{"id":676,"date":"2011-05-08T20:25:40","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T01:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/?p=676"},"modified":"2011-09-25T09:04:50","modified_gmt":"2011-09-25T14:04:50","slug":"my-new-3d-cad-workstation-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/08\/my-new-3d-cad-workstation-computer\/","title":{"rendered":"My New 3D CAD Workstation Computer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recently Intel told the world that it will begin using its new &#8220;Tri gate&#8221; 3D transistors in its upcoming <a title=\"View 22nm article on Wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/22_nanometer\" target=\"_blank\">22nm processors<\/a>. \u00a0This got me thinking about how fast my new workstation is (with an intel Xeon processor in it, 45nm technology), and asking myself why I would need anything faster (although reduced power consumption is always attractive).<\/p>\n<p>I got a new work computer last week, and it&#8217;s a huge improvement over what I was using before (ThinkStation with Windows Vista 32 Bit OS).<\/p>\n<p>The workstation&#8217;s foundation is a Lenovo (formerly IBM) ThinkStation S20 series with the following specs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\"><a title=\"Go to Intel Xeon 3550 info page\" href=\"http:\/\/ark.intel.com\/Product.aspx?id=39720\" target=\"_blank\">Intel Xeon W3550 Processor (3.06GHz 1066MHz 8MB L2) &#8211; 130W<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">DOS (No Software Preloaded)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">Tower 5&#215;6 Mechanical with Intel 36S Motherboard<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">2GB ECC DDR3 PC3-10600 SDRAM (1GBx2 uDIMMS)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\"><a title=\"Go to NVIDIA Quadro 600 page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/object\/product-quadro-600-us.html\" target=\"_blank\">NVIDIA Quadro 600 (1GB Dual link DVI+DP)<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">500GB SATA 3.5&#8243; Hard Drive &#8211; 7200 rpm<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">20-in-1 Media Card Reader<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">Lenovo 16x DVD +\/- RW Dual Layer (DOS)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">Intergrated Ethernet 10\/100\/1000<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">IEEE 1394 Adapter<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">Lenovo Preferred Pro USB Full Size Keyboard &#8211; US English<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 11px; line-height: normal;\">Display Port &#8211; DVI Dongle<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And these upgrades were purchased from newegg.com:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Go to 128 GB Samsung SSD Drive page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.samsung.com\/us\/computer\/memory-storage\/MZ-5PA128\/US\" target=\"_blank\">128 GB Samsung SSD Drive<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Go to Kingston ECC 4GB DIMM page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ec.kingston.com\/ecom\/configurator_new\/PartsInfo.asp?root=us&amp;LinkBack=http:\/\/www.kingston.com&amp;ktcpartno=KVR1333D3E9S\/4G\" target=\"_blank\">12 GB ECC DDR3 10600 Server RAM (3&#215;4 GB uDIMMS)<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit OS (System Builder Version)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>RAM:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Why 12 Gigabytes if RAM? \u00a0It&#8217;s not like I&#8217;m a video game developer or rendering Pixar movies, but I checked SolidWorks website for their system recommendations. \u00a0For SW2011, 6GB is recommended. \u00a0Then I checked out what memory configuration works best with the <a title=\"Intel X58 Chipset Overview\" href=\"http:\/\/www.intel.com\/products\/desktop\/chipsets\/x58\/x58-overview.htm\" target=\"_blank\">X58 chipset (Intel&#8217;s &#8220;workstation&#8221; chipset)<\/a>. \u00a0Apparently, Triple Channel config works best. \u00a0I&#8217;m not familiar with the <a title=\"Go to Triple Channel RAM info on Wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Triple-channel_architecture\" target=\"_blank\">3 channel RAM thing that Intel uses for some of its processors<\/a>, all the computers I&#8217;ve built have used dual channel configurations with AMD chipsets. \u00a0Also, with this motherboard&#8217;s chipset &amp; Xeon processor, I am able to use <a title=\"Go to ECC info on Wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ECC_memory#Errors_and_error_correction\" target=\"_blank\">ECC (Error Correcting Code) server type memory<\/a>, which is good for professional\/office applications (is supposed to provide better stability; fewer lock-ups and blue screens).<\/p>\n<p>So as I was looking for ECC RAM, reading that it&#8217;s good to fill all 3 slots on the motherboard (or 6 slots, as long as your RAM DIMMs are in multiples of 3), and wanting at least 6GB total, it seemed the best value I found was to buy 3 sticks of RAM (each DIMM providing 4GB of memory).<\/p>\n<p><strong>SSD:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve just recently started using SSD drives in my computers because they&#8217;re getting to the point where&#8217;s the price per GB is reasonable. \u00a0I went for the Samsung because of a reasonable price-point and high customer ratings. \u00a0I&#8217;ve already forgotten the technical details like what controller type it is (JMicron or SandForce, etc.), and I don&#8217;t care because it&#8217;s working very well. \u00a0Using an SSD as the primary drive (for the OS &amp; important applications) is wonderful. \u00a0It&#8217;s like taking a giant leap forward in computing user experience. \u00a0Everything is just &#8220;snappy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Discrete Graphics Card:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Opted for the <a title=\"NVIDIA Quadro 600 Fermi Workstation Graphics Card\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nvidia.com\/object\/product-quadro-600-us.html\" target=\"_blank\">NVIDIA 600<\/a> because it was only $40 more than the base card, and it offers the &#8220;Fermi&#8221; processing cores that I&#8217;ve been hearing so much about lately. \u00a0This is still considered an &#8220;Entry Level&#8221; workstation graphics card, but I don&#8217;t need anything too powerful for the types of assemblies and models I usually work with.<\/p>\n<p>Still, I&#8217;ve been somewhat disappointed so far. \u00a0This card is working great (and provides excellent value), until I tile several models on my screen&#8230; \u00a0This is when each model&#8217;s view acts herky-jerky, appears to be the same as another open model file, black screens, etc. \u00a0This is most likely a driver issue and due to the fact that I still use SW 2009, and Dassault Systemmes doesn&#8217;t hardly support it anymore (now that it&#8217;s mid 2011). \u00a0I&#8217;m sure that when I upgrade to a current version of SolidWorks, I&#8217;m going to be even happier with this card.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Windows Experience Index = 6.6:<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_766\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 550px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-766\" title=\"Windows 7 x64 Professional Computer Information Screenshot\" src=\"http:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot-600x360.jpg\" alt=\"Windows 7 x64 Professional Computer Information Screenshot\" width=\"550\" height=\"330\" srcset=\"https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot-600x360.jpg 600w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot-150x90.jpg 150w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Professional-Computer-Information-Screenshot.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Windows 7 x64 Professional Computer Information Screenshot<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_767\" class=\"thumbnail wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 550px\"><a href=\"http:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-767\" title=\"Windows 7 x64 - Performance - Experience Index Base Score\" src=\"http:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score-600x277.jpg\" alt=\"Windows 7 x64 - Performance - Experience Index Base Score\" width=\"550\" height=\"253\" srcset=\"https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score-600x277.jpg 600w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score-150x69.jpg 150w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score-300x138.jpg 300w, https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Windows-7-x64-Performance-Index-Base-Score.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption wp-caption-text\">Windows 7 x64 - Performance - Experience Index Base Score<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a new 3D CAD work computer last week, and it&#8217;s a huge improvement over what I was using before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","inline_featured_image":false,"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[560,95,163,404],"class_list":["post-676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-designer","tag-cad","tag-computer","tag-design","tag-windows"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":4,"label":"Designer"}],"post_tag":[{"value":560,"label":"CAD"},{"value":95,"label":"computer"},{"value":163,"label":"design"},{"value":404,"label":"Windows"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/krisbunda.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/S20-Inside-562x600.jpg",562,600,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Kris 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