If you could have your dream system?
If you could have your dream system?
(OP)
I have the opportunity to purchase/build a system of my choice. I currently have the need to produce the best high end renderings possible it the shortest amount of time possible. I am looking for input on what the best OS/ and hardware system would be to run Solidworks and any information on 3rd party rendering softwares.
Thanks in advance for any input!
Craig
Thanks in advance for any input!
Craig






RE: If you could have your dream system?
Depending on what you're rendering PhotoWorks (included in SolidWorks Office Proffessional) may work well for you. Of course there are the common rendering softwares, 3D Studio, Maxwell, Alias Studio, etc.
Rob Rodriguez CSWP
www.axiscadsolutions.com
www.robrodriguez.com
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative www.swugn.org www.nvtswug.com
SW 2007 SP 2.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
RE: If you could have your dream system?
NVIDIA sends us its most powerful graphics board ever.
By David Cohn
Check out the article, DE online at:
http://ww
or look at NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
Bradley
SolidWorks Premim 2007 x64 SP4.0
PDM Works, Dell XPS Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 5 GB RAM, Virtual memory 12577 MB, nVidia 3400
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Thanks,
Rip
SolidWorks 2007
SP 4.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
See here: http://www.nvidia.com/page/quadroplex.html
Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
RE: If you could have your dream system?
You have been warned.
Kevin Carpenter
CAD Systems Administrator
Invacare Corp.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
I mean, he's just sitting around getting loaded on WD-40 now that all the Star Wars movies are done.
Maybe throw in C3P0 for comic relief!
Thanks,
Rip
SolidWorks 2007
SP 4.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Dan
www.eltronresearch.com
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Jeff Mirisola, CSWP
SW '07 SP2.0, Dell M90, Intel 2 Duo Core, 2GB RAM, nVidia 2500M
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog
RE: If you could have your dream system?
http://www.boxxtech.com/
And as mentioned, Nvidia offers Quadro Plex for massive realtime rendering. Depending on your rendering program you may be able to capture the realtime render for you usage. Or at least realtime previews would be very useful and impressive.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Basically, my employers think that photorealistic rendering is a push a button and your done process, and I've done my best to educate them as where expectations meet reality. As for me, even If I do get this "dream" system. I really don't see where I will have the time to the rendering because I pretty much spend all my time working on designs for new product development. Anyway, they want Hollywood, on a Hooterville Budget, and don't want to hire anyone else. If it keeps up I will probably be looking for a new job, because I'm to the point where I'd like to say. "IF" I new how to do what they are askign me to do, I certainly wouldn't be workign here..."
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Dual Xeon 3.0Ghz
8GB ram (expandable up to 32GB)
64-bit os
Quadro FX 4500
RAID 0 SAS 15K drives
Price was ~$8K for the IBM Intellistation Z platform. Other vendors may vary.
And Spacepilots for all!
Tony
HP NW9440
2 GB RAM
Quadro FX 1500M (84.88)
Solidworks 2006 SP5.0
Solidworks 2007 SP4.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Meanwhile, I'm a big fan of Xi Computers because of the great systems and service I get from them. (They also do very well in the Cadalyst.com benchmarks.)
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
What I'm trying to find is something better than photoworks, a rendering engine that allows real time previews and does not abrubtly end your workflow.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
You mean SWX2008 with its real-time rendered views? Sorry, couldn't resist..........
RE: If you could have your dream system?
If photoworks can actually render glass and metal again against a plain white background WITHOUT having to use caustics, I'll be happy. If anything, the more they have tried to jazz photoworks up, the worse it has become. This however, is the whole reason I will be allowed a budget for a new system. So viva la Solidworks!
RE: If you could have your dream system?
http://www.maxwellrender.com/
Supposedly the render times are longer than photoworks, but some users claim the setup is much easier as they have to do less fussing. The quality of renders is quite amazing. SolidWorks seems to be flirting with purchasing them. They are advertised on the SolidWorks website and a plug-in exists between them. http://ww
As I said the render times are longer, but with your killer machine it may not be too bad. I think the latest version of Maxwell focused on the speed as well...
Pete
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Rob Rodriguez CSWP
www.axiscadsolutions.com
www.robrodriguez.com
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative www.swugn.org www.nvtswug.com
SW 2007 SP 2.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Jeff Mowry
www.industrialdesignhaus.com
Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Dan
www.eltronresearch.com
RE: If you could have your dream system?
I did some research for this one...
First off, I will start with saying SW decided somewhere in the SW 2007 service pack path they sharpened the OS requirements.
That means SW will only install on supported operating systems.
So no more Windows Server 2003(/2008). Too bad...
SolidWorks 2007 supported operating systems are:
- Windows XP Professional (32-bit)
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
SolidWorks 2008 supported operating systems are:
- Windows XP Professional (32-bit)
- Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
- Windows Vista 32-bit
source
According to Microsoft that leaves us with only 2 processor socket systems. source
The number of CPU cores does not matter.
So we will look for the best performing 2-socket mainboard & processor system.
Some additional requirements are: 1 or 2 PCIe 16x slots for the NVIDIA Quadro's.
Simply put, the best video card for SW today is the Quadro FX 5600, the only competitor could be the FireGL V8650, but no word on its performance yet...
If money is no object I would get:
- CPUs: 2x Xeon 5355 (or whatever is the fastest quad core Xeon),
- Videocard: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
- Motherboard: SuperMicro X7DA8
- RAM: 4x 4GB ECC 667MHz FB-DIMM (no less than 4, more is possible)
- IO controller: Areca ARC-1680 with 2GB and BBU (any load taken off the CPUs can be used for rendering!)
- Hard drives: Get whatever 4 15K SAS drives you like, run them in RAID 10. As long as you stay away from Maxtor you'll be fine.
- Cooling: A very good and professional watercooling setup
That about sums it up hardware wise.
Some notes: This mainboard is the only Xeon mainboard I've seen that has succesfully been overclocked (see here, user RottenMutt).
Overclocking might void your warranty (so they say), but is not very riskfull if you keep it sane and use proper cooling. It will not damage hardware when cooled properly.
When you have your system get back to us about the software tweaks (or us the search to find my previous software tweak messages)
Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Rob Rodriguez CSWP
www.axiscadsolutions.com
www.robrodriguez.com
http://designsmarter.typepad.com/rob_rodriguez/
Eastern Region SWUGN Representative www.swugn.org www.nvtswug.com
SW 2007 SP 2.0
RE: If you could have your dream system?
I'm wondering, Upone purchase and shipment, am I even going to know how to set it up? etc. etc.
Source info as follows...
Many x64 computers use a combined RAID and SATA controller. These controllers do not have native drivers in the released version of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, so you need to download a driver from your hardware manufacturer, or the manufacturer of the controller, or from one of the community sites that are providing driver agglomeration such as http://www.planetamd64.com/. When you have the driver, you'll need to copy the driver files to a floppy disk, and use the F6 option to install the drivers during initial setup.
Thanks Again! I've even been given the go ahead to allocate 2 days a week to doing nothing more than learning new software apps.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
(The Bad)The mother board fried in the first week.
(The Good)The service was easily contacted, the problem diagnosed, and a replacement was sent overnight.
2 years now and no additional issues.
More on computer quality -
My last three computers all failed and required repairs in the first two weeks.
The first was the worst for me. It was a Dell. I lost the hard drive in the second week, a day or two after I had cleaned out and deleted everything out of it's predecessor. Lost all my personal files, email history, viewers, and everything that had not been sent to the vault yet.
That was a hard lesson learned.
The second was my office desktop, the XI I am now on and is the one described above.
The third is my Laptop. A smokin' unit from Hypersonic called the "Aviator FX7 Turbo". It has one AMD Athlon FX-60 Dual-core CPU and seems to run Solidworks as well as the XI. It's graphic card, a Nvidia Quadro 1400 died on the third day.
Service from all three companies was good and replacement components were sent immediately. I did have to do the work, which I was a little uncomfortable with.
The moral of the story is expect the worst and be prepared, no matter who manufactures the computer. I now have two computers with three hard drives all containing the same information plus a nightly back-up service.
kd1959
Solidworks 2007 SP3.1, PDMworks
4GB Ram,3GB switch
2x AMD Opteron 254,2x 19" Viewsonic
Quadro FX 3400
RE: If you could have your dream system?
I have ran a home built AMB system as well, and so far it has been the best performing CPU I've ever used. That computer is still up and running and is someone elses hands.
Hopefully playing games! It had a mid range Quadro card.
The system I am using right now is a Dell Precision 490. It smells like I'm burning toast when I use it, and it spends more time thinking than I do, even with 4 GB ram and 3 GHZ Xeon processor.
My boss feels all of our problems with "high end renderings" can be solved by throwing money into a super computer. When in actuality we need more bodies, doing more work. After all, digital circuits are made from analog parts, Right?
So I've got the go ahead, but I know full well it isn't going to "solve" anything, and just create more work and tension for myself. I am not sure what running RAID will do for actual rendering quality and speed since I've never seen it in action. The new Nvidia Render Box may be the key?
I don't know. I've gotten alot of great advice and insights here and have been educating myself to the point of stupidity. All I really need to do is be able to set up and save decent renderings, and continue to model at the same time.
RE: If you could have your dream system?
Intel® Xeon™ to Quad Core & 32GB FB-DIMM SDRAM!
Xi Computers won: 1998 BYTEBest, 1992-2001 CADalyst HR, 2000 PC-WORLD BestBuy, C-NET & ZD-NET EDITOR CHOICE
Xi® MTower™ 2P64X Workstation Base Price: $1,439.00
l Xi® MTower™ 2P64X Workstation (Base Configuration) $1,439.00
Upgrades And Options:
l 2 x Quad-Core Intel® Xeon® X5365 3.00GHz 1333FSB 8MB L2 Cache EM64T $2,599.00
l 8192MB DDR2 667MHz FB-DIMM ECC 4x2GB Dual Rank Interleave heatspreader $1,349.00
l nVidia® Quadro FX 5600 1536MB DDR3 PCIe 2x DVI Dual Head SLI Capable $2,799.00
l 22" VX2255wmb Viewsonic® OptiSync® Wide LCD 5ms. 1680x1050NR Speakers+ 1.3MPix. Camera $219.00
l 150GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor X NCQ 16MB Cache <9ms $169.00
l Optional 150GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor X NCQ 16MB Cache <9ms $205.00
l HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected $0.00
l RAIDMode O Performance RAID (IDE or SCSI RAID Ctrl. Requires 2x identical HD) $39.00
l DVD 16x40x Reader $0.00
l DVD+RW/DL/+R-R LightScribe™ Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 16x w/SW-Media $79.00
l USB 2.0 Flash Memory Drive 4GB + 1.44Floppy $45.00
l CreativeLab X-Fi Xtreme Audio 7.1 24bit Digital Sound $89.00
l On board Intel® 82540 10/100/1Gbit Ethernet $0.00
l Logitech® Cordless Desktop® MX™ 3200 Keyboard + Laser Mouse $69.00
l No mouse ($8.00)
l Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional-64 CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg. $129.00
l Resource CD - contains Diagnostic links & Drivers $0.00
l Quick Reference Guide and @Xi Computer Manual (PDF) $0.00
l File System: NTFS File System selected $0.00
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l Microsoft® Office 2003 Professional on CD-ROM 60days free evaluation copy $0.00
l Antivirus one year subscription BitDefender® Standard 9th Edition one user (No Vista) $0.00
l Genuine Microsoft® Office 2007 Small Business Edition. System installed + License $249.00
l ADOBE® Creative Suite 3 Standard Ed. for Windows $1,199.00
l SuperMicro® intel® 5000X C.S. X7DAE 2xPCIe 3xPCI-X 1xPCI 2x 1GB Ethernet up to 16/32GB DDR2 667/533Hz FB-DIMM 6xSATA2-RAID 0/1/5/10-AC97 (NO SLI, req. ATX case) $119.00
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Sub Total:
$11,165.00
$11,340.24 Shipped.