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Building a Computer for CAD. Any Help Appreciated!

11 REPLIES 11
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Message 1 of 12
Jake.Aprilliano
751 Views, 11 Replies

Building a Computer for CAD. Any Help Appreciated!

Hi!

I'm currently in High School on my robotics team and have been messing around with CAD, Inventor to be exact, and I absolutely love it. My laptop is terrible though and I can only have a project with 50 parts before it becomes unbearable, even when reducing setting and what not. I would like to use Inventor 2015 but my computer doesn't meet requirements so I would like to build my own! So I was wondering if you guys could take a look at my part list and tell me what you think. http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Jake.aprillia/saved/Rk6qqs My budget is about 1,200 - $1,400. Inventor 2015 is what I would be using with around 1,000+ parts but I may move on to bigger and better Autodesk CAD, who knows :p.

If you guys could take a look, that would be great! I would appreciate any comments you may have. 🙂

Thank You!
Jake
11 REPLIES 11
Message 2 of 12
JDMather
in reply to: Jake.Aprilliano


@Jake.Aprilliano wrote:
 I would appreciate any comments you may have. 🙂

 I don't see the specs for your current computer.

While it will be nice to have a new box, many of the assembly problems I see will not be "fixed" by a better computer.

http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Autodesk-Inventor/IS-INVENTOR-REALLY-USEFUL/m-p/1332811/highlight/true...

 

Can you attach an assembly you are having difficulty with at Autodesk360?


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Message 3 of 12

I like the SSD's ...can you maybe bump the to 250gigs ...You'll use them up faster than you can imagine. I don't keep much on my local drives, and I've used 180 gig's of 250 on my one SSD ..

 

The Ram is good at 32g's .... I have Corsair in mine.

 

Motherboard looks good, just asking if you have a few extra $$ avail can you get to an E5?

 

You'll need a version of WIndow's Office ...

 

WIth the 8.1 Windows, make sure you get all the patches required installed when you get it home. There are a few post on here on what to do if you have Windows 8.1 and Inventor 15 ...

 

Looks a little light on USB connections ... so you might have to purchase an add-in that you use that has multiple USB connections.  


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Message 4 of 12
sam_m
in reply to: Jake.Aprilliano

My initial thoughts on the build:

 

i3 processor - change to i5.  Inventor isn't really multithreaded (apart from rendering, FEA or multiple views on a drawing), but and i5 will handle more applications running in Windows (e.g. Windows, Inventor, Anti-Virus, etc. all working at the same time).  Will be a LOT better for gaming too - not that I'd condone such a thing, but if you're doing school work then I guess you might be wanting to game too (especially with a gaming keyboard).

 

32GB ram - drop to 16GB.  Yes, Inventor can eat ram, but I doubt you'll need more than 8gb for Inventor for school projects.  Personally, if it was my cash, I'd get 16gb now and get another 16gb if/when I needed it.

 

2 x 120gb SSDs - swap to 1 x 250gb.  Partition if you want separate drives for OS and games or whatever, but no real need for 2 SSDs.  I can't even remember there being a performance gain with Raiding ssd's as bigger ssds generally run quicker anyway...

 

Seagate Barracuda storage drive - swap to WD (Black if possible).  I've been looking at a storage drive myself recently and did some digging and there's a LOT of reliability concerns with Barracuda drives atm.  Western Digital are better and the black is ace!

 

ATI FirePro V4900 1GB - swap for GeForce GTX770 or better.  Inventor doesn't need a workstation card so save pennies and get a gaming card, or spend the same pennies and get something WAY more powerful...  Use this benchmark table to get an idea how poorly that V4900 will perform against the GTX770: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html

 

I think some people have got Inventor working with Open Office, so you might not need to factor M$ Office - but it's worth checking out before you quote me on that...

 

Hope that helps.

 



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

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Message 5 of 12
jalger
in reply to: Jake.Aprilliano

Hi Jake,

 

It all depends on what you want (I did look over your parts list and its not bad you could leave it the way it is).

 

***There is always a debate whether to go Business level (Quadro) or Gaming video (Geforce) cards.

But lets not Argue this on Jake's Post...LOL***

 

I personally don't like the ATI Cards (I find there drivers to be horrible).

Inventor Likes Quadro Cards more (there are more certified drivers for them), but any card with up to date WHQL Certified drivers should be fine.

(quadro cards are more expensive since your paying for the drivers to be optimized for the 3D CAD industry)
Sometimes you get lucky and the Geforce cards just work. (Same is true for ATI FirePro).

 

Before buying your parts check the Recommended hardware site on the autodesk webpage. (Link Below)

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534

 

This way you make sure you have a good video card. (you might want to try updating you laptops graphic drivers before totally dumping it) 

Right now inventor uses Multi core for some operations and it won't pull more then 16gb (it crashes before then...well more like windows crashes but lets leave that alone Smiley Happy ) if your running full blown SIimulation it MIGHT use 24gb but even that is doubtful since its not really configured for that.

 

SSD are nice but are limited in space.

If you can Swap out the 1TB and one of the 120GB SSD, and replace it with one of the 1TB hybrid drives (one with SSD Caching).

 

Like I said earlier it depends on what you want, If the machine is exclusive for work then make it more "Business" like.

If its a machine your going to game with as well... I was in High school once tooSmiley Happy, you my want to get a nice gaming card that others have been using Successfully.

 

So with that I'll leave an open ended question for other on the forum,

Which Gaming Cards have you used that would work for Jake?

 

I have used machines with Nvidia Geforce GT 630M cards (2GB ) and they have worked well for assemblies up to 1000 parts

 

I hope this helps,

 

James

 

 

James Alger
(I'm on several hundred posts as "algerj")

Work:
Dell Precision 5530 (Xeon E 2176M)
1tb SSD, 64GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro P2000, Win10
Message 6 of 12
LT.Rusty
in reply to: jalger

Oh for god's sake, not the workstation vs gaming card thing again.

 

It's been shown conclusively, time and time again, that gaming cards are just fine for Inventor.  Workstation cards have better OpenGL performance than gaming cards ... but Inventor doesn't use OpenGL, so there's no need to spend the money.

 

 

For the OP, looking at your build plan, I would:

 

1.  Change out the Xeon for a normal Core iXXX processor.  The Xeon chips are great for servers, but you really don't need in a desktop.  Look at a Haswell i5 or i7.

 

2.  Shouldn't need the cooler unless you're overclocking.  I'm running an i7-4770k with a slight overclock, and it's going just fine on the stock cooler.

 

3.  Asus makes good motherboards.  I've got the Z87 Pro myself, which is a little more expensive, but the one you've got there should be okay.

 

4.  RAM.  32 GB is great, but 16 will do you just fine as a temporary measure and allow you to put the other $175 into other components.  If you get one of those Corsair kits, you can rest easy that in a few months you'll be able to go back and get the other 16.

 

5.  Samsung 840's are great SSDs.  2x120 is okay, but I'd rather have a single 250 I think.  (Transfer speeds are a LOT better on the 250's than on the 120's, and even BETTER on the 512's.)

 

6.  Video card is not a good choice at all.  FirePro V4900 is a rebranded Radeon HD 5670 with boosted OpenGL performance.  5670 is ... what, 4 generations old now?  It's a middle of the road card from 2009-2010.  If it's not at EOL for driver support already, it will be very very soon.  If you want AMD - and I personally like AMD myself - look at a 7770 at a minimum, and a 7850/7870/R9-270 would be better.

 

7.  Case I can't really comment on.  I'm still running a Coolermaster CMStacker from 2006, no immediate plans to update that.

 

8.  PSU - I'm a fan of Corsair PSU's, but I'd recommend getting a bigger one.  Get at least 650-750 watts so you have future expandability and surplus power.

 

9.  DVD / Fans - I guess.  I don't really know those specific components.

 

10.  Monitor.  Good specs.

 

11.  Keyboard.  Razer keyboards are a little bit of an acquired taste, I think.  I've got a Lycosa (I think?) at the office, and it's mostly okay, but the key action feels weird in places, and there are times when I'm typing along and I can just tell by the feel that when the key went in it didn't actually trigger the switch.  I'd also (for myself) prefer something that has more programmable macro keys that are dedicated for nothing else, not just re-programmed F-keys.

Rusty

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Message 7 of 12
LT.Rusty
in reply to: LT.Rusty

http://promotions.newegg.com/NEemail/July-0-2014/July4thExt_04/index-landing.html?nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL07...

 

 

Here's a bunch of 4th of July sale codes from NewEgg on core components.  Many of these are the equivalent of what you have on your list for a better price, or FAR FAR BETTER for an equivalent price.  Look particularly at the R9-270/270X on there, and the nice big Corsair PSU that's near the bottom.  Check out the i7-4790 price, too - that's a substantially better CPU than the Xeon you've got picked out, and with that coupon code it's only a few bucks more.

Rusty

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Message 8 of 12
JDMather
in reply to: Jake.Aprilliano

Don't forget your Space Navigator

 

I assume you already know about Autodesk Student Community

 

 

 

 


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Autodesk Inventor 2019 Certified Professional
Autodesk AutoCAD 2013 Certified Professional
Certified SolidWorks Professional


The CADWhisperer YouTube Channel


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Message 9 of 12
BarryZA
in reply to: JDMather

I have never had an SSD and am thinking of going that way.

 

I understand that they boot up and load programs much, much faster. But what I would like to know is once you have your model open, is there a difference in the work done there. I spend very little time opening programs and models, but spend hours working on said open model.

 

Is the expense worth it?

Message 10 of 12
LT.Rusty
in reply to: BarryZA


@BarryZA wrote:

I have never had an SSD and am thinking of going that way.

 

I understand that they boot up and load programs much, much faster. But what I would like to know is once you have your model open, is there a difference in the work done there. I spend very little time opening programs and models, but spend hours working on said open model.

 

Is the expense worth it?


 

Yep, it's definitely worth it.

 

Inventor creates and accesses a lot of files.  If you're doing mold design or FEA, or working with content center parts, lots of other places too. 

Rusty

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Message 11 of 12
blair
in reply to: LT.Rusty

I've been running SSD drives in RAID0 for about 5-6 years now. Very fast and no mechanical noise from H-D's as in a convention platter H-D. IV Pro load in 15 seconds and models load extremely fast. Which is great if you have customers looking at what you've modeled up. I haven't been able to bring myself to move over to liquid cooling. Possibly on my next machine, since I don't overclock I go for really quiet fans. I've used the Noctura CPU cooling stacks and their fans for about the same time. Extremely quiet when you have two 120mm fans, one pushing and one pulling across the heat-pipe tower on the CPU. Something about having to look at the power lights on the machine to really see if it's running is nice.

 

As Rusy stated, no need for Quadro or pro OpenGL cards. Since Inventor moved away from this back in release 11 (not 2011) there's been no need for spending the extra money for these cards.

 

I am quiet happy with my machines, spec's for this machine are posted below. My home machine is pretty much simular to my office machine.


Inventor 2020, In-Cad, Simulation Mechanical

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Message 12 of 12
Jake.Aprilliano
in reply to: blair

Hi Everyone,

 

Thank you guys so much for your inputs. I have done a lot more research and believe I have the perfect setup for myself. Here's the part list, http://pcpartpicker.com/user/Jake.aprillia/saved/TV7p99

 

I decided to go with the i7-4770k, it was about $30 more if I bought  from Micro Center and with the increase of performance and rendering times, it is well worth it to me.


For the motherboard, I'm going with the Maximus VI Hero.

 

I dropped the RAM down from 32GB to 16GB. After reading what you guys said and looking at other forums, something like Inventor will not need that much RAM. I save myself a bunch of $ and if I need to, I can always add more later. 

 

I switched the SSD to 250GB, I would like to put my OS on it as well as CAD related stuff. Opening new parts will be a breeze. I also looked a lot into a Hybrid HD. From what I read it is extremely nice, but is it worth an extra $20? I don't know. If anyone has an opinion on it, that would be great. 

 

And the video card... I'm going with the GTX 760. Like many of you guys said, I will not need a quodro for something like Inventor and well, to be honest, I will be playing the occasional video game Smiley Tongue

 

As far as the case and PSU go, this will be something that will last me for a long time. And I do not want to go cheap on a power supply. 

 

Again, thanks everyone for the help! I'm sorry for not quoting everyone, I would have liked to but with my iPad, it was extremely difficult.

 

If anyone sees something that would improve this build even more at a reasonable cost, that would be great!

 

Thanks y'all!

Jake

 

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