HELP I need a Desktop pc for Autodesk BIM Software

moxy

HELP I need a Desktop pc for Autodesk BIM Software (3ds Max - 3D Modeling, Animation, and Rendering with auto desk Autodesk Photoshop etc).


While I have some idea how to use these programmes I do not have ANY idea about the best graphics card, processor, ram


I have been advised to go for one of these:

BIM Workstation

HP Z210
Intel i7-2600 (3.4Ghz, 8Mb cache, 4 cores)
8GB Memory
1TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
DVD+/-RW
nVidia Quadro 400 Graphics
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
3 years warranty
Unit Price €1,335 + Vat & Shipping


Dell – Alienware X51
[/B] Intel i7-2600 (3.40GHz, 8MB L3 Cache, 4C
[/B]8GB Memory
[/B]1TB Serial ATA (7,200 rpm)
[/B]DVD+/-RW (Read/Write)
[/B]1GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 555
[/B]Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
[/B]1 years warranty
€1,049 Inc. Vat & Shipping

My budget is 1200 / 1300 inc. Vat and shipping

I would like to go to hardwareversand.de, but I don’t know enough.:(


ANY advice would be very appreciated

Torqay

You'd want a graphics card designed to accelerate CAD/DCC, not that Alienware gaming stuff. Forget Radeon and Geforce, look for a FirePro or Quadro model.

moxy

Thanks Torqay,
something like the NVIDIA Quadro 2000 by PNY - graphics card - Quadro 2000 - 1 GB

johnmcdnl

I dunno how comfortable you'd be with building a PC but I banged this together fairly quickly... I'll admit I don't know much about the quadro graphics cards and this one was the best card I could find at a reasonable price... and upgrade on the one that is in the HP one that you were recommended though... you can find a copy of Windows easily enough as well for €100 give or take...

afaik you can get it built for €30 as well if your not comfortable doing it yourself....

other than that it has pretty much the same spec as the HP one as well as throwing an SSD included so it's going to be a lot snappier to use...

in all you'll save €350-€400 over the HP one and still will come in cheaper than the Alienware (Alienware is a gaming brand as well so I wouldn't recommend that to begin with)

worth some consideration maybe

Item|Price
PNY QUADRO 600 1024MB DDR3 BULK|€161.84
8GB-Kit Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 CL9|€37.61
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€133.34
Seagate Barracuda 7200 1000GB, SATA 6Gb/s|€85.38
Xigmatek Asgard, ATX, ohne Netzteil, schwarz|€32.53
LG GH22NS50/70/90 bare schwarz|€17.73
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€81.59
Intel Core i7-2600K Box, LGA1155|€264.90
Shipping|€18.99
Total|€833.91

have a look over at the PC Building forum if you want to go down this line and they'll give you some decent advice - definitely worth some consideration considering the cost savings you could make

Torqay

If you look around at Dell, the Precision workstation T1600 Essential with a 3.4 GHz 8 MB L3 Xeon Processor and the same graphics as the HP will cost you €1,196 + VAT and delivery. Certainly cheaper than HP.

DIY will save you quite a lot of money especially when it comes to business PCs. But with HP or DELL workstations, you'll have the benefit of NBD on-site tech support, if required. Hence the difference in price compared to consumer products.

Monotype

I agree with john, building yourself is the way to go. It's actually not €30 to get hardwareversand to build it for you, but €1 at the moment!

Be aware that they only take bank transfers as credit cards aren't as popular in Germany.

I suggest you ask the mods to move the thread to building and upgrading to get it seen by more members there. I haven't got time to check out the specifics of the software demands just now, but john's build with the 2600K and SSD looks good. I don't know if a quadro is necessary so you'd have look into that. I'd get a different hard drive though as the warranty on Seagates is a mere one year.

deconduo

If you are going for a workstation card the minimum you want is the Quadro 2000. The problem with the Quadro 400 and 600 are entry level CAD cards rather than for 3DS Max/animation/modelling. The AMD Firepro cards are better in Maya but Quadro perform better in 3DS Max. They also have the advantage of CUDA.

I'd go with a build like this:

Item|Price
Total build cost: €1,205.46 + €18.99 shipping
Intel Core i7-2600K Box, LGA1155|€264.90
Thermalright HR-02 Macho|€33.79
ASRock Z68 Pro3 Gen3, Sockel 1155, ATX|€81.59
2 x 8GB-Kit G.Skill PC3-10667U CL9|€33.65
Crucial M4 128GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5")|€133.34
PNY NVIDIA QUADRO 2000 1024MB DDR5 - 128-BIT PCI16X-EX 2XDP 1XDVI-I bulk|€397.70
Super-Flower Amazon 80Plus 550W|€52.08
BitFenix Shinobi Midi-Tower GERMANY Edition - black/red/gold, ohne Netzteil|€55.20
LiteOn iHAS122-18 schwarz SATA|€16.67
SEAGATE Barracuda Green 2TB 5900.3 SATA 3 6Gb/s 64MB 8,9cm (3,5")|€102.89

Monotype

I've been reading around and I see a lot of people claiming that gaming cards offer near the same performance levels with 3DS Max as the professional cards, even if not officially supported. Apparently, the marginal advantage of having the professional grade cards is not that advantageous as nVidia hasn't been supporting it as well as it should in recent versions.
http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=206705

moxy

johnmcdnl - That looks great although I am tempted to up the 8GB to 12 or 16GB for multi tasking (if that makes sense) & Intel Core i7 2700K / 3.5 GHz processor (extra €30 or do you need to buy the CPU - Socket 1155 for it meaning an extra €288,41)
Or is all of this unnecessary, I want a system that can run 2 Autodesk and 1 or 2 Adobe all at the same time without having a heart attack.

Torqay -That also looks like a good one and I have always used dell, but I am getting a bit sick of paying for Pre-Installed Security, Microsoft Office 2010 and yet another Keyboard & mouse.

moxy

Thanks Deconduo for your suggestion, I might just order it

johnmcdnl

moxy wrote: »

johnmcdnl - That looks great although I am tempted to up the 8GB to 12 or 16GB for multi tasking (if that makes sense) & Intel Core i7 2700K / 3.5 GHz processor (extra €30 or do you need to buy the CPU - Socket 1155 for it meaning an extra €288,41)
Or is all of this unnecessary, I want a system that can run 2 Autodesk and 1 or 2 Adobe all at the same time without having a heart attack.

Torqay -That also looks like a good one and I have always used dell, but I am getting a bit sick of paying for Pre-Installed Security, Microsoft Office 2010 and yet another Keyboard & mouse.

upping the ram is worth it and it's dirt cheap at the minute so defo worth €33 quid for an extra 8GB... you should get the use out of it and it's doing no harm anyways...

no real point in getting the 2700k for an extra few quid when there's only 0.1GHz difference in clock speed.. you won't notice the difference and you can easily just do a small overclock yourself to get the extra 0.1 if you really really want it
as for the extra €288??? - not 100% sure what your getting at but you won't be spending an extra €288

I don't know much about the quadro cards so I'll assume decoundo know's his stuff so if he says to get the quadro 2000 get it.... I forgot to put a PSU in my build so throw the one decoundo picked - the amazon one's are considered the best in the market as a rule of thumb so....

basically go with decoundo's build or something very similar to it would be my advice...

moxy

thanks again John

Monotype

Here is the assembly:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=746

The 2700K is not worth the extra money; you can change the 2600K to the same speed ('K' series means that it's unlocked so you can change it to make it faster).

Torqay

moxy wrote: »

I am tempted to up the 8GB to 12 or 16GB

With an enterprise class Xeon Processor, you're not limited to that, they support up to 32 GB of memory (ECC if you want, which is not an option with i7 processors). You'll get more reliability too (but you will lock yourself out of the overclocking business).

You might take this into consideration, when buying your processor and mainboard.

moxy

Monotype wrote: »

Here is the assembly:
http://www1.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=746

The 2700K is not worth the extra money; you can change the 2600K to the same speed ('K' series means that it's unlocked so you can change it to make it faster).

Thanks Monotype, but the link only shows Rechner - Zusammenbau (Calculator - Assembly), I can't get it to show me the assembly

deconduo

moxy wrote: »

Thanks Monotype, but the link only shows Rechner - Zusammenbau (Calculator - Assembly), I can't get it to show me the assembly

Just add it to your basket like any other part.