CAD Workstation build for engineering student

[Thollupped]

Approximate Purchase Date: Summer, before next year's studies

Budget Range: £900-£1000

System Usage from Most to Least Important:
Siemens NX CAD work (Rendering etc); Photography (Lightroom/Photoshop CC); Gaming (generally not AAA); Video Editing with Vegas

Are you buying a monitor:
Not yet, but am considering a 1440p 27" (will not be included in the budget)

Parts to Upgrade:
All, New build, possibly reusing newer mass storage from old pc, also reusing Asus Strix Soar Soundcard

Do you need to buy OS: Yes

Preferred Website(s) for Parts:
Amazon, Overclockers (I'm not super bothered so long they're reputable)

Location: Gloucestershire, UK

Parts Preferences:
Intel CPU, Like corsair (Air 240 for case maybe), thinking quadro for graphics

Overclocking: Maybe

SLI or Crossfire: No

Your Monitor Resolution:
1600x900 and 1280x1024, will eventually go to 1440p or similar.

Additional Comments:
Would like a side window, and quiet if possible. Using Siemens NX 8.5 (10.0 as well maybe); Adobe photoshop & lightroom cc; Sony movie studio 12

And Most Importantly, Why Are You Upgrading:
I'm currently in my first year at uni, and am finding that though my current rig (AMD A10-6800k & GTX 750ti) can do the cad work i need (albeit slowly), to be more efficient with my time, and allow for the more taxing stuff i'll be doing next year, i need a speed bump. my current rig will have been around for 3 years by the time i plan to upgrade.

I would be most grateful for any help anyone can provide!! i know it's not being built right now, but i would like to figure out exactly how much money to raise!

 

[firefoxx04]

Whatever you do, I would put the budget toward the best CPU possible and keep running the GTX750ti. I am not sure CAD software you use but all the AutoDesk products use Direct X for the graphics API, meaning you can use gaming cards instead of expensive workstation cards.

Later, upgrade to something better. The 750ti should do just fine in the meantime.

 

[Mr Kagouris]

According to this benchmark, within your budget you'd actually get better performance out of a FirePro W5100 than an equivalently priced Quadro (the K2000 to be exact), at least in Siemens NX. As far as gaming goes, I can't tell you how well the card will do but since you say you won't be playing AAA games it should be just fine. For photo editing it should be fine as well.

For storage, keeping your old HDD(s) would allow you to get an SSD for your OS and programs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£214.04 @ Dabs)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG M9i 48.4 CFM CPU Cooler (£16.98 @ Ebuyer)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste (£11.27 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£92.37 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HP FirePro W5100 4GB Video Card (£332.15 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£74.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1006.76

 

[Thollupped]

Whatever you do, I would put the budget toward the best CPU possible and keep running the GTX750ti. I am not sure CAD software you use but all the AutoDesk products use Direct X for the graphics API, meaning you can use gaming cards instead of expensive workstation cards.

Later, upgrade to something better. The 750ti should do just fine in the meantime.

Thanks, i think i will weigh more on the cpu, but unfortunately i do need a Quadro or Firepro card for Seimens NX, since it is pretty high end engineering software that really does use pro cards better! (i have compared my card to a k600 in my department's pc's and the render times are several times smaller on the pro card)
Reusing the 750ti might be a good idea for the gaming side of things though, so thanks for that!

 

[Thollupped]

According to this benchmark, within your budget you'd actually get better performance out of a FirePro W5100 than an equivalently priced Quadro (the K2000 to be exact), at least in Siemens NX. As far as gaming goes, I can't tell you how well the card will do but since you say you won't be playing AAA games it should be just fine. For photo editing it should be fine as well.

For storage, keeping your old HDD(s) would allow you to get an SSD for your OS and programs.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£214.04 @ Dabs)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG M9i 48.4 CFM CPU Cooler (£16.98 @ Ebuyer)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste (£11.27 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£92.37 @ Amazon UK)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HP FirePro W5100 4GB Video Card (£332.15 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair Air 540 ATX Mid Tower Case (£104.98 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£74.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1006.76

Looks very nice, thanks for the suggestion. ideally i'd like to have it in a smaller form factor, since i'll have to lug it to and from uni, so would the smae build work in a M-atx form factor?

 

[Mr Kagouris]

Revised for smaller form factor (only went mATX as Mini-ITX would pretty much mean you wouldn't be able to add more GPUs or other types of expansion cards).

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1231 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£214.04 @ Dabs)
CPU Cooler: CRYORIG M9i 48.4 CFM CPU Cooler (£16.98 @ Ebuyer)
Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 5 High-Density Polysynthetic Silver 3.5g Thermal Paste (£11.27 @ Overclockers.co.uk)
Motherboard: ASRock Z97M OC Formula Micro ATX LGA1150 Motherboard (£111.44 @ More Computers)
Memory: Patriot Viper 3 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory (£114.99 @ Amazon UK)
Storage: OCZ Trion 100 240GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£44.99 @ Ebuyer)
Video Card: HP FirePro W5100 4GB Video Card (£332.15 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Fractal Design Node 804 MicroATX Mid Tower Case (£80.96 @ Ebuyer)
Power Supply: EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Home OEM (64-bit) (£74.99 @ Ebuyer)
Total: £1001.81