Student Architecture Workstation £1000 (~$1500)

A

agrieveson

New member
A new build for an Architecture student with 3 years of study remaining. Replacing an ageing MacBook Pro. Aiming to be as silent as possible.

Budget Range: Around £1000 (~$1500)

System Usage: Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD, Creative Suite 6 (Mainly Photoshop and Illustrator), 3ds Max (rendering with Vray), Sketchup. No gaming.

Monitors: 2560 x 1440 (Dell U2711) and 1920x1080 (Samsung BX2340)

Currently thinking:

-i7 3770K

-Gigabyte GA-Z77-D3H

-AMD FirePro V4900

-Plextor M3 128GB SSD

-Seagate 3TB Barracuda HDD (7200RPM 64MB)

-Corsair 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 1600Mhz Vengeance "low Profile"

-Samsung SH-S222AB 22x DVD±RW DL

-Silverstone Raven 3

-Noctua NH-D14

-600W Silverstone Strider PSU

This is a new build from scratch and nothing is set in stone, I am open to any suggestions.
 
A quick look on the web and the card that you've chosen doesn't LOOK that impressive...but, if i'm honest, I really don't know what i'm looking for.
You'd be better off trying to ask advice from DugDiamond.
 
imo the firepro v4900 would bottleneck your system, for your budget you'd probably be better of getting a 600 series nvidia and saving for a quadro down the line but they cost more than rigs themselves (upto £8k if not more, but do have 12Gb ram lol)
 
the GPU is inadequate - i suggest a GTX560ti (OR BETTER), as you will need PhysX in 3dsMax AND adobeCS will take advantage of the CUDA cores

the PSU will barely cope - get an 750W+ (like the AX850)

and swap the D14 for a H100

everything else looks fine ;)
 
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dugdiamond said:
the GPU is inadequate - i suggest a GTX560ti (OR BETTER), as you will need PhysX in 3dsMax
Click to expand...

Thanks for that feedback.

The majority of my work will be in Revit/AutoCAD, and a result the GPU I choose needs to have strong performance for viewports etc. From what I have read, Workstation cards outperform Gaming cards significantly in this regards. The only (occasional) use 3ds MAX will have is to run Vray renders of work produced in Revit, so I do not see it as so important to specify a GPU tailored to this. Please correct me if I am wrong, I do not have a huge amount of experience in this area.

EDIT:
dugdiamond said:
adobeCS will take advantage of the CUDA cores
Click to expand...

In terms of CUDA, I'm pretty sure that neither Photoshop or Illustrator take advantage of it at this stage. As I rarely us any other parts of CS, I don't think that that is too much of a problem. Again, please correct me if I am wrong.
 
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agrieveson said:
System Usage: Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD, Creative Suite 6 (Mainly Photoshop and Illustrator), 3ds Max (rendering with Vray), Sketchup. No gaming.

...
-AMD FirePro V4900
...
Click to expand...

(http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe-cs6.html)
you said mainly for PS and Illr., but Premiere Pro does use CUDA

for CAD and Revit the firePro will be okay, but only at resolutions of 1024x768.....which is terrible. it was useable in the early days (2000-2005), but at 1600x1200 or greater (today's standards) you will see tearing in the screen :(

the same can be said for MAX - but with even worse artefacts.

AMD state that the GPU can handle 2560x1600 @ 60Hz, but alas it is not a full colour bit-depth (ONLY 16-bit)

PLUS their 'raved about' 30-bit depth can only be supported on very few monitors that allow it, and then at lower resolutions

Vray does not use CUDA, but iRay does :D
 
dugdiamond said:
(http://www.nvidia.com/object/adobe-cs6.html)
you said mainly for PS and Illr., but Premiere Pro does use CUDA

for CAD and Revit the firePro will be okay, but only at resolutions of 1024x768.....which is terrible. it was useable in the early days (2000-2005), but at 1600x1200 or greater (today's standards) you will see tearing in the screen :(

the same can be said for MAX - but with even worse artefacts.

AMD state that the GPU can handle 2560x1600 @ 60Hz, but alas it is not a full colour bit-depth (ONLY 16-bit)

PLUS their 'raved about' 30-bit depth can only be supported on very few monitors that allow it, and then at lower resolutions

Vray does not use CUDA, but iRay does :D
Click to expand...

I would have no use for Premiere Pro, all my work is with still images and I do not see that changing. I doubt I will change from Vray to iRay (in the near future at least).

For what I will be using it for and the resolutions I will be running it at (2560 x 1440 (Dell U2711) and 1920x1080 (Samsung BX2340)), what would you recommend I purchase? Keeping in mind that as a student money is relatively tight, though I would be willing to spend a little more than budgeted if I needed to in order to get an acceptable level of performance.

From what I can gather, I do not really need a card that can support CUDA (though it might be useful to have in the future), but the v4900 would not be up to handling the displays I want to run. So would I need to buy a more expensive workstation card or will a gaming card be suitable for my uses (I find it a little hard to believe that it would be)? Viewport performance in Revit and AutoCAD, is by far the most important factor in choosing a card for me.
 
i have 560ti GPUs in all my drones in my farm... and they handle all the 3D apps i use like a charm :D

if you spend most of you time in CAD, drawing and designing BEFORE rendering, it the monitor that is the most important, along with a precise pointing device. your dell is ample for what you need :D

if cash is low - then go with AMD measily offering ...OR... jump ship and get a nVidia Quadro FX 4500 for about 50bucks more
 
dugdiamond said:
i have 560ti GPUs in all my drones in my farm... and they handle all the 3D apps i use like a charm :D

if you spend most of you time in CAD, drawing and designing BEFORE rendering, it the monitor that is the most important, along with a precise pointing device. your dell is ample for what you need :D

if cash is low - then go with AMD measily offering ...OR... jump ship and get a nVidia Quadro FX 4500 for about 50bucks more
Click to expand...

Ok, so a previous generation high end workstation card would be your recommendation? They would preform better than lower spec current generation cards?

What would be your opinion on buying a used GPU? (I guess this is not so much a specific workstation question as before, but are used GPUs a worthwhile investments?). There are several FX 4500s (and FX 4800s) that have been stripped from old office workstations going for what seem like very reasonable prices on eBay right now.
 
exactly

a FX4500/4800 can be got on the bay for about 200quid. they will outperform the newer low-end cards... for a fraction of the price.

the office worker aint gonna be bashing them about - they just want to sell them to subsidise the costs of an upgrade.
 
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dugdiamond said:
a FX4500/4800 can be got on the bay for about 200quid. they will outperform the newer low-end cards... for a fraction of the price.

the office worker aint gonna be bashing them about - they just want to sell them to subsidise the costs of an upgrade.
Click to expand...

I will start looking for deals then. I assume it's worth paying the little extra for a FX 4800 over a 4500?
 
dugdiamond said:
depends on how much your budget can stretch OR how soon you need the parts :D
Click to expand...

I'm willing to stretch the budget buy up to £200/$300 (so £350/$550 total spend) if the return is worth it. And in terms of delivery, I do not need the system until term starts again in September (though it would be nice to have it up and running earlier if possible).
 
dugdiamond said:
you will be looking for a card that will last you about 3-4yrs.
the FX4800 would be the better choice
Click to expand...

4 years is the lifespan I am looking for yes. I will start looking around to see what deals I can find for the FX 4800.

One last question, in terms of the rest of the systems hardware, will anything need to change to accomodate the higher spec card? I assume the PSU will need to be upgraded (a 750W?). What about the motherboard?

Thanks very much for all your help.
 
yep

good mobo;
ample good RAM;
not a fan of seagate (but? go WD);
nice SSD;
i doubt you will be overclocking the 3770K, so is the D14 necessary? (get a H100);
fair optical;
get a 750W or better PSU
 
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