Spec me a FE Analysis PC please 5k Budget

N43SP33D

N43SP33D

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Morning, Im after a PC for FE analysis (5k budget)
can someone please spec me as close as possible to the below
Do OCUK offer any sort of onsite support / warranty in case of failure? If so need that adding

cheers.

  • Windows
    • Windows 10 or Server 2016 64 bit
  • HDrives
    • For Solving
      • 2 х 1TB SSD PCIe NvMe (m.2 or u.2)
      • Configuration is RAID 0 - using hardware Raid controller NOT software
    • For Storage
      • Non SSD should be fine
      • At least 3 х 5TB each
  • RAM
    • As much as possible within budget
  • Processor
    • 64 bit multicore
    • Intel XEON Gold are recommended (regular chips can be used but ideally need one with at least 20 cores)
 
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Quartz

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N43SP33D said:
Morning, Im after a PC for FE analysis (5k budget)
Click to expand...

What is FE Analysis? What software will you be using?

If you want onsite support then you're probably better off going to the likes of Lenovo, Dell, or HP.

You mention 20+ cores and stacks of RAM so you should be looking at a Threadripper Pro system.


The below is a review of a product from a competitor to OCUK but I'm sure OCUK will be able to build you a comparable system.

 

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Following on from the above:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £5,798.62 (includes shipping: £11.70)​
​


Missing are a GPU (obviously) and a case. The new Fractal Design Torrent is getting a lot of good press but has yet to appear on OCUK's website. Fractal Design make good cases. Budget £200 for that.

Don't bother with RAID 0, just get a larger SSD. I've bunged in a 4 TB SSD. And a single high-capacity HDD.

You may well want to use ECC memory instead. That will cost you much the same. If you want more RAM then 64 GB DDR4-3200 ECC DIMMs can be found for under £400 apiece. 512 GB will cost you around £3000. 64 GB DDR4-2400 ECC DIMMs can be found for about £300 apiece, or £2400 for 512 GB. I'm sure OCUK will be able to source them for you. Higher capacity DIMMs are available but are seriously spendy.

But really, the PC is a tool to run the software so we need to know what software you will be running.
 

Alibaba99

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System requirements are only really going to be dependent on whether the solver being used is Implicit or Explicit as that will determine the configuration of the machine.

Given the requirements include as much RAM as possible, and a large scratch drive then I would assume Implicit, and the requirements for a machine are pretty similar regardless of which code is being used. I would probably have at least 3 configured drives, 1 for the OS, a second for the Raid 0 scratch drive for which absolute speed is important so Raid is a benefit and then your storage drives. For the raid I would use an external Raid controller otherwise you are putting load on the CPU which could be used for solving.
 

N43SP33D

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thank you guys
its for an application called Ansys, I am the IT manager where i work and this PC is for our FE analysis guys who are currently using a out of the box Dell machine that is 10 years old! GPU isnt important as our license is a processor based license and we can use up to 20 cores.

The specs above were recommended by Ansys, most of which cant be translated to a "server" which rules out the big players and more to go down a customised route. The support isnt essential as long as it comes with some warranty i can replace parts if needed.
 
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Quartz

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N43SP33D said:
its for an application called Ansys,
Click to expand...

Right. Take a gander at the system requirements here.

Basically take my build above and consider substituting 64 GB DIMMs. Add a decent workstation GPU. There's no 24-core Threadripper Pro, but the extra cores could be put to other uses.

N43SP33D said:
GPU isnt important
Click to expand...

That's not correct:

Ozen said:
Different Nvidia cards are recommended, such as: Nvidia Quadro NVIDIA Quadro P4000, NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000.
Click to expand...

However, you might also look at Ansys Cloud. It might be a more cost-effective solution.
 

Alibaba99

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N43SP33D said:
thank you guys
its for an application called Ansys, I am the IT manager where i work and this PC is for our FE analysis guys who are currently using a out of the box Dell machine that is 10 years old! GPU isnt important as our license is a processor based license and we can use up to 20 cores.

The specs above were recommended by Ansys, most of which cant be translated to a "server" which rules out the big players and more to go down a customised route. The support isnt essential as long as it comes with some warranty i can replace parts if needed.
Click to expand...

As you are using the Ansys direct solver then your requirements are RAM, RAM and more RAM, and then fast scratch for when the model exceeds the capability of the RAM to hold the solution. I would put RAM above the number of cores as direct solvers do start to lose the benefits of parallelisation as the core count increases.

If those specs are from Ansys then they are recommending Intel for the CPUs. I would go with this as I believe that Ansys structural is still in Fortran (FE solvers go a long way back) and Intel Fortran and MKLs is way better than the AMD equivalents.

You absolutely do need a very good graphics card, not for the solving but for the ability to view and setup the model and post-process the results. Whatever the latest Quadro is with a heftly helping of RAM for when you have the mesh displayed.
 

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i could probably scramble a Qaudro P4000 out of some of the machines we have around here, but what would you suggest as a minimum? Currently they are using this machine to solve/RSM and opening up the completred model on their own workstations (quadro p4000)
I think thread ripper is a bit overkill since the licence we do have only covers using 20 cores. When i asked the question about Intel or AMD all they said is they do support AMD.
There exact response was this

"Previously there were issues with AMD performance/compatibility due to the default MKL used by Ansys but these have been resolved as of 2021R2. So as long as the client software used by the Engineers is current-release then there should not be any issues at all. Some excerpts from Ansys release documentation below just for reference/reassurance:

“The Intel MKL libraries have been updated to the Intel 2020 Update 0 version. Among other improvements, this update provides significantly faster performance when running the sparse direct solver (including certain Eigensolvers that depend on the sparse direct solver) on the latest generation of AMD processors.” (Release 2020R2)

“Support for the AMD BLIS library has been added, providing faster performance when running on systems with AMD processors. Mechanical APDL uses the BLIS library when running on AMD processors (and continues to use the MKL library when running on Intel processors). For most simulations, sparse direct solver performance with BLIS on AMD processors is 5-20 percent faster (depending on your AMD hardware and the number of CPU cores used). For harmonic analyses, the sparse direct solver runs up to 2x faster” (Release 2021R2)

https://ansyshelp.ansys.com/account.../Secured/corp/v212/en/ai_rn/rnsolvers.html?q=

"
 

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N43SP33D said:
I think thread ripper is a bit overkill
Click to expand...

The nearest up to date Xeon to your specification is the recently-launched 24 core W-3345 (there are older ones) and is much the same price as the 32 core Threadripper Pro and the motherboards are much the same price too, but OCUK don't sell either. If you post in one of the customer support forums then I'm sure OCUK will be able to special-order it for you.

I'm not sure if HP, Dell, or Lenovo have launched workstations with that CPU.
 

N43SP33D

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ive got dell to quote and got as close as i can to client requirements, this is coming in at £7k with there pro support. Think ill advise them to go down the custom route and buy a system from OCUK.

PowerEdge R440 Server
Components
  • 1 Intel Xeon Gold 6209U 2.1G, 20C/40T, 10.4GT/s, 27.5M Cache, Turbo, HT (125W) DDR4-2933
  • 1 iDRAC,Legacy Password
  • 1 iDRAC Group Manager, Enabled
  • 1 2.5" Chassis with up to 8 Hot Plug Hard Drives
  • 1 Standard Bezel 1 Riser Config
  • 1, 1 x 16 FH 1 Dell EMC Luggage Tag
  • 1 No Quick Sync 1 Performance Optimized
  • 1 3200MT/s RDIMMs
  • 8 32GB RDIMM, 3200MT/s, Dual Rank 8Gb BASE
  • 5 2.4TB 10K RPM SAS 12Gbps 512e 2.5in Hot-plug Hard Drive
  • 2 480GB SSD SATA Read Intensive 6Gbps 512 2.5in Hot-plug AG Drive,
  • 1 DWPD
  • 1 Internal PERC
  • 1 PERC H730P RAID Controller, 2GB NV Cache, Adapter, Low Profile
  • 1 Standard Heat Sink 1 DVD +/-RW, SATA, Internal 1 Dual, Hot Plug, Redundant Power Supply (1+1), 550W 2 C13 to C14, PDU Style, 10 AMP, 6.5 Feet (2m), Power Cord
  • 1 Trusted Platform Module 2.0 1 Order Configuration Shipbox Label (Ship Date, Model, Processor Speed, HDD Size, RAM)
  • 1 Asset Tag - ProSupport (Website, barcode, Onboard MacAddress)
  • 1 PowerEdge R440 CE,CCC,BIS Marking
  • 1 Intel X550 Dual Port 10GbE BASE-T Adapter, PCIe Full Height
  • 1 Dual-Port 1GbE On-Board LOM 1 Power Saving Dell Active Power Controller
  • 1 ReadyRails Sliding Rails With Cable Management Arm
  • 1 No RAID 1 Windows Server 2019 Standard,16CORE,Digitally Fulfilled Recovery Image, Multi Language 1 Windows Server 2019 Standard,No Media,WS2012R2 Std Downgrade DF Media, Multi Language
  • 1 Windows Server 2019 Standard,No Media,WS2016 Std Downgrade DF Media, Multi Language
 

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I'm not seeing the need for RAIDed 2.5" drives nor the need for a Windows Server license. Indeed, there's a whole heap of stuff there you don't need, and server chassis are often wholly unsuitable for workstation use anyway - lack of ports and noise being the main ones. Whoever quoted that rubbish to you needs hitting with a cluebat.

If corporate support is that important, Lenovo do the Thinkstation P620 (AMD Threadripper Pro) and Thinkstation P920 (Intel Xeon). The latter will blow your budget. You might also look at the HP Z4 and Z8 workstations. Note that neither seem to use the latest Xeon CPUs. Playing around on the HP website it seems that 4x 64 GB RAM is cheaper than 8x 32 GB while offering you the upgrade path to 512 GB RAM.

But OCUK can likely do faster and cheaper for you.
 

Alibaba99

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My desktop analysis machine has a 3TB raid 0, running 3x1TB SSDs. If I'm reading the spec correctly then the Raid 0 SSD system only totals 1TB which really isn't enough.

It would also help if we knew the types of analysis that the machine would be running. Large 3D continuum element models with material, contact and geometry non-linearity requires quite a bit more grunt than beam & shell type models.
 
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