Can I get some opinions on this £1000 3D Modelling build

ThePoundDollar · 22 Sep 2016 at 22:37

Hi Overclockers,

I'm building this for my cousin. His primary use is for his Mechanical Engineering course at university where he does a lot of 3D Modelling. He mostly uses Autodesk Inventor Professional 2016 and normally has about 15 CAD files open when building things so he needs a fair bit RAM. With his current laptop which has 16 GB, he maxes this out when doing work, so I'm aiming for 32 GB.
He'll be doing a little bit of gaming on it, nothing major, but wants to play Civ 6 when it's out.

£1000 is the absolute limit. Cannot go over at all. This includes the mouse and keyboard.

This is the current build I have:

CPU: Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor (£262.00)
Motherboard: MSI H110M PRO-D Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard (£45.44)
Memory: Crucial 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-2133 Memory (£124.98)
Storage: Crucial MX300 275GB 2.5" Solid State Drive (£63.04)
Storage: Toshiba 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive (£44.28)
Video Card: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 6GB WINDFORCE OC 6G Video Card (£246.99)
Case: Deepcool TESSERACT BF ATX Mid Tower Case (£25.98)
Power Supply: XFX TS 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply (£36.90)
Wireless Network Adapter: Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I PCI-Express x1 802.11a/b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi Adapter (£23.00)
Keyboard: Redragon S101 Wired Gaming Keyboard w/Optical Mouse (£29.99)
Monitor: Iiyama Prolite E2483HS-B1 (£75.00)
OS: Windows 10 Home (£10.00)
Total: £987.60

What's your opinion on it? I've included a powerful CPU and fairly powerful graphics card. The only real caveat is that the memory maxes out at 32GB on the motherboard so there's no room for upgrading later.

Daaaveee · 23 Sep 2016 at 09:26

Spec looks good. Just repeating what you already know, 32GB is well worth it for Inventor, I had issues at 16GB with other Autodesk software when using large models. My only thought would be Geforce vs Quadro as Quadros are supposedly more optimised to workstation tasks with different drivers, but to be honest I would probably just stick to the Geforce 1060 anyway as the equivalent (is there even one for Pascal yet?) would be more expensive and from what I have read people get on just fine with Geforce cards anyway.

Kurgen · 23 Sep 2016 at 16:45

drop the 1060, get the best 2nd hand quadro you can afford.
try and get a board with 4 dims sockets so you can upgrade ram in future

ThePoundDollar · 23 Sep 2016 at 16:47

Daaaveee said:
Spec looks good. Just repeating what you already know, 32GB is well worth it for Inventor, I had issues at 16GB with other Autodesk software when using large models. My only thought would be Geforce vs Quadro as Quadros are supposedly more optimised to workstation tasks with different drivers, but to be honest I would probably just stick to the Geforce 1060 anyway as the equivalent (is there even one for Pascal yet?) would be more expensive and from what I have read people get on just fine with Geforce cards anyway.

Thanks for the reply!

Sounds like I'm good to go then. Like you said, I'll just stick with the 1060. I've had a quick look at the Quadro cards, and they're all out of budget.

ThePoundDollar · 23 Sep 2016 at 16:50

Kurgen said:
drop the 1060, get the best 2nd hand quadro you can afford.
try and get a board with 4 dims sockets so you can upgrade ram in future

Oh, just replied to Daaaveee that I would probably stick with the 1060. What model quadro should I be looking for if I did go down that path? I have zero idea about what kind of things 3D modelling requires.

Daaaveee · 23 Sep 2016 at 17:01

Kurgen said:
drop the 1060, get the best 2nd hand quadro you can afford.
try and get a board with 4 dims sockets so you can upgrade ram in future

4 dimm socket board is a good idea.

Any reason you are saying go with the Quadro? I cant find much online other than people saying its better as its designed for workstations and has 'optimised drivers', which isn't really offering much of a reason or any sound evidence as to why they are better.

spoffle · 23 Sep 2016 at 17:06

The importance of usefulness of Quadros is massively over exaggerated. They are not necessary or even preferable.

That being said, a 1060 might not be the best choice, as VRAM tends to be king in this situation. An 8GB 390 or RX480 may be a more suitable choice.

Kurgen · 24 Sep 2016 at 16:28

spoffle said:
The importance of usefulness of Quadros is massively over exaggerated. They are not necessary or even preferable.

That being said, a 1060 might not be the best choice, as VRAM tends to be king in this situation. An 8GB 390 or RX480 may be a more suitable choice.

it depends on the software, AutoCAD is much better with a Quadro than a GTX, so if the planned products are autodesk then quadro is better, GTX wont even be recognised as certified hardware.

Kurgen · 24 Sep 2016 at 16:31

Daaaveee said:
4 dimm socket board is a good idea.

Any reason you are saying go with the Quadro? I cant find much online other than people saying its better as its designed for workstations and has 'optimised drivers', which isn't really offering much of a reason or any sound evidence as to why they are better.

its pretty much what you said, optimised drivers for workstation.. ie CAD, but it does depend on the software, clearly sketchup isn't gonna give a crap if its Gtx, quadro, or onboard. probably better if OP listed the actual software that was being used.