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Speccing A Workstation For Use With Autodesk

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Message 1 of 9
StOngeCompany
1393 Views, 8 Replies

Speccing A Workstation For Use With Autodesk

Hello Autodesk Forums,

 

I am speccing out a computer for use with Autodesk products. Ideally, I'd like it to able to run 3D Max and render animations very well. Here is what I specced out:

 

Intel X58 Core i7 Configurator  

1 x Processor ( Intel® Core™ i7 990X Processor Extreme Edition (6x 3.46GHz/12MB L3 Cache) )
1 x Processor Cooling ( Asetek 550LC Liquid CPU Cooling System (Intel) - Enermax Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow) )
1 x Memory ( 6 GB [2 GB X3] DDR3-1600 - Corsair or Major Brand )
1 x Video Card ( NVIDIA Quadro 4000 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Workstation Video Card)
1 x Motherboard ( [SLI] MSI X58 PRO-E )
1 x Motherboard USB / SATA Interface ( Motherboard default USB / SATA Interface )
1 x Power Supply ( 850 Watt -- Corsair CMPSU-850TX )
1 x Primary Hard Drive ( 120 GB Intel X25-M MLC SSD - Single Drive )
1 x Data Hard Drive ( 1 TB HARD DRIVE -- 16M Cache, 7200 RPM, 3.0Gb/s - Single Drive )
1 x Optical Drive ( 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black )
My main concerns are with the processor and the video card. I was told that a Dual Xeon processor would be better than an i7, but is it worth the price increase? Is the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 a good card for my purposes? I was told that GeForce is not generally supported by Autodesk and that Quadro is the way to go.
Thank you very much for your time. I would greatly appreciate any feedback or suggestions of any kind.
Thank you very much in advance for any and all assistance,
St. Onge Company
8 REPLIES 8
Message 2 of 9
dgorsman
in reply to: StOngeCompany

Processor is over spec'd a little.  You could drop a couple of levels and save hundreds of dollars with minimal impact.  Dual quad-core Xeon CPUs with might make an impact but you will probably be forking out quite a bit of money for minor performance gains.  Otherwise a multi-core single CPU desktop will be more cost effective.  Those Xeons will likely require a more costly motherboard and ECC RAM.

 

Liquid cooling... not sure.  If you are pushing the boundaries of the hardware with overclocking, multiple GPU cards, etc., otherwise that might be more problems than its worth.

 

RAM is definitely underspec'd.  I would go with *minimum* 12GB, more if you can afford it.  Its the most cost effective improvement you can make.

 

Maybe consider a SATA 6.0 Gb/s drive, seeing as thats wherre most of your data is going to reside.  Motherboard has to support it of course.

 

Video card might be overspec'd for rendering but might be useful during non-render operations.

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If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 3 of 9
pendean
in reply to: StOngeCompany

Have to agree with the review above: you spec'd a very high end PC and choked it with only 6Gig RAM. Roll back the items discussed above and put the savings into system RAM.

Message 4 of 9
Sinc
in reply to: dgorsman

Are you sure CPU is overspec'd?  I haven't tried one, but I would think that rendering would be one of the few instances where you could actually utilize all those cores.

 

I'm not so sure you'd get better performance with dual Xeons, unless they can render faster than the i7.  Performance of most things (besides possibly rendering) would probably be worse on the dual Xeons.

 

Definitely up the RAM.  6GB is not enough, and RAM is cheap.

Sinc
Message 5 of 9
dgorsman
in reply to: Sinc

Yeah, like you I'm pretty sure all the cores could be utilised during render operations.  However that processor looks to be top of the line (and I mean TOP).  Depending on what the OP is doing they could probably drop down a level or two without much impact while only spending 60% of the cost.  If the operations would be pushing the limits of that hardware... its time to look at something more specialized than desktop hardware.

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If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 6 of 9

Thank you everyone for your insight. I will definitely look into speccing down the processor and upping the RAM.

 

Does anyone have any thoughts on the Quadro 4000? Is there a better option?

Message 7 of 9

Quadro 4000 is listed in 3ds Max certified hardware. 990X is not overspec'd if you can afford it, I wouldn't step down to save money for more memory. 3 x 4GB is only $50 more than 3 x 2GB. Liquid cooling is only necessary if you plan to overclock the 990X. I would get an ASUS motherboard (such as Rampage III) instead of MSI. I would also get Corsair's HX series of power supply instead of the TX--modular cables means you only use the cables you need; less clutter, better airflow, cooler system. Put them all in a high quality aluminum case such as Lian Li which is known for good airflow design. Also 64M, 6.0Gb/s hard drive is not much more than 16M, 3.0Gb/s.

Message 8 of 9
dgorsman
in reply to: kmarchitects

If this is a scratch build, I second the modular power supply idea.  It makes cable management so much easier.  A big thanks to Sinc for that idea - saved me a number of grey/missing hair 🙂  As for the processor, 600-700 dollars saved is 600-700 dollars saved, even if its not on your own budget its a good chunk of money.  If this is an office purchase for mulitple computers it adds up pretty quickly.

 

Also if this is a scratch build consider a full size tower over a conventional case.  Yeah, they're HUGE but that extra room can remove a lot of frustration during the build.  They also make it easier to reach the front ports if its on the floor.

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If you are going to fly by the seat of your pants, expect friction burns.
"I don't know" is the beginning of knowledge, not the end.


Message 9 of 9
StOngeCompany
in reply to: dgorsman

Thank you so much everyone. Your input is very valuable and helped me reach a decision.

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