A Good CAD Machine?

wd40

wd40

wd40

Associate
Joined
19 May 2011
Posts
35
Hi,

Would someone be kind enough to peruse the list below and give me some comments re: suitability for a CAD and PCB design machine? I haven't built a PC before.

I'm not a CAD ninja. The idea is that I can use the machine at home to learn and work on designs, which, in the initial stages will be finished by Soildworks professionals. Hopefully I will get to the point where I can finish designs from start-finish on my own, so I guess a little expandibility would be good.

I would prefer to run the machine on XP Pro. A single 27” monitor should be fine for now (if you know a screen that's better value, please say). May add SSD at a later date. May do a little bit of music on it, hence the FW interface for my RME FF400.

Thanks in advance.

Nvidia Quadro 600 £150 (can’t decide if 2000 is worth the extra…)

Startech FW400 card £20

Dell U2711b 27" Monitor – Approx £500

Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor £230

Thermaltake Armor A30 LAN Gaming Case £70

Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache £78

OCZ ZS Series 550W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £47

Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit £76 for 2-off

Sony Optiarc AD-7280S 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) – OEM

Asus Royal Knight CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/LGA1155

edit - am struggling with motherboard ideas. Any suggestions gratefully received.
 
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A few tweaks!


YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2711 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £539.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £227.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD3P Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £90.00
1 x Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DL002) £77.99
1 x XFX Pro 550W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £52.99
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Case - Black £52.98
2 x Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (BLS2CP4G3D1609DS1S00CEU) £37.99 (£75.98)
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,179.01 (includes shipping : £20.10).



  • This motherboard has firewire, so you don't need the add-in card.
  • Can't beat the dell monitors!
  • That cooler isn't very good, this one is recommended as a budget cooler that performs well.
  • Why XP?
  • Don't know much about the Quadro cards sorry

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-255-SE&groupid=1657&catid=1660&subcat=1954
2TB isn't too expensive
 
Makes sense to me - thanks, Beej!

The only reason for XP is that I have some dinosaur (i.e. the companies are now extinct) music software that won't run under 7-Pro. I could build a dual-boot machine, I guess. I prefer 7-Pro anyway.

edit - although I'm right near my budget limit, so I can't afford to be too picky, one thing I will say is that I'd prefer the machine not to sound like I have a 747 in the room. If it needs any tweaks to keep noise at bay, please say.
 
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wd40 said:
Makes sense to me - thanks, Beej!

The only reason for XP is that I have some dinosaur (i.e. the companies are now extinct) music software that won't run under 7-Pro. I could build a dual-boot machine, I guess. I prefer 7-Pro anyway.

edit - although I'm right near my budget limit, so I can't afford to be too picky, one thing I will say is that I'd prefer the machine not to sound like I have a 747 in the room. If it needs any tweaks to keep noise at bay, please say.
Click to expand...
No problem!

That should run reasonable quiet as it is. You should be able to get a bit of an overclock with that cooler too :)

What about Win7 and a virtual XP machine? That should run it?
 
Nice one!

It was a while back, but I do seem to remember trying the software under virtual XP and it wasn't having it. But maybe things have improved in terms of updated patches since then, so it could be worth a try.
 
Do you have a suggestion for a board that fits the bill? I'm bound to make the odd strange choice considering I've always used ready-made PCs before.

Thanks!
 
I do indeed:)


YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2711 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £539.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K 3.40GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £227.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD3H-GEN3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £122.98
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.D 1TB SATA 6GB/s 32MB Cache - OEM (0F13180) £77.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £71.99
1 x Corsair Enthusiast Series TX 650W V2 High Performance '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXV2UK) £64.99
1 x BitFenix Shinobi USB3.0 Gaming Case - Black £49.99
1 x Corsair A50 High-Performance CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) £21.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222BB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,210.58 (includes shipping : £14.75).



• 7200rpm drive, not 5400rpm;)
• Motherboard has Firewire, Lucid Virtu/Quicksync and Dsub/DVI/HDMI and Displayport.
 
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It's getting better all the time! Thanks.

With that lot I'll be able, as you suggested, to hold back on the graphics card for a while. That means I can save up a bit of dough and go for something with a little more grunt than the 600. As my CAD skills aren't the greatest at this time, it'll give me something to work towards, i.e. the more complex the assemblies, the more I'll need a nice card.
 
Thats right, use the Displayport on the motherboard as it has a much higher resolution support than the other ports.

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=3973#sp
1 x D-Sub port
1 x DVI-D port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
* The DVI-D port does not support D-Sub connection by adapter.
1 x HDMI port, supporting a maximum resolution of 1920x1200
1 x DisplayPort, supporting a maximum resolution of 2560x1600p
Click to expand...
 
Solidworks cannot utilise more than one thread (neither can AutoCAD so I'm guessing most CAD programs are the same) so this chart this chart shows the single threaded benchmarks of the Sandybridge processors. The i5 2500k performs almost on par with the i7, in this instance it would be the better choice for CAD since it is a lot cheaper.

The exception to this is if you want to use associated programs such as Finite Element Analysis or Renders (create realistic image of models). With these the i7 will be quicker. Depends if budget is concern I guess.
 
Hi,

As instructed by the helpful members here, I've bought the PC suggested in Post 8 (with Gigabyte mobo).

Can anyone tell me what the procedure is to get it working via Displayport?

I initially got the machine started / loaded with Win7 Ultimate via VGA, but it only wants to install the Dell U2711 Analogue Driver. If I try and update drivers, the only option I get is for analogue.

Can I literally drag + drop the Displayport driver into a folder manually?

If I boot up with Displayport connected, the U2711 tells me 'no VGA connected'. It does the same if I try HDMI as well.

Do I have to go into the Bios and configure Displayport as Primary monitor? I'd like to check here to be careful, as I don't want to disconnect all monitors and end up with a blank screen.

Thanks.
 
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