PC Upgrade

[feixiang1106]

after consideration for the warranty issues, plan to upgrade my 4 years old pc and purchase components locally, budget for around 1000-1100 dollars. New pc is mainly used for 3D modeling (Autocad and Solidworks) and Ansys FEA, sometime also need to play light games (Civilization V...). plan to use back my exsisting 6870 graphic cards, Antec 650W PSU, CM690 Casing and monitor

need to buy following items

CPU + mother board
120 GB SSD
2 TB HDD
DDR3 Ram

can anyone share any opionion for which brand and model to buy?

i talked to my company IT staff, they say ASUS P8Z77 V-PRO is a quite good motherboard, any other recommendation forthe CPU and MB?

120GB SSD shall be enough for me, only need to install the Win7 X64 and some modeling software like Autocad and solidworks, need your help to advice one for meet the requirement and within budget

for the HDD, i already have one 2TB WD Green and 500GB WD Black, need to buy another 2TB HDD to store my FEA results and 3D modeling documents.

for the RAM, do I need to buy 16GB or 8 GB ram for the FEA analysis? the company PC I used for analsysi is 24GB, looks quite fast.

thanks in advance

 

[m3 th3 last]

[Build Ready + Help] 2D + 3D CAD machine (AutoCAD, Revit) ~$1500 - Systems

Read it here

I remember reading somewhere that you need a good cpu. However, ensure that the CPU can hit high clock rate. As from what i remember Autocad not very well multi-threaded. (max it can utilize is 2 core)

Ram 8gb is just nice, 16gb already overkill. Kingston Value Ram should be sufficient.

You can also consider getting Asrock Z77 Pro3 for your motherboard. (Slightly cheaper)

Stick with your 128gb SSD and change the hard disk to 2TB of your need.

Graphic card wise really depend on what kind of drawing you are doing, if it is a very precise one i would advise you can Firepro or Qudro series. But those cards runs into thousand of dollars.

I mean if you are designing the new 787 u can imagine whats the room for error? But if you are just designing kitchen application you have more room for errors right?

Read here on workstation Graphic perform on games.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/workstation-graphics-card-gaming,3425.html

 

[feixiang1106]

thanks Bro for your reply, actually i am only doing the 3D modeling for oil & Gas equipments, no need so perfect drafting view or rendering... which doesn't really require high end profession GPUs, that is why i say planned to use back my existing HD6870.
I do agree with you that Autocad doesn't require much RAM, but when run the ANSYS it takes a lot of RAM...

[Build Ready + Help] 2D + 3D CAD machine (AutoCAD, Revit) ~$1500 - Systems

Read it here

I remember reading somewhere that you need a good cpu. However, ensure that the CPU can hit high clock rate. As from what i remember Autocad not very well multi-threaded. (max it can utilize is 2 core)

Ram 8gb is just nice, 16gb already overkill. Kingston Value Ram should be sufficient.

You can also consider getting Asrock Z77 Pro3 for your motherboard. (Slightly cheaper)

Stick with your 128gb SSD and change the hard disk to 2TB of your need.

Graphic card wise really depend on what kind of drawing you are doing, if it is a very precise one i would advise you can Firepro or Qudro series. But those cards runs into thousand of dollars.

I mean if you are designing the new 787 u can imagine whats the room for error? But if you are just designing kitchen application you have more room for errors right?

Read here on workstation Graphic perform on games.
How Well Do Workstation Graphics Cards Play Games? : Can Workstation Graphics Cards Play Games?

 

[m3 th3 last]

Buy @ tradepac pricing as follows

Intending to Overclock*
Asrock Z77 Pro3* (Bundle Price)
Plus
i5-3570k $421
or
i7-3770k $554


If no intention to overclock
Asrock P77 Pro3* (Bundle Price) < B75 chipset
Plus
i5-3570 $347
or
i7-3770 $458

RAM: Kingston Value Ram 2 x 8gb (1600mhz) (2x $71= $142)

SSD: Plextor M5 Pro 128gb - $154 - 5 yr warranty
or for a tested & proven but slower ssd
: Crucial M4 128gb -$143 - 3 yr warranty

HDD: SEAGATE 2TB SATA3 7200RPM - $112

 

[xtNero]

Asrock z77 extreme 4 is better for overclocking imo.