs more monitors, definitly get a graphics card like the 7850. i didnt include a video card given that he rates gaming last