Question 3000$ CAD Build questions

[lazarba]

Hullo all.

I have been tasked with creating a 3000+ euros rig intended for professional use. The client will mostly use CAD programs, like RHINO and LUMION.
I have experience putting together the parts for a PC , as I have been doing it for gaming for years, but I have never build a rig for CAD.
So heres the question, aside from choosing a workstation GPU like a QUADRO, do I need to change anything else from a regular high end rig?
The build must include a keyboard, mouse and screen.

Thus far I have been thinking of getting these parts:
CPU: RYZEN 7 7800X3D (400 euros)
MOBO: Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX (rev. 1.0) (300 euros)
RAM:G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5 (140euros)
PSU:Corsair RMx Series RM850x (2021) 850W ( 160 euros)
SSD: 1x Kingston KC3000 SSD 1TB M.2 (80euros)
1xAdata XPG Gammix S11 Pro SSD 2TB(90 euros)
which amounts to about 1200e.

And for a GPU I was thinking about GPU: PNY RTX A4500 20GB GDDR6 (1500 euros).

These specs are just my first thoughts, I am sure all can be improved. My main question is whether these otherwise "normal" components are ok for a workstation build.
Thanks a ton!

 

[thestryker]

Generally speaking you're going to want a platform that uses ECC DRAM for any type of workstation. All Zen 4 CPUs support ECC, but not all motherboards do so you'd need to ensure support. On the Intel side everything 12500/13500 and up (I'm assuming 14th gen will be the same, but all the current SKUs support it) but you need a W680 based motherboard.

For the workload described it doesn't particularly sound like Xeons/Threadripper would be necessary here and they add a ton of cost. If you're looking at software that uses DRAM more or if you're looking at multiple GPUs these are going to be your best choice however.

You're unlikely to want a 3dvcache CPU for any of these workloads as they will be slower. As for picking between AMD/Intel you'd need to look at your specific software to find out if there are any advantages as the two go back and forth a lot in productivity software.

edit: just a note to make sure you're aware the 4500 you're looking at is Ampere not Ada based

 

[ilukey77]

from a quick search from uncle google..

Ive found that RHINO likes fast clocks and more cores so a 13900k / 7950xwould be ideal ..

( 13900k vs 7950x ( just cant recommend 14900k waste of money )not sure which is the better cpu for what you want but being as the 8950x with gains will be better than 13900 and 14900 may be a smarter option on the better life spanned AM5 platform )

Ram to my understanding is not a big deal so 32 should be fine..

and LUMION likes gpu power over cpu power so the better the gpu the better !!

 

[LinuxDevice]

More GPU VRAM is important. GPU drivers use only the memory on physical addresses, and cannot work with virtual memory, e.g., swap won't work. The more GPU RAM you can get the better, it is physical RAM dedicated to the GPU without fragmentation. CAD tends to use a lot, far more than gaming. For gaming it is usually possible to use lower resolution textures, but there might be some CAD (and also AI) software which consumes more VRAM.

 

[ilukey77]

More GPU VRAM is important. GPU drivers use only the memory on physical addresses, and cannot work with virtual memory, e.g., swap won't work. The more GPU RAM you can get the better, it is physical RAM dedicated to the GPU without fragmentation. CAD tends to use a lot, far more than gaming. For gaming it is usually possible to use lower resolution textures, but there might be some CAD (and also AI) software which consumes more VRAM.

then a good argument could be made for a 7900xtx or the beast 4090 with there 24gb vram over the 4500 workstation gpu?

 

[LinuxDevice]

then a good argument could be made for a 7900xtx or the beast 4090 with there 24gb vram over the 4500 workstation gpu?

Any GPU with more VRAM can be quite important for a CAD system. Even if the system does not require speed any large CAD file which consumes a lot of VRAM would fail on a system with a lot of regular RAM and not enough VRAM. You might even consider something exceeding 24 GB of VRAM. This is why sometimes a lower end Quadro (speed-wise) might sometimes be picked over faster GPUs (e.g., some might have 48 GB of VRAM).

I don't know how to tell you to pick the right amount, but if you have knowledge of the largest CAD file used, and can check how much VRAM is being used while working with that file, then I'd think that would be the minimum. If you don't have a sample of the largest file to use, then you will be guessing (more VRAM is better, you might want to choose overkill).

 

[Zerk2012]

Hullo all.

I have been tasked with creating a 3000+ euros rig intended for professional use. The client will mostly use CAD programs, like RHINO and LUMION.
I have experience putting together the parts for a PC , as I have been doing it for gaming for years, but I have never build a rig for CAD.
So heres the question, aside from choosing a workstation GPU like a QUADRO, do I need to change anything else from a regular high end rig?
The build must include a keyboard, mouse and screen.

Thus far I have been thinking of getting these parts:
CPU: RYZEN 7 7800X3D (400 euros)
MOBO: Gigabyte X670 Aorus Elite AX (rev. 1.0) (300 euros)
RAM:G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB 32GB DDR5 (140euros)
PSU:Corsair RMx Series RM850x (2021) 850W ( 160 euros)
SSD: 1x Kingston KC3000 SSD 1TB M.2 (80euros)
1xAdata XPG Gammix S11 Pro SSD 2TB(90 euros)
which amounts to about 1200e.

And for a GPU I was thinking about GPU: PNY RTX A4500 20GB GDDR6 (1500 euros).

These specs are just my first thoughts, I am sure all can be improved. My main question is whether these otherwise "normal" components are ok for a workstation build.
Thanks a ton!

I would do some research here.

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