NEW PC build to run ArchiCAD

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Plasticmonkey

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Hi guys

Im building a desktop PC for my sister that she is going to use mainly for ArchiCAD. (program architects use to build 3d models and render big images etc)

I dont really have a clue as to witch PC parts will give her the maximum amount of performance specifically for this program. This is what I have in mind so far:

Intel® Core™ i5 2500 - 3.30GHz Quad Core, Socket 1155
GIGABYTE® H67MA-UD2H: H67 Express Chipset: Socket LGA1155 mobo
Transcend® JetRam™ High-Performance Tri-Channel 6GB 1333mhz
GIGABYTE® ODIN 585W PSU
Seagate® Barracuda™ 1TB SATA3 hdd (for data)
Solid state hdd (for OS) NO IDEA, please recommend !
GIGABYTE® nVidia® GeForce GTX550Ti - 1GB GDDR5 gfx
sammy 23inch lcd

She already has a case & optical drive, so that wont be a problem.
Will this setup be okay? can i change some items to get more performance?

Suggestions Please !

ps. budget is around R10 000ish
 
for 10k you can get some nice things. I strongly suggest that you rather get a workstation graphics card as they are made for CAD programs such as the nVidia quadro cards or AMD firepro (i dont know the power reqs for nVidia but the amd cards use a relatively small amount in comparison to gamer cards so you wont really need an 80 plus certified PSU if your watts are high enough on the 12v rail. Having said that however, if possible get a 80 plus certified one and it doesnt need to exceed 450w), you will also need to look at large amounts of RAM depending on her render and model work. Although this will probably blow your budget out the water, ditch the Samsung screen as its most likely a TN panel and rather grab an IPS panel monitor from dell or hp. SSD wont need to exceed 64gb tops since you got a 1tb as data storage (i hazard your ssd will kill the budget)
 
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Mystic Twilight said:
for 10k you can get some nice things. I strongly suggest that you rather get a workstation graphics card as they are made for CAD programs such as the nVidia quadro cards or AMD firepro (i dont know the power reqs for nVidia but the amd cards use a relatively small amount in comparison to gamer cards so you wont really need an 80 plus certified PSU if your watts are high enough on the 12v rail. Having said that however, if possible get a 80 plus certified one and it doesnt need to exceed 450w), you will also need to look at large amounts of RAM depending on her render and model work. Although this will probably blow your budget out the water, ditch the Samsung screen as its most likely a TN panel and rather grab an IPS panel monitor from dell or hp. SSD wont need to exceed 64gb tops since you got a 1tb as data storage (i hazard your ssd will kill the budget)
Click to expand...


Cool, thanks.

I had a look at the workstation GFX cards. For about the same price of the GTX550 I can get the Leadtek® NVIDIA® Quadro FX380 PCIe X16 Workstation GPU, 512MB 64-Bit DDR2 card. Will this card be beter, or am i wasting my time?
 
Leadtek NVIDIA Quadro FX380 will do nicely but keep in mind:
Serious CAD graphics cards are only required if you "3D model" complex items with working parts (engines, electric motors).
If you don't design such things on a regular basis then a serious CAD graphics card is a bit of a waste.

Any 1GB+ (DDR5) pciE card would be superb for "static" designs that's only viewed & rendered in 3D (without being viewed in 3D when "in motion" - like a piston engine or wind turbine).
Static 3D designs & motion 3D designs = 2 completely different monsters with different requirements.

ask these guys http://www.cutmans.co.za for a CAD config.
Their site is quite new but I know they're involved with engineers & architects & mining.

also I'd go for a Viewsonic and not a Samsung (Samsung specializes in toasters and microwaves, lol)
Viewsonic 27" http://www.cutmans.co.za/category.php?id_category=84

PS: CAD uses it's own swop file. the more hard drives you have the faster it becomes.
 
The SSD is recommended if you would be frequently opening/saving lots of files - be it graphics design or programming.
I highly doubt that getting a SSD would be of great benefit to her kind of profession, unless the applications doesn't cache the textures/files necessary, which would just be poor programming IMO.

8GB RAM, a decent graphics card and a fast CPU is what you're looking for.
Just be careful with installing a high-end graphics card in a cheap case that has virtually no airflow through it. Depending on the graphics card that you're going for, either a Corsair CX430 or CX500 would suffice.

I'm with Mystic Twilight on this one that she should invest in a decent IPS panel, unless colour accuracy isn't important to her. A 27" Dell IPS panel with a resolution of 2560x1440 would be ideal - otherwise invest in 2x 23" TN panels.

Btw: where are you going to buy the PC, because online shops usually offer better prices, but then servicing can become bit of an issue if you're not close to the online store.
 
bubbatentoe said:
also I'd go for a Viewsonic and not a Samsung (Samsung specializes in toasters and microwaves, lol)
Viewsonic 27" http://www.cutmans.co.za/category.php?id_category=84
Click to expand...

Dunno if this is still true but last time I checked Viewsonic had a bad rep compared to their glory years. An S-IPS panel from the likes of Dell, NEC etc might be a better option.


hereticangel said:
GIGABYTE® ODIN 585W PSU

first get rid of this
Click to expand...

+1 Get a decent Antec or Corsair.
 
Im sort of against the idea of any 1gb card being able to pull off CAD applications in a professional work environment, the lack of being able to utilise specially made drivers orientated for CAD programs will mean that you wont be able to achieve the performance that is available to workstation graphics cards, even for large static renders you will find that gaming cards wont be able to render correctly and errors tend to crop up such as shadows being inconsistent and line inaccuracies. Just having more memory wont cut it, you lose out on those shaders and other specially made characteristics available only in workstation cards. But that my take on it anyway, i know guys in varsity make do with gamer cards because they want to play games :).

As Pada has mentioned, ideally you should be looking at 8gb ram, a quad core cpu (fast 2 cores maybe, but thats only due to budget constraints), a cheapish (i use this loosely) motherboard that has 4 ram slots with new IO ports such as USB 3 (eSATA and possibly firewire potentially as well), intel made ones come to mind, case that has good airflow (but that doesnt mean one with hundreds of fans everywhere. If the place of work has air-conditioning, bonus) and finally if possible, an IPS panel monitor. Honestly from my side, if she got herself an AMD V4800 GFX firepro card, 1 hdd and 1 ssd, the gigabyte Odin 585w can actually cut it, but otherwise for some more substance a coolermaster GX 450w is fine.
 
When rendering 3D models there's no such thing as "overkill".

All of the below "outdated"?
FirePro V4800
FirePro V5700
Quadro FX 580
Quadro FX1800
Corei7 Quad & 6 + eXtreme?

LOL, too much weed dude.
 
I don't know how powerful a machine you need, but if you have R10K ish, I'd spend it this way on the parts you need:

HP Quadro 600 - R1,863.11 / HP ATI FirePro V4800 - R1,769.66

Intel Sandybridge lga1155 i5-2500 - R1,819.87

Asus P8P67 LGA1155 mb - R1,577.95

Corsair Vengeance 1600mhz 4GB x 2 - (R517.60 x2) R1035.20

Corsair CX500 500w - R584.69

LG iPS226V-pn 22" FHD LED iPS - R2,275.27

ADATA S599 64Gb 2.5" SATA3G SSD - R1,096.30

Seagate Barracuda Green 1TB - R460.85

= R10713.24 / R10619.79 - Prices from http://rebeltech.co.za.

You could get a cheaper screen/RAM/mobo to bring it down to around 10K even, since I picked those specific parts due to specs/quality/preference and not pricing to fit budget, but those gfx cards were the cheapest DX11/OpenGL 4.1 cards I could see, for future-proofing, and that was the cheapest 64GB SSD I could find with a good controller.

You may also want to consider an Intel 320 series SSD, since Intel are supposed to be best for reliability (since this PC doesn't seem to need pure disk performance), but they only come in 40GB and higher increments, and an 80GB is R1.8k (see Landmark Computers, another good online store) and a 40GB rather too small for comfort for Win 7 + apps, imo. Purely performance-wise, an OCZ Agility 3 60GB at R1,376.66 is your best bet, but there have been some issues with some drives using the newer Sandforce controller, and it would be best to check up on this first before putting one in a machine used primarily for work.

Finally, another option is to leave the SSD, and get a more well-rounded HDD instead of the storage-oriented Seagate, e.g. WD Caviar Black 1TB for both OS and storage, and then get an i7 2600, with hyper-threading, if this is a heavily-threaded application. You could then add an SSD at a later stage.
 
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Don't leave out the SSD! You won't regret it. My recommendation is an Intel SSD. They're very fast, have the best reliability and compatibility, and now feature 5 year warranties and the price on the Intel 320 series is really not bad.
 
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