Workstation for 3D Modelling

[s3656219]

I have never before dabbled in PC building but I now need to build a PC for a home office, Will be used primarily as a workstation for creative purposes as I am studying architecture in university. As such need to be able to run programs such as Rhino, Mayer, Autocad and of course the majority of the adobe suite. Need general performance capability’s in 3D modelling and rendering.

Have a budget of around $2500AUD or $1800-1900USD, was looking for about 32gb of RAM and a reasonable motherboard so I can upgrade later if necessary. Will be running Windows 10. I live in Melbourne Australia so I think the community has reasonable access to most computer parts, but was just going to buy them online. What would you reccomend in a build such as this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated )

 

[camieabz]

Suggest you start by considering what graphics solution you're going to want, versus what you can afford. Workstation graphics cards, and all that.

 

[Finstar]

Here:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7GHz 8-Core Processor ($458.00 @ Shopping Express)
Motherboard: ASRock - Fatal1ty X470 Gaming K4 ATX AM4 Motherboard ($259.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Memory: G.Skill - Ripjaws V Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($499.00 @ Shopping Express)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 500GB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive ($169.00 @ PCCaseGear)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($76.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1070 Ti 8GB DUKE Video Card ($685.00 @ Shopping Express)
Case: Fractal Design - Define S ATX Mid Tower Case ($159.00 @ Amazon Australia)
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($146.00 @ Skycomp Technology)
Total: $2451.00
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-04 21:00 AEST+1000

 

[william p]

You might ask your instructors what's actually required for what you will be doing. A that price point you may be into used equipment to get the quality you need for serious work.
Here are the questions I would ask.
How many cores/ threads are needed. ECC memory will probably be required. How much RAM to support the data files and work load. This may push you into RDIMM memory and workstation territory.
Industrial GPUs are to some extent the same processors as gaming but the software and memory are quite different. The emphasis is on accuracy and data integrity. Nvidia Quadro, and AMD Firepro are the relvant families of GPUs. Pobably unaffordable if new.
Also there are Tesla, and Pascal graphics based math processor cards, with ECC memory. Again too expensive new. But if the software you will be using supports this it will make a huge difference.
Something like a Dell T5500 workstation or the equvalent system form HP will have the flexability to do any or all of this. 1 CPU/ 2CPU, GPU processor, 100+GB ECC RDIMM memory, dual GPU.
Before building a gaming computer I would do some research and see what you actually need.
Much of what I suggested may be irrelevant to architecture, but some of it may be vital. This is the sort of equipment you will be working with in the future so you may as well start now.

 

[s3656219]

@william p , I’m on break at the moment so unforntunatley I can’t contact them, but my schools computers are HP Workstations Z4s and they work near perfectly if that gives context to how they are/should be configured. Pretty sure they are just normal retail versions as well. Also in terms of graphics I was going to be using this monitor: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/philips-32-full-hd-1920x1080-ips-monitor-with-speakers-bdm3201fd-philips/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=product_listing_ads&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_5nqodOG3AIVVIyPCh3IMQQXEAQYASABEgL93vD_BwE
Hope that gives some useful information!
Thank you all again so much for being so helpful

 

[Finstar]

If you really need the ECC memory, Workstation gpu and a cpu then:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Xeon E3-1230 V5 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($379.00 @ Scorptec)
Motherboard: ASRock - E3V5 WS ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($328.65 @ Amazon Australia)
Memory: Kingston - 32GB (1 x 32GB) DDR4-2133 Memory ($658.00 @ Umart)
Storage: Crucial - MX500 250GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($99.00 @ IJK)
Storage: Seagate - Barracuda 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($76.00 @ Shopping Express)
Video Card: PNY - Quadro P2000 5GB Video Card ($767.00 @ Amazon Australia)
Case: Corsair - 270R ATX Mid Tower Case ($84.00 @ Shopping Express)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 550W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply ($119.00 @ Mwave Australia)
Total: $2510.65
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-07-05 10:47 AEST+1000

This will however be much slower than my original suggestion.

 

[william p]

There are 2 different branches of the HP Z4 workstations.
https://www.anandtech.com/show/12391/hp-announces-updated-z4-workstation-and-unveils-vr-products-and-services
If your instructor isn't available then a visit to a local architect might be useful.
There's a lot to be said for buying from a builder like Dell or HP for proffesional use. They sell to large corporations where warranty, tech support, and service contracts are the norm. Their business is providing extreme reliabilty in the work environment. If you buy one of their configurations that's appropriate for your purpose those things will be available to you.
The only thing more expensive than doing it right the first time.
Is doing it right the 2nd time.