- May 31, 2016
- 12
- 0
- 1,510
Hello all,
I hope you can offer some opinion about this.
My current system is due for an upgrade, as it's 4 years old and about 2 years since the last clean re-install (as I drafted this, I had a blue screen...I think it knows it's not long for this world!):
CPU: i5 2500k (H80i Corsair Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5
Graphics: GeForce GTX 560Ti
RAM: Corsair Dominator 16GB
Storage: 1 x 240GB Intel 530 Series SSD, 4 x 3TB WD's
I'm going to re-use the case (Thermaltake Armor) and other bits, but the above is going to be given to my parents, who traditionally have my old computer components.
Now I did a huge amount of research on whether I should go the i7 or Xeon route (see below), and I've finally decided on the i7 flavour of config...because after all, I've had a fairly reliable i5 for the last 4 years. With that in mind I'm thinking:
CPU: i7 6700K Skylake
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH
(I picked this scientifically, as it didn't mention the word 'gaming' in the name, but does have thunderbolt and a lot of nice board features, as well as a durable board construction. I'm also leaning towards a consumer I've had a lot of positive experience from).
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) with the highest frequency the mobo will take.
GRAPHICS CARD
I used to be a gamer, but I don't find much time these days :-( So my initial thought was to get a less gamer related graphics card, like an M4000 Quadro (if £750 appears in my bank account). But the alternative is always there to get a 780 or 980 GTX, either will do a much better job than the current graphics card, but if I got the Quadro, I really would want to see a benefit in spending twice the money. When choosing a graphics card for a workstation, these things are often said:
For (Business graphics card):
Business software works better on business hardware
Reliability is more important for business, so it's an investment
You get better support with business hardware
It's focus is on commercial software
See the videos that compare (roughly), Quadro's are better than GTX consumer cards
Games don't use a graphics card in the same way as business software.
Sketchup lags badly when shadowing is enabled, even on smaller models (but I just keep it off unless needed).
Against
My 560 Ti has worked very well with SketchUp, although it does reach a limit on larger models / projects.
AutoCAD over all seems fine.
A decent GTX card is half as cheap or less.
Gaming Cards are awesome these days, at everything.
As long as it has OpenGL, anything can run on it [a GTX card] very well.
It's a real predicament because so many people say to get one or the other, but there aren't any accurate Sketchup / AutoCAD comparisons that I know of between the Quadro's (I'm aware of the conspiracy theories) and a 'suitable' GTX card. Here's an example where a professional card seems better, but the names of the cards aren't mentioned, only the price! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9C3G5jUbMA
There are fairer tests though, such as this one (which shows 'a' quadro generally performs a great deal better than a GTX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ3oEZEP0bs
THE XEON DEBATE IN MY HEAD, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:
I was so close to getting an Xeon (Skylake E3-1275 v5), along with the usual ECC RAM, etc. and pleasantly surprised by the reasonable CPU and Motherboard cost. But having read some compelling pieces by people who seem to know what they're talking about, my use isn't quite appropriate for that gear. I don't use the computer 24 hours a day, only 10 hours at most - I also break for the weekend most of the time. More importantly it seems that Sketchup and CAD love high clock speeds (as opposed to multiple cores), and although the Xeon is only 0.3GHz slower, perhaps that does make a noticeable difference.
So if anyone has a thought, I truly welcome it, to stop this conflict in my brain!
Cheers!
Chris
I hope you can offer some opinion about this.
My current system is due for an upgrade, as it's 4 years old and about 2 years since the last clean re-install (as I drafted this, I had a blue screen...I think it knows it's not long for this world!):
CPU: i5 2500k (H80i Corsair Cooler
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5
Graphics: GeForce GTX 560Ti
RAM: Corsair Dominator 16GB
Storage: 1 x 240GB Intel 530 Series SSD, 4 x 3TB WD's
I'm going to re-use the case (Thermaltake Armor) and other bits, but the above is going to be given to my parents, who traditionally have my old computer components.
Now I did a huge amount of research on whether I should go the i7 or Xeon route (see below), and I've finally decided on the i7 flavour of config...because after all, I've had a fairly reliable i5 for the last 4 years. With that in mind I'm thinking:
CPU: i7 6700K Skylake
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170X-UD5 TH
(I picked this scientifically, as it didn't mention the word 'gaming' in the name, but does have thunderbolt and a lot of nice board features, as well as a durable board construction. I'm also leaning towards a consumer I've had a lot of positive experience from).
RAM: 16GB (2 x 8GB) with the highest frequency the mobo will take.
GRAPHICS CARD
I used to be a gamer, but I don't find much time these days :-( So my initial thought was to get a less gamer related graphics card, like an M4000 Quadro (if £750 appears in my bank account). But the alternative is always there to get a 780 or 980 GTX, either will do a much better job than the current graphics card, but if I got the Quadro, I really would want to see a benefit in spending twice the money. When choosing a graphics card for a workstation, these things are often said:
For (Business graphics card):
Business software works better on business hardware
Reliability is more important for business, so it's an investment
You get better support with business hardware
It's focus is on commercial software
See the videos that compare (roughly), Quadro's are better than GTX consumer cards
Games don't use a graphics card in the same way as business software.
Sketchup lags badly when shadowing is enabled, even on smaller models (but I just keep it off unless needed).
Against
My 560 Ti has worked very well with SketchUp, although it does reach a limit on larger models / projects.
AutoCAD over all seems fine.
A decent GTX card is half as cheap or less.
Gaming Cards are awesome these days, at everything.
As long as it has OpenGL, anything can run on it [a GTX card] very well.
It's a real predicament because so many people say to get one or the other, but there aren't any accurate Sketchup / AutoCAD comparisons that I know of between the Quadro's (I'm aware of the conspiracy theories) and a 'suitable' GTX card. Here's an example where a professional card seems better, but the names of the cards aren't mentioned, only the price! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9C3G5jUbMA
There are fairer tests though, such as this one (which shows 'a' quadro generally performs a great deal better than a GTX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ3oEZEP0bs
THE XEON DEBATE IN MY HEAD, IF YOU'RE INTERESTED:
I was so close to getting an Xeon (Skylake E3-1275 v5), along with the usual ECC RAM, etc. and pleasantly surprised by the reasonable CPU and Motherboard cost. But having read some compelling pieces by people who seem to know what they're talking about, my use isn't quite appropriate for that gear. I don't use the computer 24 hours a day, only 10 hours at most - I also break for the weekend most of the time. More importantly it seems that Sketchup and CAD love high clock speeds (as opposed to multiple cores), and although the Xeon is only 0.3GHz slower, perhaps that does make a noticeable difference.
So if anyone has a thought, I truly welcome it, to stop this conflict in my brain!
Cheers!
Chris
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram