Architecture Workstation
Hello all.
This is my first attempt at building a workstation for myself. I dabble in gaming but this is by far a machine for process data intensive programs. I know I'll need a powerful CPU and GPU to run programs like Rhino6 w/Grasshopper, Revit w/Dynamo, Autocad, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Lumion, V-Ray. This is an AMD build and the key to this build is speed of workflow and rendering and then part-worth staying power (don't want to have to upgrade in a year). I want to be able to run a minimum of three 4k monitors. Budget max 3,000 - 3,500. This thing does not need to be pretty with LEDs. Trying to spend less.
Specifications and Parts:
CURRENTLY: I'm using a 1st Gen 2nd Tier Microsoft Surface Studio. It has its perks as a touch screen but it was a little lacking when I bought it in 2017. I need something I can upgrade.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/diagrams-and-tech-specs-of-surface-studio-1st-gen-ee58a743-6463-2557-e66e-4dc4b3207881
Parts I am considering:
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 9 3950X Matisse 3.5GHz 16-Core AM4 Boxed Processor
GPU: Best recommendation - I would like to stay less than $1,000 if I can. Needs to be a minimum of 8GB. Really would prefer a 16GB-32GB. Overclocking is not as important. This is my most flexible item in terms of budget. Is the AMD Radeon RX 6800 overkill and worth it? Thinking single GPU for now?
Motherboard: I don't really understand how to pick a motherboard. I'm mainly looking for something with built in wifi and LAN connection. Considering the Gigabyte - X570 Aorus Master WiFi AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard. From the edumacation I learned myself on the youtubes I basically understand the your motherboard should cost as much or less than your CPU? Is that garbage advice?
Ram: G.Skill - Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 CL16 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit F4-3200C16D-32G - Black - thinking I might need to go up to 64GB just for sheer file size.
Case: Again best advice. Focus on airflow and ease of access to work on it and clean it.
Power Supply: Gold standard or better but again best recommendation.
M.2 SSD: Samsung - 970 EVO 1TB SSD 3-bit MLC NAND M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive(for every day work efficiency)
Hard Drive: Seagate - BarraCuda 4TB 5400RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
(for long term file storage for work)
Optical Drive: need for work
CPU Cooling: Considering liquid cooling. I'll need guidance on everything. Not intimidated by watercooling installation or maintenance. But need help with heatsinks vrs water cooling, and thermal compounds (and application).
Program Specifications taken directly from their respective websites:
Lumion:
A GPU scoring a G3DMark of 14,000 or higher with up-to-date drivers. Such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or better.
GPU: 8 GB or more
CPU: Intel/AMD Processor scoring a single thread CPUMark of 2,200 or higher. (Such as the AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i7-4790 or better)
RAM: 32 GB or More
Hard Drive: SATA3 SSD or NVME m.2 storage
V-RAY Rhino:
CPU:1st Gen Intel® Core™ or compatible processor with SSE4.2 support (x64).
RAM:4 GB RAM and 4 GB swap minimum – recommended 8 GB or more RAM, 8 GB or more swap file.
Hard Disk Space: Minimum 2GB, Recommended 12GB (includes additional downloadable content)
Supported GPU: Maxwell-, Pascal-, Volta-, Turing- and Ampere- based NVIDIA card(s) with with latest recommended video driver (for both CUDA and RTX - enabled cards) V-Ray Vision requires a Graphic card with DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 and Shader Model 5.0 capabilities
V-RAY Revit:
CPU: Single- or Multi-Core Intel® Pentium®, Xeon®, or i-Series processor or AMD® equivalent with SSE2 technology. Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.
RAM: 8 GB RAM and 8 GB swap minimum
Rhino6 w/Grasshopper:
Rhino and Grasshopper are CPU driven but they rely almost entirely on clock speed rather core count. Multi GPU?
Revit:
CPU: Single- or Multi-Core Intel®, Xeon®, or i-Series processor or AMD® equivalent with SSE2 technology. Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended. Autodesk® Revit® software products use multiple cores for many tasks.
RAM: 16 GB RAM. Usually sufficient for a typical editing session for a single model up to approximately 300 MB on disk. This estimate is based on internal testing and customer reports. Individual models will vary in their use of computer resources and performance characteristics. Models created in previous versions of Revit software products may require more available memory for the one-time upgrade process.
"Video Adapter": DirectX 11 capable graphics card with Shader Model 5 and a minimum of 4GB of video memory.
Disk Space: 30 GB free disk space. 10,000+ RPM HardDrive (for Point Cloud interactions) or Solid State Drive
This is my first attempt at building a workstation for myself. I dabble in gaming but this is by far a machine for process data intensive programs. I know I'll need a powerful CPU and GPU to run programs like Rhino6 w/Grasshopper, Revit w/Dynamo, Autocad, Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign, Lumion, V-Ray. This is an AMD build and the key to this build is speed of workflow and rendering and then part-worth staying power (don't want to have to upgrade in a year). I want to be able to run a minimum of three 4k monitors. Budget max 3,000 - 3,500. This thing does not need to be pretty with LEDs. Trying to spend less.
Specifications and Parts:
CURRENTLY: I'm using a 1st Gen 2nd Tier Microsoft Surface Studio. It has its perks as a touch screen but it was a little lacking when I bought it in 2017. I need something I can upgrade.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/diagrams-and-tech-specs-of-surface-studio-1st-gen-ee58a743-6463-2557-e66e-4dc4b3207881
Parts I am considering:
CPU: AMD - Ryzen 9 3950X Matisse 3.5GHz 16-Core AM4 Boxed Processor
GPU: Best recommendation - I would like to stay less than $1,000 if I can. Needs to be a minimum of 8GB. Really would prefer a 16GB-32GB. Overclocking is not as important. This is my most flexible item in terms of budget. Is the AMD Radeon RX 6800 overkill and worth it? Thinking single GPU for now?
Motherboard: I don't really understand how to pick a motherboard. I'm mainly looking for something with built in wifi and LAN connection. Considering the Gigabyte - X570 Aorus Master WiFi AMD AM4 ATX Motherboard. From the edumacation I learned myself on the youtubes I basically understand the your motherboard should cost as much or less than your CPU? Is that garbage advice?
Ram: G.Skill - Ripjaws V 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR4-3200 PC4-25600 CL16 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit F4-3200C16D-32G - Black - thinking I might need to go up to 64GB just for sheer file size.
Case: Again best advice. Focus on airflow and ease of access to work on it and clean it.
Power Supply: Gold standard or better but again best recommendation.
M.2 SSD: Samsung - 970 EVO 1TB SSD 3-bit MLC NAND M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive(for every day work efficiency)
Hard Drive: Seagate - BarraCuda 4TB 5400RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
(for long term file storage for work)
Optical Drive: need for work
CPU Cooling: Considering liquid cooling. I'll need guidance on everything. Not intimidated by watercooling installation or maintenance. But need help with heatsinks vrs water cooling, and thermal compounds (and application).
Program Specifications taken directly from their respective websites:
Lumion:
A GPU scoring a G3DMark of 14,000 or higher with up-to-date drivers. Such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, AMD Radeon RX 5700XT or better.
GPU: 8 GB or more
CPU: Intel/AMD Processor scoring a single thread CPUMark of 2,200 or higher. (Such as the AMD Ryzen 5 2600, Intel Core i7-4790 or better)
RAM: 32 GB or More
Hard Drive: SATA3 SSD or NVME m.2 storage
V-RAY Rhino:
CPU:1st Gen Intel® Core™ or compatible processor with SSE4.2 support (x64).
RAM:4 GB RAM and 4 GB swap minimum – recommended 8 GB or more RAM, 8 GB or more swap file.
Hard Disk Space: Minimum 2GB, Recommended 12GB (includes additional downloadable content)
Supported GPU: Maxwell-, Pascal-, Volta-, Turing- and Ampere- based NVIDIA card(s) with with latest recommended video driver (for both CUDA and RTX - enabled cards) V-Ray Vision requires a Graphic card with DirectX 11 or DirectX 12 and Shader Model 5.0 capabilities
V-RAY Revit:
CPU: Single- or Multi-Core Intel® Pentium®, Xeon®, or i-Series processor or AMD® equivalent with SSE2 technology. Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended.
RAM: 8 GB RAM and 8 GB swap minimum
Rhino6 w/Grasshopper:
Rhino and Grasshopper are CPU driven but they rely almost entirely on clock speed rather core count. Multi GPU?
Revit:
CPU: Single- or Multi-Core Intel®, Xeon®, or i-Series processor or AMD® equivalent with SSE2 technology. Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended. Autodesk® Revit® software products use multiple cores for many tasks.
RAM: 16 GB RAM. Usually sufficient for a typical editing session for a single model up to approximately 300 MB on disk. This estimate is based on internal testing and customer reports. Individual models will vary in their use of computer resources and performance characteristics. Models created in previous versions of Revit software products may require more available memory for the one-time upgrade process.
"Video Adapter": DirectX 11 capable graphics card with Shader Model 5 and a minimum of 4GB of video memory.
Disk Space: 30 GB free disk space. 10,000+ RPM HardDrive (for Point Cloud interactions) or Solid State Drive
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