PC Build for Architectural Visualisation?

donathan · 02-04-2019 04:17PM #1

Hi,

Was wondering if any of you could take a look at my potential PC build for the pupose of Architectural Visualisation using programs like Autocad, Sketchup, Vray, 3DSMax, Lumion, Adobe Suite, maybe Revit etc.

Im not very good at the technical build & specification area so would really appriciate any comments and suggestions.

I probably would order from pc specialist but am open to an alternative if anybody has any good suggestions

thanks
Jonathan

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor i9-7940X (3.1GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Get Just Cause 4, PUBG & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME X299-A: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

Lu Tze · 02-04-2019 04:28PM

donathan wrote: »

Hi,

Was wondering if any of you could take a look at my potential PC build for the pupose of Architectural Visualisation using programs like Autocad, Sketchup, Vray, 3DSMax, Lumion, Adobe Suite, maybe Revit etc.

Im not very good at the technical build & specification area so would really appriciate any comments and suggestions.

I probably would order from pc specialist but am open to an alternative if anybody has any good suggestions

thanks
Jonathan

Case
FRACTAL FOCUS G BLACK GAMING CASE (Window)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor i9-7940X (3.1GHz) 19.25MB Cache
Get Just Cause 4, PUBG & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME X299-A: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s, RGB Ready
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 2666MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 660p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (upto 1800MB/sR | 1800MB/sW)
Memory Card Reader
USB 3.0 EXTERNAL SD/MICRO SD CARD READER
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Processor Cooling
Corsair H60 2018 Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND

Worth looking up graphics cards that are certified for your software. As far as I know none of the consumer cards are certified for Autodesk products, I gather they speed up the rendering etc. The certified cards are very expensive however, might be a judgment call on how much rendering you do, see if you can find any benchmarks which might indicate if it's worth the outlay

donathan · 02-04-2019 04:32PM

Thanks LuTze,

Very valid point, I thought the one specified might be enough but yes it is worth investigating further to see what is certified

K.O.Kiki · 02-04-2019 04:58PM

TBH I'd just talk to Dell, Lenovo or HP.
https://www.dell.com/en-ie/work/shop/scc/sc/workstations?~ck=mn&appliedRefinements=1359,6757,6757
https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/workstations/p-series/c/thinkstationp
https://www8.hp.com/ie/en/products/workstations/index.html

For a work machine like that, every day of downtime is money down the drain.

Avoid regular consumer CPUs (8700K or the like) and go for Core i7/i9-xxxxX or Xeon platform as you have above - consumer platforms are limited to 32Gb 32-64Gb depending on chipset.

donathan · 03-04-2019 07:56AM

Thanks K.O.Kiki,

I'll check those suggestions out, thanks for taking the time out to
assist me with links

justsomebloke · 04-04-2019 12:46PM

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Avoid regular consumer CPUs (8700K or the like) and go for Core i7/i9-xxxxX or Xeon platform as you have above - consumer platforms are limited to 32Gb 32-64Gb depending on chipset.

I'm going to say don't be too worried about the consumer CPU's. Alot of these apps can still be single thread heavy so the clock speeds of the consumer ones can be advantageous depending on which exact app you are using.

As mentioned already the type of graphics card in use will probably be a bigger concern.

donathan · 04-04-2019 04:21PM

Hi justsomebloke,

thanks for the advice, I've been back and forth on pcspecialist and have completely redone the potential build. Its pricey but I do need it to be powerful to run the arch viz programs effectivly.
Would you mind taking a look at the build spec below. Any criticisms or comments are welcome, as its a lot of money and I want to make sure i'm on the right path.

many thanks

Jonathan

donathan · 04-04-2019 04:21PM

Case
FRACTAL MESHIFY S2 BLACKOUT TEMPERED GLASS
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i9 Eight Core Processor i9-9900K (3.6GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® WS Z390 PRO: ATX, LGA1151, USB 3.1, SATA 6GBs
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2080 Ti - HDMI, 3x DP GeForce - RTX VR Ready!
2nd Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 2.5" SSD, (upto 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB ADATA SU800 M.2 2280 (560 MB/R, 520 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W VS SERIES™ VS-650 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H100x Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
COOLER MASTER MASTERGEL MAKER THERMAL COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless/Wired Networking
WIRELESS 802.11 Gigabyte GC-WB1733D-I AC 1734Mbps + BT5 PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
Microsoft® Office 365 Personal (12 Month Subscription - Digital Key)
Anti-Virus
Norton Security Deluxe 3.0: 1 User, 5 Devices - 1 Year Subscription
Browser
Google Chrome™
Monitor
IIYAMA X2481HS 24" LED WIDESCREEN, D-Sub, DVI-D, HDMI 1920x1080
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK270 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Promotional Item
Get Just Cause 4, PUBG & More w/ select Intel CPUs!
Welcome Book
PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland
Quantity
1

Price £3,282.00 including VAT and Delivery

K.O.Kiki · 04-04-2019 05:06PM

That's a gaming build (and not a very balanced one, either).

Also - no offense to PC Specialist - but with Brexit I would be wary of buying a work machine from the UK; who knows how easy servicing will be.
Additionally, water-cooling for a work machine is just asking for a pump failure & days of downtime.

I'll have a look for you after work OP.

_DMac_ · 04-04-2019 06:02PM

Also just to chime in on Pcspecialist but I got a €2000 laptop from them last year and had to return it due to a faulty mobo and the whole thing turned into a nightmare. Took over 2 months to get the laptop repaired and when I got it back the mobo had been stripped from another laptop and the repair work was disgraceful. They had damaged cabling inside the laptop and left a load of tissue stuck between the heat sink's on the cpu and gpu. Would advise everyone to steer well clear of them.

mp3guy · 04-04-2019 06:04PM

You want a Quadro card from NVIDIA, as they cripple line rendering on the GeForce range (or at least they did in the past).

donathan · 04-04-2019 06:48PM

Thanks for all the comments and advice. Yea I’ve heard a few not so great things about pcspecialist in the past week of research. Would any of you recommend an alternative supplier? I would want it built and ready to plug and play...

justsomebloke · 05-04-2019 03:30PM

What ever you do, don't just get a single 24" screen. dual 27" 1440p screens or maybe a 27" 1440P and a 32" 4K will be a lot better.

The 4K is crap for general emails, office, browsing so I would keep at least 1 1440p but the extra real estate of 4K is great for drawing apps as they minimize the amount of relevant space taken up by toolbars giving a lot more space for the actual model.

Again if this is an work machine that you will be depending on then getting something will next day support should be something you should really be looking at

justsomebloke · 05-04-2019 03:34PM

and don't forgot to have some sort of backup solution!

donathan · 05-04-2019 04:54PM

Thanks justsomebloke, will do

K.O.Kiki · 05-04-2019 05:01PM

@donathan
https://www.dell.com/en-ie/work/shop/desktop-and-all-in-one-pcs/precision-3630-tower/spd/precision-3630-workstation/S013P3630MTWER

But since their sites are junk, you're better off talking to a sales rep for a quote

Just say you need a machine with i7-8700K (after more research, it is a good fit for your use - speed > core count) and would like a Quadro P4000/FirePro WX 7100 instead of Quadro P2000.
Regarding RAM, while you could just get them to fit it, it's cost-inefficient.
A 64Gb set costs under €400 on Amazon and is super easy to install (literally 5 minutes).

Also, Dell monitors are very highly rated so get 1-2 1440p/4k monitors while you're at it.

mp3guy · 05-04-2019 05:38PM

If you go prebuilt Lenovo are good; https://www.lenovo.com/ie/en/workstations/p-series/ThinkStation-P920/p/30BCCTO1WWENIE1/customize?

PC Build for Architectural Visualisation?

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