Time for a workstation Upgrade advice needed

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FXDawg

Gawd
Joined
Jan 27, 2009
Messages
679
Hello again!

I've just got the go ahead to upgrade my work cad station with a $1500 budget

I do 3D Autocad and Revit and Navisworks. No heavy rendering.

I'd like to upgrade the CPU, MB, maybe 32 GB RAM larger SSD and GPU.

GTX 980 would be nice as the GTX seems to perform very well in these programs.

I heard somewhere that XEON processors might be the way to go.

What do you all think?

Any advice or insights are always very much appreciated.

Here is the existing build.

1 COOLER MASTER RC-692-KKN3 CM690 II Basic Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

MSI Z77A-G43 LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard with UEFI BIOS

1 XFX HD-587A-CNF9 Radeon HD 5870 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready

1 CORSAIR HX Series CMPSU-850HX 850W ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 2.91 80 PLUS SILVER Certified

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 4000 BX80637I73770

SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC256B/WW 2.5" 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

1 Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2M160G2XXX 2.5" 160GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive

1 OCZ Diesel 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive Model OCZUSBDSL8G

CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CML16GX3M2A1600C10B

2 Western Digital Caviar Black WD1501FASS 1.5TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -

1 Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit 1-Pack for System Builders - OEM

1 CORSAIR Cooling Hydro Series CWCH50-1 120mm High Performance CPU Cooler

1 CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD 1350 VA 810 Watts UPS

I'm running 2 - 24" DELL Ultra Sharp displays and if we can manage a 3rd...that would really make the day!
 
You say no heavy rendering so I've got to ask. What does the current rig lack? If it's not capable of meeting the demands what demands are you expecting?

$1500 is a nice budget, but aside from the GPU upgrade I'm not sure you'll really see that much of an improvement with the budget you've got and the parts you're wanting to upgrade.
 
I'm seeing some lag in regeneration times. The GPU is getting a little long in the tooth.

Models are getting a bit larger and I just want a bit of a refresh to help with loading and refreshing and regeneration of models. I sometimes find myself in a meeting waiting 5 minutes for a regen to complete.
 
So that load is based on the GPU? I think you should just add an additional 16GB of RAM to your setup, then add an SSD to it and get the GPU upgraded as well. I'm not sure I would bother replacing the entire rig (CPU/MB/RAM) as upgrading from a quad core Ivy Bridge probably wont net that much of an improvement. You should see vast improvements on anything rendered with the GPU though.
 
well, I guess I could go all on the GPU, max out the RAM and get the 3rd monitor...

So, we're looking at:
GPU
SSD
RAM
Monitor
 
how does $599 sound for a
GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 980 Ti DirectX 12 GV-N98TWF3OC-6GD 6GB 384-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 ATX Video Card
 
That is a lot of GPU. Better make sure your software can utilize it and more specifically make sure it can utilize what's offered in that video card. Most of the time a mid-range gaming GPU is better suited for most software that utilizes GPU rendering. Something like a GTX 960 or GTX 970 might give you about the same results as a 980 Ti in rendering time while costing a lot less.
 
I haven't seen any more recent comparisons but in the past, the GTX x80 cards performed the best in cad systems. not a great deal better than the x70 cards but, better. they also only performed slightly lower than the ridiculously prices "professional" cards.

after a little more searching I found a Tom's hardware comparison and history proves true for this card as well. It is the one I'm going to go with. I'll keep an eye out for deals over the next few weeks.

any recommendations on a new SSD?
 
Last edited:
FXDawg said:
I sometimes find myself in a meeting waiting 5 minutes for a regen to complete.
Click to expand...

I suggest you fire up Task Manager and System Monitor to find out where the bottlenecks are. If your CPU isn't operating at 100%, then you don't necessarily need a new CPU. If you're not using 16 GB RAM, then you don't necessarily need extra RAM, etc.

With regard to a GPU, you might consider a Titan (not Titan X) over a 980 Ti due to the Titan supporting double-precision arithmetic.

I strongly recommend getting a 4K monitor.
 
titans seems a little hard to come by and pretty pricey.

why do you recommend the 4k monitor?
 
Sorry for missing your follow-up. I recommended the 4K monitor - and I'd go 40" - for the increased resolution which will enable you to show your drawings in greater detail.

Have you found out where your bottlenecks are? Task Manager is sufficient for the CPU and RAM, but you can use GPU-Z to find out if the GPU is maxxed.
 
FXDawg said:
Okay, I'm thinking of this as my upgrade. Would love to hear any thoughts.

Dell UltraSharp U2412M Black 24" 8ms LED
EVGA GeForce GTX 980 Ti 06G-P4-4993-KR 6GB SC GAMING w/ACX 2.0+
CORSAIR Vengeance LP 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
SAMSUNG 850 PRO 2.5" 1TB SATA III 3-D Vertical Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Click to expand...

GPU, memory and SSD look fine.

I'd suggest this monitor, rather than that 24" unit.

That'll bring you in right around your $1500 budget.
If you need to economize to get under that, I'd suggest stepping the SSD down to the 500GB version.
You will still have your system's hard drives available for bulk storage.
 
Chas said:
GPU, memory and SSD look fine.

I'd suggest this monitor, rather than that 24" unit.
Click to expand...

I guess I'm choosing the 24" ultra sharp because I have the other 2 - U2410s and this would make 3 very similar Ultrasharp rather than 1 27 and 2 24s...

I'm not sure how that will work together.

Quartz-1 said:
Sorry for missing your follow-up. I recommended the 4K monitor - and I'd go 40" - for the increased resolution which will enable you to show your drawings in greater detail.

Have you found out where your bottlenecks are? Task Manager is sufficient for the CPU and RAM, but you can use GPU-Z to find out if the GPU is maxxed.
Click to expand...

I'm a bit concerned about a 40" monitor being to big, I usually have CAD on 1 monitor and Navis on the other during meetings. The 3rd monitor would allow me to keep a PDF contract document open for reference as well, as I find my self having to jump back and forth often.
 
FXDawg said:
I'm a bit concerned about a 40" monitor being to big, I usually have CAD on 1 monitor and Navis on the other during meetings. The 3rd monitor would allow me to keep a PDF contract document open for reference as well, as I find my self having to jump back and forth often.
Click to expand...

A 40" monitor shouldn't be too big - there are a good few users here - and your 24" monitors would physically match it if you put them in portrait mode.
 
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