Help! First Autocad Civil 3D Build

[SurlyHotdog]

Hi all,

I have some experience slapping together a gaming machines but I need to build a couple of CAD specific machines and I am feeling a bit unsure of myself. Below is what I have spec'd out. Any bonehead moves here? Something I am missing?

4x CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233141

MSI Z77A-GD65 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130643

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116502

PNY VCQ2000D-PB Quadro 2000D 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 Workstation Video Card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133382

CORSAIR Hydro series H50 High Performance CPU Cooler
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181010

SAMSUNG 840 Series MZ-7TD250BW 2.5" 250GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147189

CORSAIR HX Series HX750 750W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS GOLD
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1193269

THANKS!

 

[SurlyHotdog]

Nothing? Did I do something wrong with this post?

 

[cball1311]

Three suggestions.

1. You don't have to get a Z77 motherboard. An H77 chipset will be just fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130674

2. You don't have to worry about water cooling because you won't be overclocking. If you are really worried about heat you could get this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103074

3. 750W is way overkill. If you GOLD cert. and modular, this is the one of the best.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

 

[faalin]

It may be cheaper and easier to call dell. I picked up a t1600 cad computer from them for $2,000
317-6059 1 Quad Core Xeon E3-1225, 3.10 GHz, 6M L3, 2GT, Turbo
317-2739 1 16GB, DDR3, Non-ECC SDRAM Memory, 1333MHz, 4x4GB,T1500
331-1965 1 Dell USB Entry Keyboard,No Hot Keys,English,Precision Desktop
320-1896 1 1GB nVIDIA Quadro 600,Dual Monitor,1DP and 1DVI,
342-2145 1 250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200RPM Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst
421-5607 1 Windows 7 Professional,No Media, 64-bit,Fixed Precision, English
410-0560 1 Adobe Acrobat X, includes Serial Key Card, FI, ENG/FRN
421-3950 1 Microsoft Office Starter 2010,OptiPlex,Precision and Latitude
421-3954 1 Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010,English,OptiPlex,Precision and Latitude
935-2678 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Service Extended Year(s)
929-6847 1 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Service Initial Year
938-8622 1 ProSupport: Next Business Day Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis 2 Year Extended
951-8780 1 ProSupport: Next Business Day Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis Initial Year
989-3449 1 Thank you choosing Dell ProSupport. For tech support, visit http://support.dell.com/ProSupport or call 1-866-516-3115

983-9162 1 ProSupport : 7x24 Technical Support , 2 Year Extended
984-5810 1 ProSupport : 7x24 Technical Support , Initial
900-9987 1 Standard On-Site Installation Declined
320-2939 1 Dell Professional P2212H,Wide screen,21.5in Viewable Image Size,HAS,VGA,DVI,Opti/FPWS

you can get it cheaper without the prosupport, monitor, or office.

But iff you want to build it yourself get more ram, cad loves ram.

 

[g-unit1111]

It may be cheaper and easier to call dell. I picked up a t1600 cad computer from them for $2,000

Ugh don't get me started on Dell. Build your own - it's cheaper, better, and you don't have to deal with their service department.

Here's what I would suggest for the CAD system:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: Intel Core i7-3930K 3.2GHz 6-Core Processor ($569.99 @ Newegg)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 CPU Cooler ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: ASRock X79 Extreme6/GB ATX LGA2011 Motherboard
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LP 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($184.99 @ Newegg)
Storage: Samsung Spinpoint F4 2TB 3.5" 5400RPM Internal Hard Drive
Storage: OCZ Vector Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: ATI FirePro V5800 1GB Video Card ($369.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Titanium Grey) ATX Mid Tower Case ($124.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: NZXT HALE 90 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Lite-On iHAS124-04 DVD/CD Writer ($22.98 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $1802.89
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-02-07 13:10 EST-0500)

 

[SurlyHotdog]

Best answer selected by SurlyHotdog.

 

[Forest Peterson]

if you are still watching this thread - I think C3D uses the hd a lot, so any way you can speed up read/write times is going to help. I use a PCI Revo drive.

 

[gknight825]

Three suggestions.

1. You don't have to get a Z77 motherboard. An H77 chipset will be just fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130674

2. You don't have to worry about water cooling because you won't be overclocking. If you are really worried about heat you could get this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103074

3. 750W is way overkill. If you GOLD cert. and modular, this is the one of the best.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151119

Have to disagree on all accounts with this guy and hope it's not too late. I'm a computer hardware enthusiast and a Civil 3d CAD Designer Full time. It is the most stressful and frustrating thing when the computer can't keep up. We run i7 4770 and 3770 on some of our older machines and it's not enough. Basically when building a CAD 3D machine all you can do is get the budget as high as possible and keep the system as cool possible. Civil 3D will use all resources all day if you are doing real work, the computers get hot in a room with 10 designers/engineering running CAD and stormwater scenarios all day. When I'm scrolling over 3d contours back and fourth and the programs stops for 20s to get past snapping to each one, it's a problem. The skys the limit on CAD machines. Lets not forget AutoDESK creates the benchmark programs that test out every aspect of the computer. They know how to utilize all the hardware. CAD Civil 3d is a $5000 program, engineering firms that are successful make tons of money. Let's not skimp out with a $1500 build and bottleneck the 5K we dropped on 3d software. Spend the money on the workstations and the designers will be happy, more productive, and your work won't be rushed and inaccurate.

The suggestion from a 25 y/o - 6 year CAD designer - uncle taught him to build computers at age 7 and hopes it's not too late for surlyhotdog to upgrade:
(also want to ad that my firm uses Civil3D to the full extent, 3d walkthroughs of completed projects, infrastructure design, full 3d systems):

Highend mobo that can take the best processor you can afford. Read the Toms hardware civil3d graphics charts and buy the best gpu card you can off that list. Read the 3d graphics and CAD processor chart and buy the best one off that. Buy 32 gb of good quality ram cause ram is cheap and its only $75 difference for twice as much. Get a nice power supply that runs cool and is reliable. You'll want to sell the $1000+ video card in about 2 years and buy whatever is top of the line then. You're not a gamer anymore scrounging from paycheck to paycheck buying parts to build your gaming rig. You are building for a professional engineering firm that if it's still around should be making hundreds of thousands if not into the millions a year. This isn't rocket science. Spending 5k+ on software and more once you factor in ICPR, WaterCAD, StormCAD, AutoDESK infrastructure design suite, etc. and then making all that money you spent a waste because you don't want to spend $3k on a computer is ridiculous. You want quality design work, long hours, deadlines, which all are part of working in the engineering field, then give your employees the tools they need to do so.

If I had the balls and was willing to risk getting fired I'd say this to my boss. He is letting me put new power supplies and update GPUs in our computers though so thanks to him.

 

[RayDGus]

GKnight - I'm grading and designing subdivisions working largely from surface models in C3D-14. Is the k-series quadro a step up from the regular quadro's, or is the best gaming card the direction to go? Does single vs. dual-Xeon's make a big difference. It's time to blow some of this-year profits to maximize next year's. What's your idea of the most cost-effective build?

 

[bb_on]

My advice is Do not move away from the Autodesk Approved Graphics card list.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?id=18844534&siteID=123112

Pick the best card(s) that you can afford.
Keep in mind that Civil 3D is almost entirely single threaded (check your CPU usage)
A faster CPU versus more cores is the way to go.
Also More than 8GB of RAM is almost a waste unless you are doing fully rendered walk-throughs
Civil3D will Never go over the 4GB per core limit.
Get the Widest Memory path and the highest clock rate on your memory possible.
SSD drives of course for storage for both your C: drive and where you store your drawings will also have a huge impact.

SSD drives go bad, count on replacing them every two years and Back-up (or cloud sync) Everything religiously.