[SOLVED] What is a reasonable build for running CFD and FEM simulations at home?

[AeroD_7]

Hi all,
I am an Aerospace student and I am looking to build a PC to run moderately heavy CFD/FEM simulations on it. I am on a budget of 1300 Euros. I have compiled the following list of components. Please suggest and give remarks on how this configuration would perform. (I do not game a lot except that I look forward to MS Flight Sim.)

Part	Model	Remarks/Doubts.
CPU	AMD R7 3700X	Main criterion was the no.of cores. How much difference upgrading to 12 cores would make? Comes with a cooling. Is additional cooling required?
Motherboard	Gigabyte B550 Aorus Elite
GPU	Asus GeForce GTX 1650 4 GB	CFD simulations mostly use the GPU during post processing and rendering. Any comment on the choice? (Of course, subject to availability)
Memory	G Skill 2x8 GB	Motherboard upgradable to 128 GB
Storage	1 TB SSD
Case	Lian Licool ATX Midtower
PSU	Corsair RMx (2018) 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply
Monitor	Asus VG248QE 24.0"
OS	W10 Home

Thank you all.

 

[geofelt]

My brother-in-law was running simulations, I think with FEM.
Our conclusion, after consulting, was that it was single thread performance limited.
Do some research on that.

You could see activity on all cores, but that was just windows distributing single thread processing across all available cores.


If so, the single thread performance will be most important and a 3700X would not be the best in your budget class.
The single thread passmark rating of a 3700X is 2635.
A 5600X is a more modern chip at 3382.
For the price of the 3700X, you could probably buy a 12th gen intel i5-12600K with a preliminary single thread rating of 4034

 

[AeroD_7]

Our conclusion, after consulting, was that it was single thread performance limited.
Do some research on that.

This is a new piece of information for me. Thanks for that.
And a follow up query for that: Even then wouldn't higher no of cores(and therefore threads) allow for faster computing when the work demands more parallel computing? 3700X has got 8 cores compared to 6 of other 2 mentioned (because in the post, it is mentioned that Windows would distribute across all available cores) Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you.

 

[geofelt]

Best to consider threads vs. cores.
Initially, a core was one thread.
Then it became possible for a single core to dispatch a second processing thread that used idle resources on the main core.
3700X has 8 cores, but 16 processing threads.
5600x has 6 cores but 12 processing threads. In addition, the 5600X processor is some 18% more productive per clock.
The i5-12600K adds a new wrinkle.
It has 6 high performance cores with two threads each. The performance , again is some 18% better per clock than previous generations.
Plus, it has 4 E (low power efficiency)cores with one thread each.
The E cores are for low priority tasks.
Windows 11 introduces a task dispatcher that can tell where to best dispatch threads. It gets decision info from a hardware monitor on the processor.

 

[helper800]

Our conclusion, after consulting, was that it was single thread performance limited.
Do some research on that.

This is a new piece of information for me. Thanks for that.
And a follow up query for that: Even then wouldn't higher no of cores(and therefore threads) allow for faster computing when the work demands more parallel computing? 3700X has got 8 cores compared to 6 of other 2 mentioned (because in the post, it is mentioned that Windows would distribute across all available cores) Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thank you.

What country in Europe are you located? Do you need a monitor and an OS? Do you already have a GPU? We can help make a build for you with PCpartpicker. If you were in Germany for instance;

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: Intel Core i5-12600K 3.7 GHz 10-Core Processor (€316.99 @ Mindfactory)
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black 55 CFM CPU Cooler (€69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: MSI PRO Z690-A WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard (€222.85 @ Computeruniverse)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL17 Memory (€64.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€83.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case (€69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 750 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€93.89 @ Caseking)
Total: €922.32
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-18 19:30 CET+0100

or...

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X 3.7 GHz 6-Core Processor (€294.00 @ Amazon Deutschland)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition 42 CFM CPU Cooler (€34.99 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Motherboard: Asus TUF GAMING B550-PLUS ATX AM4 Motherboard (€131.86 @ Alza)
Memory: Patriot Viper Steel 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3600 CL17 Memory (€64.89 @ Alternate)
Storage: Western Digital Blue SN550 1 TB M.2-2280 NVME Solid State Drive (€83.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Case: Corsair 4000D Airflow ATX Mid Tower Case (€69.90 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS GX 650 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (€84.53 @ Amazon Deutschland)
Total: €764.07
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-18 19:48 CET+0100