New Workstation

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JNally
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New Workstation

Post by JNally »

Our start-up rig is getting slower and slower now. Our jobs database sizes have increased immensely in the last six months so its time to move on to bigger and hopefully better things.

I thought I would just keep track of our progress on here as I thought it would be of some benefit to others to see our results and even throw in some input.

The Programs we mainly use on this rig are:
Cyclone
2017 Recap 360 PRO
AutoCad 2017 Revit, Cad, Civil 3D, 3DS Max, NavisWorks
Pix4D
Bentley Context Capture
Cloud Compare
Autodesk Memento
(Im sure there are a few more I forgot to mention)

Our Current Rig Consists of:
i7 4790K 3.5GHZ (4 Cores/8 Threads)
MSI Krait edition Z-97 MOBO
32 GB DDR3 memory at 1600mhz
Nvidia GTX 970 4GB
1X 240GB SSD
2X 2TB HDD
700W 80+ Gold Corsair Power Supply
Windows 7 PRO to start then up to 10 PRO

Now from this computer I have determined,

CPU: This was a great choice in our opinion, it handled all of our tasks. A few more cores/threads would definitely speed things up, core speed didnt really make much difference once you go over 3.5Ghz but as entry options go Id say this is the best one.
Motherboard: Does what it says on the tin, has the room for expandability
RAM: We had started off with 16GB and quickly realized we needed more, we found Cyclone pushing us to the 13-14 GB mark, making the computer almost unusable until it had finished its tasks. After moving to 32GB things improved drastically. Keep an eye on you frequency and set it as high as it goes, made a big difference for us.
GPU: Really cant fault this card for an entry rig, did everything we asked. We have experience with Quadros and to be honest, this card did the same as some High End Quadros did.
SSD and HDD: This was by far our biggest problem, we had our "Active Jobs" stored on our SSD with all temp folders and completed work stored on the HDD. Our 2 hard drives were set up in Raid 1 for a backup. This setup held us back in process time massively. After trial and error with different set ups, we found that all temp folders for the likes of Cyclone and Recap 360 need to be on an SSD. And only storage and backups kept on the much slower HDD's.
PSU: nothing to complain about did what we needed.
Operating System: Windows 7 started but after moving up to Windows 10 Disk transfer rate improved slightly so we decided to stick with 10 for the future.

After learning from Big Rig Mk1 we decided on the following specs for Big Rig Mk2:

i7 5820k locked to 3.8Ghz (6Core/12 Thread) (dont think a 5960x is needed yet but this can switch it out)
MSI X99A MOBO
64GB DDR4 2133Mhz
Nvidia GTX980Ti 6GB with room for 2nd one
2X 1TB SSD's running in RAID 0 (RAID settings could change)
1X 500GB SSD for Operating System (Win10Pro) and programs
1X 4TB HDD used for Backups with a 2nd one ready to go when the need is there.
850W Corsair 80+ Gold
Windows 10 PRO

Our Server will then take all Archived Projects onto its own drives.

We have just placed our order on Big Rig Mk2 and will update with finds as time goes on.
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Re: New Workstation

Post by boxel0 »

Hi GrasstecGeomatics,

Thats really interesting, the biggest machine we run here is:
CPU: Intel Core i7 5820k 3.30ghz 6 core
Motherboard: Asus x99-A
RAM: 64gb DDR4
GPU: Nvidia Quadro K2200
SSD & HDD: 1x 500gb SSD (OS) 4x 1tb WD Blacks (1 for each working client)
PSU: 700w Corsair
Operating System: Still windows 7 x64 Pro, nervous going over to windows 10

Have you ran a benchmark on it:
http://www.maxon.net/products/cinebench/overview.html
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JNally
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Re: New Workstation

Post by JNally »

Lewis, not yet on the new one, its still in transit. The Mk1 we did and I will try and get the results or do a new one and report back.

Regards
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Re: New Workstation

Post by boxel0 »

Look forward to seeing your results
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JNally
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Re: New Workstation

Post by JNally »

Quick Update on the MK2

so this is the setup :

i7 5820k locked to 3.8Ghz
MSI X99A MOBO
64GB DDR4 2133Mhz
Nvidia GTX980Ti 6GB with room for 2nd one
2X 1TB SSD's running in RAID 0 = 1.81Tb of SSD Storage :)
1X 500GB SSD for Operating System (Win10Pro) and programs
1X 4TB HDD used for Backups with a 2nd one ready to go when the need is there.
850W Corsair 80+ Gold
Windows 10 PRO

CPU: So far its fantastic, overclocking it did it the world of good. A big boost in performance going to 3.8Ghz from the stock 3.3Ghz, I plan on going to 4.2Ghz and seeing what boost this gives us. We have an aftermarket cooler on it.
Ram: 64GB makes multitasking easier than when we only had 32GB especially with the boost from the DDR4
GPU: Looks to be doing the job well so no complaints.
SSD: This was the single biggest boost we have gotten. 2x 1TB Samsung 850EVO's running in Raid 0. I have read and write speeds in excess of 1GB/s now which has lowered all processing time for us massively I cannot stress how good this upgrade was for us. We have the Cyclone Temp Folder Hidden on this drive which helps too.

When the Machine is finished all of the scheduled tasks I will get around to some benchmarks and post them.

Regards,
Joe
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Re: New Workstation

Post by danielgadowski »

One thing i could suggest would be instead of going for the Raid on normal SSD's go for the PCIe SSD drives. They can be even twice as fast as normal SSD!
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Re: New Workstation

Post by Jason Warren »

danielgadowski wrote:One thing i could suggest would be instead of going for the Raid on normal SSD's go for the PCIe SSD drives. They can be even twice as fast as normal SSD!
Like one of these?
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/samsung- ... 15-sa.html
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Re: New Workstation

Post by Bill-Wallace »

Just a plug for our software here but have you seen the performance you can get with JetStream and CloudWorx for AutoCAD, Revit and NavisWorks. I think it will out do anything you can accomplish by throwing hardware at it.

This is just my very biased opinion and your actual mileage may vary but it may be worth looking into it.
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Re: New Workstation

Post by imcid953 »

I am very seriously thinking of buying our next computer from these people: http://www.boxxtech.com/.

We currently have the following:
Intel i7-5960X CPU @ 3.00 GHz
RAM 64.0 GB
Quadro K6000 graphics card
1 TB hard drive for operating system
2 1-TB hard drives in a RAID 0 for data

I'm considering moving to two separate CPUs and 128 GB of RAM. Everything else would stay the same.

Bill
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KGrothman
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Re: New Workstation

Post by KGrothman »

Boxx makes really quality stuff. . . and sadly they know it $$$$$$$

If you've got the time to build and set up your own machine, do it and save the cash.

As for graphics cards, dump that 980ti in the trash and get a new GTX 1000 series. You could run SLI 1070's for just about the same cost as a single 980ti. Take a look at the pre-release benchmarks, they are super impressive. Time will tell if they are better than sliced bread but I've already made my decision 8-)
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