BIM Workstation

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 10:59

Hi guys, looking to build a BIM workstation mainly using Autodesk Civil 3D, Revit and Navisworks. I am not too fussed about top of the range GPU for just now, I do not do much visualisation, so want to focus more on Processor and Memory in terms of budget. Budget of about £1500. Thank you very much in advance.

Edit: Sorry, I do not require monitor, keyboard or operating system etc, just the PC.
Edit: We sometimes have to deal with very dense Pointclouds, which takes a lot of resource

Tetras · 23 Aug 2023 at 13:44

My basket at OcUK:

1 x Intel Core i7-13700F (Raptor Lake) Socket LGA1700 Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-6BD-IN) = £359.99
1 x MSI B760 Gaming Plus WIFI (LGA 1700) DDR5 ATX Motherboard (SKU: MB-37M-MS) = £149.99
1 x Kingston FURY Beast 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C40 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KF556C40BBK2-64) (SKU: MY-29W-KS) = £209.98
1 x MSI GeForce RTX 3060 Ventus 2X OC 12GB GDDR6 PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GX-374-MS) = £269.99
1 x WD Black SN850X 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T2X0E) (SKU: HD-591-WD) = £129.95
1 x Phanteks Eclipse P600S Silent Midi Tower Case - Black (SKU: CA-08V-PT) = £139.99
1 x Seasonic Focus GX-650 650W 80+ Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-06V-SS) = £94.99

Total: £1,366.87 (includes delivery: £11.98)

Cooler: this.

Given your usage, would recommend swapping the IGPless 13700F for the 13700.

I chose an nvidia card since workstations apps usually prefer them and this card has 12GB of VRAM which might help with some projects.

If you plan on upgrading to a higher-end graphics card in the future, then I'd uprate the PSU to around 850 (and ATX 3.0/PCIE5 if nvidia is planned).

From a quick scoot around, it looks like Autodesk and Revit don't use the GPU in a big way, so I prioritised the CPU and RAM, as requested.

The motherboard only has 2 M.2 slots and 4 SATA ports, so if you need plenty of storage it is not an ideal choice.

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 13:56

Thank you very much for that, much appreciated

not sure what you mean about the 13700F, sorry for being stupid

Storage isn't a huge factor, so that will be plenty. And great I have the option to upgrade the GPU in the future.

Tetras · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:02

bigmaz2000 said:
not sure what you mean about the 13700F

It has no integrated graphics which I'd advise against for a workstation, since time is money and all that (if the primary graphics card fails) and sometimes the IGP still comes in handy as explained here:

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bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:33

Ahhhh, that makes sense, that's really good info, thank you very much again.

The Motherboard a good option for future proofing?

Tetras · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:40

bigmaz2000 said:
The Motherboard a good option for future proofing?

What do you mean by future proofing?

If you want future CPU upgrades then I would be going AM5.

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:53

Just If I want to upgrade in the future. Will probably be fine with that set up for a while mind you.

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 14:57

For the Cooler you mention, can you see the difference between these models? They look very similar, but the ‎PA120 SE-Ying-D5 model is £20 cheaper.

PA120-D2
‎PA120 SE-Ying-D5

Both sold by Thermalright

Tetras · 23 Aug 2023 at 15:14

bigmaz2000 said:
Just If I want to upgrade in the future. Will probably be fine with that set up for a while mind you.

It is unlikely that a CPU upgrade would be worthwhile on this socket in the lifetime of the PC.

Graphics card can be upgraded (if you have/choose an appropriately sized PSU for the card).

Running 128GB of memory (4 sticks) is tricky with DDR5 right now, with both AMD and Intel, but hopefully bios updates will improve things.

There are 2x USB 3 Type-A and 1x Type-C on the rear (the rest are USB 2), which isn't the best I've ever seen.

bigmaz2000 said:
For the Cooler you mention, can you see the difference between these models? They look very similar, but the ‎PA120 SE-Ying-D5 model is £20 cheaper.

PA120-D2
‎PA120 SE-Ying-D5

Both sold by Thermalright

I believe the non-SE is slightly larger, with different model fans and performs a bit better from this video:

【KENNY】利民他殺瘋了！！！PA120 SE、AX120R、AX120R SE風冷散熱器實際體驗評測

#Thermalright #PA120SE #AX120R利民又推出了新款式的風冷散熱器這次推出了PA120 SE、AX120R和AX120R SE一起來看看這三款散熱器的表現吧00:00 簡介Intro01:30 PA120 SE規格介紹02:54 AX120R、AX120R SE規格介紹05:10 測試平台...

www.youtube.com

The review I linked is of the SE.

I don't know what Ying and D2/D5 mean.

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 15:27

which isn't the best I've ever seen.

Is it worth looking at a different motherboard? Or is this one still solid enough you think?

Yeah, you are right about the SE, the link to the retailer on the site took me to the non SE version, confused me, haha.... Which doesn't take much to do

Tetras · 23 Aug 2023 at 15:36

bigmaz2000 said:
Is it worth looking at a different motherboard? Or is this one still solid enough you think?

In regards to the rear USB? Only 2x USB 3 (plus 1x Type-C) would be a deal-breaker for some people, but I guess it depends what you need. I mainly need USB 2 and this board has 4x USB 2.0, so it would be fine for my usage.

The compromises in storage and USB connectivity are because of the price, £150 is 'cheap' for a DDR5 one. Gigabyte make a comparable DDR5 board (B760 DS3H) and that's even worse with just one USB 3 (plus 1x Type-C).

bigmaz2000 · 23 Aug 2023 at 16:16

Thanks for your help, purchased

bigmaz2000 · 27 Aug 2023 at 18:50

That's me got everything set up. I have run a Passmark Bench Test, and the CPU is peaking at 100 deg C. Thermal paste on, and fans are all running. Is this normal?

Tetras · 27 Aug 2023 at 18:55

bigmaz2000 said:
That's me got everything set up. I have run a Passmark Bench Test, and the CPU is peaking at 100 deg C. Thermal paste on, and fans are all running. Is this normal?

At stock, they're definitely hot CPUs in multi-threaded benchmarks. What is the power usage while you're running the test? (I'd use hwmonitor or hwinfo)

bigmaz2000 · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:05

Tetras · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:23

Oh, you have a 13700K

This is definitely normal, you can see that in the review here:

Intel Core i7-13700K Review - KitGuru

KitGuru was impressed by Intel's Core i7-12700K which delivered plenty of stomp at a reasonable pric

www.kitguru.net

The 13700K has higher power limits than the 13700F and 13700 non-F (at least, they do at stock).

I'd recommend setting PL1 to 125 and PL2 to 150, or if you really want to get things down, then 90 and 125.

You might want to watch this for finding optimal settings:

Testing and Tuning the new 13900K for Efficiency

Support me on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/der8auer---------------------------------------------------------Save 10% on your iFixit purchase: DER8AUER10h...

www.youtube.com

bigmaz2000 · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:29

Brill, that is music to my ears!!!

Happy with the benchmark:

bigmaz2000 · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:30

Is there a benchmark test that you recomend? I used Passmark

Tetras · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:34

bigmaz2000 said:
Is there a benchmark test that you recommend? I used Passmark

I usually try these (any of the unigene benchmarks), though they're more about graphics than CPU.

UNIGINE Benchmarks

Performance benchmarks by Unigine

benchmark.unigine.com

There's cinebench (for CPUs), which is used in the above video, but that'll also cook your CPU

bigmaz2000 · 27 Aug 2023 at 19:37

I'll maybe give that a miss then, haha.... Thanks again for your help