CAE Workstation - i7 or Xeon Based?

CamMoreRon

CamMoreRon

CamMoreRon

Associate
Joined
15 Sep 2014
Posts
4
Good morning..!

I'm looking to replace / upgrade my self-built CAE workstation with something a bit more capable, and am trying to decide whether I should go down the route of the 8-core Haswell-E i7 or 2 x Xeon e5 CPUs.

I use the PC for CAD with pretty large assemblies, component FEA, and Computational Fluid Dynamics. The CFD is the real killer.. solutions are incredibly resource-hungry and my current build is struggling. The HDD is on it's way out and I want to upgrade to SSD, but that is pretty much going to drive a new build. The current setup is 5 years old, so due an upgrade.

Currently I have a 1366 4-core i7 and 16GB RAM, and will likely need 32GB Ram and at least 8 cores. While I'm fairly computer-literate, I'm certainly no expert so it may be best to deal with me in fairly layman's terms!

I was initially looking at only the i7 range, and trying to decide whether I would be happy with 6 cores or would have to stump up twice as much for 8; then decided to look at Xeons and found I could get 2 6-core CPUs for the same money as a 8-core i7.. and figured 12 > 8 = win. I looked in to server boards, but my CAD software won't run on Win Server, and needs Win 7.

So the advice I was hoping to get is..

1 - Would you recommend i7 or Xeon for my usage? Bear in mind I would like to keep the upgrade under £2k.

2 - If i7, I think I could probably figure out the hardware to buy.. I fall short on Xeon and dual-socket because I have zero experience. So.. what CPU - either 6 or 8 core - and motherboard would you recommend? I need to run Win 7 so I think that rules out server boards. I have my eye on Supermicro's X10DAC workstation board - is this a good bet?

Graphics is a foregone conclusion - I am tied to an Nvidia Quadro due to my CAD program. For the original build I foolishly didn't think to check, so got an incompatible GPU and had lots of runtime errors.

I think that's it.. I'll try and keep this an acceptable length!
 
What are the full specs of your current rig ? Also are you looking to replace the Quadro with a more recent card ? Your full rig spec will help and maybe can use your case and other items you may have in there.

Also are you sure the programs you use currently can access a dual CPU Xeon setup and will multi thread well on such a setup ? So also a list of programs you use currently and require would be good too, that way it will be easier to help you decide. Also are your programs GPU accelerated, because you may find it's better to invest in single cpu setup and a better GPU then, or are they more CPU heavy then if they are more CPU heavy then a dual CPU Xeon setup is the way to go and gives you a good upgrade path too to more core CPU's in the future when you can get them second hand cheaper, so you may start out with two Xeons each with 6 cores and in the future get the 14 core CPU's, so basically from 12 cores (24 hyper-threaded) to 28 core (56 hyper-threaded).

Windows 7 64bit professional and ultimate does work on Dual Xeon Processors too, so you won't need to go down the route of a server OS.
 
Last edited:
Go for an 8 core i7 I'd say. More bang for the buck than a comparable 8 core Xeon and I don't think the feature set you pay for with a Xeon would prove to be of much advantage for CAE work.
 
gary996 said:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-557-IN
Click to expand...

That's the 2k budget blown! :eek: Think that might be a bit on the pricey side.

Purgatory said:
What are the full specs of your current rig ? Also are you looking to replace the Quadro with a more recent card ? Your full rig spec will help and maybe can use your case and other items you may have in there.

Also are you sure the programs you use currently can access a dual CPU Xeon setup and will multi thread well on such a setup ? So also a list of programs you use currently and require would be good too, that way it will be easier to help you decide. Also are your programs GPU accelerated, because you may find it's better to invest in single cpu setup and a better GPU then, or are they more CPU heavy then if they are more CPU heavy then a dual CPU Xeon setup is the way to go and gives you a good upgrade path too to more core CPU's in the future when you can get them second hand cheaper, so you may start out with two Xeons each with 6 cores and in the future get the 14 core CPU's, so basically from 12 cores (24 hyper-threaded) to 28 core (56 hyper-threaded).

Windows 7 64bit professional and ultimate does work on Dual Xeon Processors too, so you won't need to go down the route of a server OS.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response, I lost access to my old email account so have lost the spec list, but from what I can remember it is:

CPU - Intel i7 950 3.07GHz (LGA 1366)
Motherboard - Asus P6T WS Pro (X58 chipset)
RAM - Corsair Vengeance 12GB (3 x 4GB) DDR3 1600MHz
GPU - Gainward GTX570 1024 (from what I remember)
HDD - WD 250GB OS drive, 1TB mass storage drive
PSU - Cooler Master 600W Silent Pro

I can't for the life of me remember what the network card is, but I doubt that matters. It was all put in a Cooler Master 1000 case with 5 fans and a big CPU cooler & fan. I built it in 2009 with my final year grant, and to be honest I kinda just threw money at the internet. I didn't research as much as I probably should, hence the derp on the graphics card! This time around, while I'd like to get back up and running asap, I have the luxury of a bit more time.

Software-wise, I use: CATIA V5R19 for CAD, ANSYS Workbench 12.1 with Mechanical for FEA and Fluent solver for CFD; I often have Excel files open with either of these applications and duel-screen them. Those are the main culprits, I also run Matlab, Rhino 4.0, Lotus Shark, and then general internet / video / music use while I work.

The ANSYS license I have allows me to run up to 8 parallel processes, after that you have to buy a license to take you up to 32.. 64.. etc etc. It can solve via GPU, but this also requires an extra license, and as you can probably guess these are expensive. The supported hardware list for CATIA is very short, so my choice in GPU is quite limited.

From running Fluent (the big resource drain) I've noted that 6 processes is the max I can run without bottlenecking the CPU.. it works above 95% in the performance manager. The size of my files means I use 11+GB of my available 12GB, but these are relatively simple static models and anything more complex will not even start to run, let alone solve.

I think I'm swaying towards Xeon.. as you rightly said, it means I can upgrade from a more affordable 2 x 6 or 8-core setup to more if needed, whereas the 1 x 8-core i7 is maxed out already. Would I need to get a workstation board, that will work with Windows 7? Most of the server boards I've looked at only accept Windows Server.
 
theMilitant said:
Go for an 8 core i7 I'd say. More bang for the buck than a comparable 8 core Xeon and I don't think the feature set you pay for with a Xeon would prove to be of much advantage for CAE work.
Click to expand...

Sorry, not true. If you look at Xeon prices from retailers that primarily sell consumer-grade hardware then of course the Xeon prices are going to be higher.
If you look at retailers that sell server hardware you'll find Xeons are slightly cheaper than i7s. Although I agree with the instruction sets having little to no effect.

The differences between an equivalent "xeon" and "i7" model are going to be integrated graphics processing, the ability to overclock, ECC support and a couple of instruction sets.

CamMoreRon said:
Would I need to get a workstation board, that will work with Windows 7? Most of the server boards I've looked at only accept Windows Server.
Click to expand...

Not sure where you saw that. You can run any proper OS on them.
 
Last edited:
I've pretty much decided that Xeon will be the way forward, and found a distributor for the Supermicro X10DAC motherboard. How do people rate Supermicro? Any suggestions for alternatives?
 
CamMoreRon said:
I've pretty much decided that Xeon will be the way forward, and found a distributor for the Supermicro X10DAC motherboard. How do people rate Supermicro? Any suggestions for alternatives?
Click to expand...

It looks perfect for your needs that Supermicro X10DAC motherboard, if you are not after all the bling some other motherboards have like the Asus boards. Seems to offer a good chipset and they are well known in the server and workstation market Supermicro and have pretty good support too.


More about the board here :-

http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Xeon/C600/X10DAC.cfm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom