AdviceBuilding a CAD workstation for school need help
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AdviceBuilding a CAD workstation for school need helpPosted:

spacexfanboy
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I'm in school for mechanical engineering. hoping to work for SpaceX someday, working on interplanetary space ships. Anyway, after talking to the CAD instructor at school, learning requirements for the CAD software i'll be learning at school(Solid Works mostly) I was able to figure out mostly what parts to get. Below I'll show a list of parts I already purchased, what I'm going to purchase, and parts I haven't figured out what to get yet. The advice I'm looking for on this build is:

1. How do I determine how powerful of a PSU(power supply unit) I should get?
2. What motherboard would you recommend I get? My budget is $250.00 for the motherboard.
3. What is the best aftermarket heatsink i can get in this build that won't block access to all four RAM slots if I use the ram sticks in this build? I want the PC to be as cool AND QUIET as possible.
4. Did I choose the proper thermal paste? if not, what's the best thermal paste I can get?
5. I plan on running 3 27inch 1080p monitors...am I correct to assume that the way I attach them is via three HDMI cords that will go into the three HDMI slots on the back of the P4000?
6. Since the P4000 is VR ready i will eventually get VR...so how/where would I plug in the VR device if I already have 3 monitors plugged into the back of the P4000? What kinds of cords are used to attach VR devices to a computer?

STUFF I ALREADY PURCHASED

PC CASE

newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?I...-_-Product


THERMAL PASTE

amazon.com/gp/product/B00LT0ZWJE/...&psc=1


STUFF I HAVEN'T PURCHASED YET


CPU

amazon.com/Intel-i7-8700K-Desktop...s=i7+8700k


M.2 DRIVE

amazon.com/Samsung-970-EVO-500GB-...NVMe+-+M.2


16GB RAM(i plan to upgrade to 64GB later, the CAD instructor at school said I only need 16GB to get started)

amazon.com/Corsair-Vengeance-3000...e+lpx+16gb


4TB HDD

amazon.com/Gold-Enterprise-Class-...-+7200+RPM


GPU

amazon.com/PNY-VCQP4000-PB-NVIDIA...ords=p4000


O.S.

amazon.com/%D0%9Cicrosoft-Windows...&psc=1

CD/DVD ROM

amazon.com/PioData-Internal-Optic...DVR-S21DBK



STUFF I NEED HELP FIGURING OUT WHAT TO PURCHASE

-PSU

-HEATSINK

-MOTHERBOARD

Also, I do have a 650 watt, 80 plus gold PSU from EGVA that I never used(left over from another gaming build). Will this be good enough for my pc build, or do i need to
purchase another PSU? How do i figure out how powerful of a PSU i need for a PC?

Also, if it helps ya'al answer this quesion. I will be mostly using this PC for CAD. I might be playing MechWarrior 5 and Doom Eternal but it won't be that much because I won't have time to game much while I'm going to school full time on top of working full time lol.

Also, with monitors, i don't plan to do 4k. I'm perfectly happy with using 1080p, LED, 60hz monitors. plus i can't afford 4k monitors anyway lol

This is a motherboard I'm considering getting:
amazon.com/MSI-PRO-Intel-Gigabit-...z370-a+pro
#2. Posted:
21
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I wouldn't buy a Quadro P4000. It's worse than a GTX 1070. If you're spending $700 on a GPU, get an RTX 2080 or Radeon 7.

Thermal paste is fine, it doesn't really matter and most coolers come with pre-applied paste anyway, or some included thermal paste. Did you pay $90 for that case? Can you return it? For $90, you should be looking at something like a Fractal Design Meshify C.

650W would be enough wattage, but it depends on the quality of the PSU you have. If it's low quality, I'd probably buy a new PSU. What specific model of EVGA PSU do you have? G1/NEX, G2, G3?

For cooler, if you want to be safe with RAM compatibility, an AIO CLC is probably the best way to do so since they take up very little space around the socket.


I would definitely consider going with AM4 over Intel;


8700k alternative;


I'd probably also try to add a 500GB or 1TB Samsung 860 EVO alongside the rest of the storage tbh.
#3. Posted:
spacexfanboy
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when i purchased the case it was only $87.00

as for the PSU, this is a link to what I have:
amazon.com/EVGA-Modular-Warranty-...Yr2HZAf9CM
#4. Posted:
21
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That's unfortunate about the case. If you can return it, I would. If not, I'd probably still just buy something different. You could get a better case for $50, but anything in the $70-90 range would be worlds better than that DIYPC case.

The 650 GQ isn't the best, but it will be fine. Better than spending $80+ on a new PSU, so yeah I'd just re-use that.
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spacexfanboy
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21 wrote I wouldn't buy a Quadro P4000. It's worse than a GTX 1070. If you're spending $700 on a GPU, get an RTX 2080 or Radeon 7.

Thermal paste is fine, it doesn't really matter and most coolers come with pre-applied paste anyway, or some included thermal paste. Did you pay $90 for that case? Can you return it? For $90, you should be looking at something like a Fractal Design Meshify C.

650W would be enough wattage, but it depends on the quality of the PSU you have. If it's low quality, I'd probably buy a new PSU. What specific model of EVGA PSU do you have? G1/NEX, G2, G3?

For cooler, if you want to be safe with RAM compatibility, an AIO CLC is probably the best way to do so since they take up very little space around the socket.


I would definitely consider going with AM4 over Intel;


8700k alternative;


I'd probably also try to add a 500GB or 1TB Samsung 860 EVO alongside the rest of the storage tbh.


Ok I'll be going with your 8700k alternative. Just a question though: How can i find out if a RTX 2080 will run Solidworks? I was told by folks that I HAVE to get a quadro GPU or i won't have the correct drivers/support for Solidworks. Is that entirely false? If so then i would love to get that 2080 so i can have a pc that is equally a great gaming platform as much as a CAD workstation.
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spacexfanboy
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according to this link i would have to get a quadro if i want to run solidworks 2019 on windows 10 64 bit. there are no drivers that support the GPU you mentioned.

solidworks.com/sw/support/videoca...sting.html

this is how i determine if a gpu is compatable for Solidworks. if this is the wrong way then please tell me how to properly know if a GPU can run solidworks.
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That link doesn't say you need a Quadro, only that Quadro GPU's are certified by Dassault themselves to work well with Solidworks. They just don't certify GTX/RTX GPU's, so an RTX 2080 will absolutely work in solidworks, and will absolutely shit all over a Quadro P4000. There's some Solidworks forums where loads of guys ended up buying Turing GPU's, like an RTX 2080 or 2080Ti.
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spacexfanboy
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thank you! that solved a lot of confusion on my end.

the link you showed me for the gpu is out of stock for that gpu but here is a 2080 VR ready i found:



m.newegg.com/products/N82E16814126251

i'll probably be getting this as soon as i get home today unless for some reason i this this card is a bad idea.
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The EVGA RTX 2080 is in stock at SuperBiiz for $700 and B+H for $720.

Alternatively, Newegg have this Gigabyte RTX 2080 for $700;
newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?I...6&SID=

I definitely wouldn't be paying $840 for the Asus Dual RTX 2080, but for $740 it's not terrible. I'd probably still prefer to save the $40 though and get the EVGA or Gigabyte variant for $700.
#10. Posted:
LostPhone
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All the other comments ignore why people buy Quadros in the first place.

Double precision FLOPs
32 bit color depth.
Lots of VRAM (25GB in this case)

So it all depends on how important those things are to what you're doing.
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