Workstation upgrade for mold design and proNC?

[Sean]

I am looking to upgrade my current HP workstation ( nearing 10yrs old) . I have been dealing with nuisance lags with large moldbase assemblies and serious wait times posting NC programs.

I'm not looking for minimum requirements and I'm not looking to spend 10k. I guess I am curious what people are driving or would suggest?

I am running

creo 3.0

with

NC_Production_Set

Expert_Moldbase

MoldDesign

Thanks for your help!

Sean

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[BenLoosli · Accepted solution]

Windows 7-64 bit OS

Quad core processor

Nvidia high end graphics card

16-32 GB RAM

256GB Solid State Drive for your boot disk

1TB data drive if you store files on the network, add a 2TB drive if you store files local (Or get a local MyCloud 8GB device)

[Sean]

Ben, Thanks for your quick reply!

These are the bullet points specifically for what I am looking at:

• Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (available through downgrade rights from Windows 10 Pro)
• Intel® Xeon® E5-2637 v4 3.5GHz 15MB 2400 4C CPU
• HP Z440 700W 90 Percent Efficient Chassis
• 32GB DDR4-2400 (2x16GB) Registered RAM
• Operating System Load to SATA/SAS
• 256GB SATA 1st Solid-State Drive (SSD)
• 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 2nd Hard Drive
• NVIDIA Quadro K2200 4GB DL-DVI(I)+2xDP 1st No cables included Graphics - PCIe

Do the processor and graphics card seem appropriate?

Thanks for you time,

Sean

[bgruman]

Sean,

I know I'm a little bias here...

but if its performance your looking for I would recommend an i7 6700K CPU (OC's if you want it),  and a Quadro M4000 Video Card.

I personally wouldn't go Xeon unless you doing serious FEA, Rendering work or setting up a server,  and the K2200 card is at least one (maybe two) generations old and runs on the slower PCI-E 2.0x16 interface.

Good Luck with your search.

Bernie

Bernie Gruman

Owner / Designer / Builder

www.GrumanCreations.com

[Sean]

This is a great jump off point. I appreciate your time and opinion.

Thanks again.

[BenLoosli]

I would agree with Bernie on the chip and graphics.

The Xeon you have called out is also 1 generation (E5 vs E7) behind.

The i7 series is better if you are just doing normal Creo work.

If PTC took better advantage of multi-thread processing in their NC package, more cores may help, but they don't, yet.

You may also want to load your applications to the SSD.

[JasonPensack]

Sean,

Have you purchased a new rig yet? I'm curious about how you made out and what you think of your choice. I'm looking into building a new rig and I am stuck between the i7 and a Xeon processor. I know that you get more bang for your buck with the i7 in processor speed, but is there any advantage to the larger cache in a Xeon processor? Graphics card I'm looking at the Nvidia Quadro M4000.

[Sean]

Hey Jason,

No, I haven't purchased anything new yet. I am getting some push back on the cost and requirements. I hope to have something in the next couple of weeks. I am finding the cost is significantly higher on the Xeon boxes and am being questioned on the need for the M4000. Perhaps Ben or Bernie can help you out with your processor questions. Good luck