CAD, Editing and Gaming Machine Spec

[teknokid]

Hi all,

I've been out of the PC building loop for a few years; my last build was ~6 years ago! I'm setting off on a new business venture, for which I need a dedicated CAD PC. I'd like to make it versatile and usable for photography work (hobby) and sim gaming (driving).

Most important thing for CAD work in my experience is CPU grunt, lots of RAM and read/write speed of the SSD.

How does the below spec look? All feedback welcome, particularly SSD and RAM choice.

CPU - Intel 14700k
Mobo - ASUS Strix B760
Memory - Crucial Pro 48gb DDR5 5600mhz
PSU - Lian Li SP750 SFX Gold Rated
SSD - Crucial T500 2TB
Case - Jonsplus I100 M-ITX
Cooler - Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360mm AIO Cooler
GPU - Gainward RTX 4060Ti

Thank you,

Tom

 

[Tetras]

CPU - Intel 14700k
Mobo - ASUS Strix B760

The ITX B760 Strix doesn't appear to have flashback for unsupported CPU. Strange, because Strix boards usually have flashback.

GPU - Gainward RTX 4060Ti

I'd try and get away from the 4060 Ti 8GB and step up to a 4070.

Cooler - Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360mm AIO Cooler

If you're happy to do a bit of power management, you can cool a 14700K with a peerless assassin and save a bundle. You may also want to check this thread about the Galahad before you buy one.

Alternative build:

My basket at OcUK:

• 1 x AMD Ryzen 9 7900X3D Twelve Core 5.60GHz (Socket AM5) Processor - Retail (SKU: CP-3DS-AM) = £449.99
• 1 x Asus TUF Gaming A620M-PLUS WIFI (Socket AM5) DDR5 Micro ATX Motherboard (SKU: MOT-ASU-01397) = £135.99
• 1 x Crucial Pro 48GB (2x24GB) DDR5 PC5-44800C46 5600MHz Dual Channel Kit (SKU: MEM-CRU-01086) = £149.99
• 1 x Palit GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Dual 12GB GDDR6X PCI-Express Graphics Card (SKU: GRA-PAL-01567) = £559.99
• 1 x WD Black SN770 2TB SSD M.2 2280 NVME PCI-E Gen4 Solid State Drive (WDS200T3X0E) (SKU: HD-58G-WD) = £116.00
• 1 x Lian Li Lancool 205M Mesh Micro-ATX PC Case Black (SKU: CA-7B2-LL) = £69.94
• 1 x Seasonic Focus GX-750 ATX3.0 750W 80 Gold Modular Power Supply (SKU: CA-08N-SS) = £119.99

Total: £1,613.88 (includes delivery: £11.98)​

Cooler: this.

sim gaming (driving)

You may want to check for the games you play.., but driving games often love the X3D.

and read/write speed of the SSD

If you think it's likely to be an issue in the future, I'd suggest getting a board with a PCI-E 5.0 slot, which if you don't want to lose graphics lanes, means a switch to AM5.

lots of RAM

Since current DDR5 boards seem to dislike 4 sticks, I'd consider upping your memory to 64GB to begin with. It isn't much more money, depending on the speed.

 

[teknokid]

Hi Tetras,

Thank you for the reply! Interesting/scary reading on the cooler! I'm quite keen to go down the AIO route, as I've had water cooled builds in the past and just can't bring myself to go fully air cooled!

From experience, AMD chips really struggle with CAD. I'd much rather use them, but the performance difference is huge (I've no idea why). The Strix board is this one which seems to list 14th Gen Intel support - would I need a 12th Gen chip to fire it up with and update the BIOS though if it doesn't have flashback? https://rog.asus.com/uk/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-b760-i-gaming-wifi-model/spec/

Are the 4070 chips a newer design and/or just far superior? I'll do some reading now!

Thanks,

Tom

 

[Tetras]

Are the 4070 chips a newer design and/or just far superior? I'll do some reading now!

£400 for an 8GB card that's barely any faster than the card it replaced is just insulting, that's the gist. For a creator, I'd usually suggest a 3060 12GB, unless benchmarks suggest otherwise, but since you play games too, the 4070 is a decent step up.

I don't think these benchmarks are relevant to CAD, unfortunately, but you could have a look:

NVIDIA RTX 4070 and 4060 Ti (8GB) Content Creation Review

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and 4060 Ti (8GB) are the most recent additions to NVIDIAs consumer family of GPUs on their Ada Lovelace Architecture. How do they compare for content creation against their previous generation counterparts?

www.pugetsystems.com

This channel also does productivity benchmarks:

Best Budget GPU as a Creator? | RX 7600XT vs ARC A770 vs RTX 4060 vs RX 7600

Reviewing the AMD Radeon RX 7600XT GPU and comparing it to Intel & Nvidia. Which is BEST?AD: Whokeys 25% Coupon Code: TN20Windows 10 Pro OEM ($18): https://w...

www.youtube.com

would I need a 12th Gen chip to fire it up with and update the BIOS though if it doesn't have flashback?

The honest answer is: I don't know.

I think what Asus and other manufacturers are doing is just sticking 14th gen in their spec (because it does technically support 14th gen), regardless of what BIOS it is actually shipping with. You can get boards designed for 14th gen, but from what we've seen so far, you're just paying £50-£100 for the privilege of a BIOS update. What I usually do to cover all bases, is avoid doing 14th gen builds for any motherboard that doesn't have flashback.

For most gens it wasn't important, since there were low-end CPUs you could get to do a BIOS update, but even a Celeron is pretty expensive for socket 1700.