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Duel vs Quad Core: Civil Engineering Software

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xBanzai89

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I am in the process of selecting what components I'm going to purchase for my next computer. This computer is being built for both my gaming and school needs

I'm going to be majoring in Civil Engineering. I'm unsure as to how CPU intensive these programs can be. Which is why I need to figure out if a quad core would give me added performance in these apps. If so I would be willing to go for quad core processor.

As of right now I am leaning towards buying the E8400 in the next month. The processor will meet my gaming needs perfectly but I'm not sure about the software end of things. Since most games don't take full advantage of a quad core I don't see much of any point in getting one just for gaming.

If the quad core does make a difference in the software I'll end up getting the Q9450. I think it will it will be a good overclocker and the size of the cache probably would help the apps as well.

Does this software also eat up a ton of ram? Again if it didn't I probably wouldn't bother going for 4 gigs unless it did since it doesn't have a see able difference in games (as compared to 2 gigs). If I did have to get the 4 gigs what OS should I get between XP and Vista (both 64 bit versions of course and I don't want to run into issues of compatibility)?

I did a search on google trying to find a engineering forum which was popular to ask these questions but didn't come up with anything and I even tried searching this forum got nothing of course, I figured there must be either someone in this field that goes to this forum or at least knows about it.
 
"I'm unsure as to how CPU intensive these programs can be."


First you need to find the answer to your own statement or at least find out which software you will be using. I'd recommend contacting the people who released the software, or just google to see if you can find out if it will be multi-core optimized.

But in my opinion, you won't be able to find out squat, until you find out specifically what "these programs" will be.

In the very near future, more and more programs will be utilizing multiple cores, hopefully unlimited cores. Safest bet is to always go with a quad if unsure.

Two reasons why:

1. It's going to be your job, better safe than sorry.
2. It's 45nm, so it'll be less power consumption, and more OC'ability.
 
I don't know about Civil Engineering software but some Mech. Engineering software like Catia won't even install on Vista.
 
Well I what I meant by that statement was that in general I didn't know how cpu intensive CADs and perhaps simulation programs could be. Was just looking for a general consensus on those is all really.

I did email a couple people in the school and one told me that they use "Mathematica, Vectorworks, Spice, Labpro, C++ and Java for courses." I checked out a few of them and it seemed that they where CPU intensive. He seemed to say that they didn't need a quad core and that a duel core should be fine. That probably sums it up I guess.

I'm just going to have to do some more research now to make sure.

Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
I seriously doubt any program you will be running as a civil engineering major will need anything more than a dual core. Although if you can afford it then why not? Gaming will always benefit.

As a physics major I make use of computer algebra systems and write monte carlo simulations but those usually work fine on a decent single core cpu. When I do need more juice I have an account on my departments 120 cpu computing cluster. I would imagine your situation would be similar if you ever did anything computational intensive. I think as a civil engineer you will mostly make use of things like autocad.

I would get the quad-core for the simple e-penis factor.
 
Well, it would also depend on how long you were going to keep the system, or if you are the kind of person who will incrementally update as necessary.

If money is an issue for now and or you don't mind replaceing parts, go with the dual core for now, and you can upgrade in a year or 2 if necessary.

If you want to keep it for several years without opening the case, get 4 gig of ram, a quad core cpu, and a great big hard drive.

Make sure you get as current a MOBO as you can afford. An older model of MOBO may be slow to or not ever support the latest CPUs.

Don
 
My plan is to buy the system in either Feb or March. Depends on the cash flow really.

I probably won't upgrade again till the summer of 09 at the earliest. Depends on what the market is looking like at that point.

I'm trying to decide between the Asus P5K-E (P35) and the Asus P5E (X38). The only incentive I see for the X38 right now is the PCIe 2.0 and crossfire benefits. I'm sure that will help in the future. I have no problem getting the X38 if I knew the upcoming dx10 cards where going to bottleneck the PCIe x16 slot or even the generation after that. We won't know that till March at the earliest unless there are leaks of some sort.

I wanted the P45 chipset but from what I hear it won't be hear till late march or april. I don't know if I want to wait that long to get the computer. We'll see though.
 
Do you know what university you'll attend? They may have a preference for the students using Linux instead of Windows. Similarly, you may be much better off with a laptop than a desktop - I know that I would have loved to have a laptop 30 years ago.

Civil Eng software comes in two categories - that which only needs a single core processor and that which needs a massive parallel processor. Structural eng. problems using finite element analysis require parallel for big problems, but small ones - the ones you can learn a lot from - can be done with nothing fancier than a spreadsheet on a PIII.

It is not likely that the software will be highly threaded to use a quad at this time - the situation is just like games; the software will be written for multi-core computers "soon", but right now it's still old style.

The best bet is contact your future school and find out what they expect for their eng. students.

PS - forget about the games - if you plan on graduating with an engineering degree, you won't have the time to waste for the next 4-5 years.
 
I got my youngest a laptop when he went off to college. Desktops have a tendency of becoming the "dorm room's comp".
 
no civil software uses quad core. I dont even think Civil 3D actually uses dual core just yet. A decent video card with a higher clocked chip is all you need to run the toughest Civil program which is Civil 3D 2008. I doubt you will learn this in school and will be learning some version of Autocad Land Development 2008 which you dont need anything fancy to run this software.

I am 5 years into working and my work is about on the cutting edge right now for Civil 3D in Southern California, we work very closely with Autodesk because some of us in the medium sized office have big mouths and lots of bugs to complain about.

PM if you have any other questions, i will be glad to assist.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'll go over them all carefully once I get back from doing my stuff today.
 
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