Questions from an Electronics Engineer!

A

analog

Member
Hi all

I know next to nothing about the current PC market, I am an electrical engineer and need a PC for the following

- Solidworks 2013 3D rendering and design
- QT C++ and C compilation
- kiCAD electronics design
- Keyshot 3D rendering
- General code compiler programs for linux embedded hardware

Where on earth do I start?

Budget is around £1200 ex VAT and I only need the PC itself as I have displays and keyboard etc.

I would like to run between 2 and 4 displays as looking at data sheets when designing a PCB is a nightmare if you have to switch screens.

Thanks so much for any help you can offer.

Analog
 
A

analog

Member
Hi all, I didn’t get a reply to this - I really need to buy this now :)

can somebody recommend a system?
£1200 to £1600 ex VAT is ok
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
That budget in the current price climate is not going to get you anything like what you would want as an ideal for the things you mention.
 
A

analog

Member
Bear in mind I’m using a Lenovo x220 at the moment for all of the above...

Which is painful, but possible... just!
 
S

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
Easily possible when the budget is ex vat. Not entirely sure on gpu and how many displays etc. Or whether your software would benefit from a better gpu. There's budget left to up the gpu anyway. Can't fit a 5950x into your budget though.

Reuse the windows key from the machine you're about to retire...

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
6GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1660 - HDMI, DP - GeForce GTX VR Ready!
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,789.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/BEmCUnJuSK/
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
Would you also not want to add a scratch drive?
And i'd take a higher PSU for lifespan/headroom... unlikely to ever need to push it for high end GPU's but i'd say a 750RMx would still be a good choice, ease of use, headroom and lifespan/quality.
 
S

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
sibun1 said:
Would you also not want to add a scratch drive?
And i'd take a higher PSU for lifespan/headroom... unlikely to ever need to push it for high end GPU's but i'd say a 750RMx would still be a good choice, ease of use, headroom and lifespan/quality.
Click to expand...
Scratch drive, meh, I'm not someone who uses those softwares so don't really know. Maybe? There's £100 spare budget to play with so the dude can add what he wants. Stick in a PCS SSD in, they're cheap enough.

Configurator already says that psu is overkill. If he's gonna game on it ever then maybe a higher psu I suppose. Depends on possible future use. Budget is budget.
 
C

ColEyt

Gold Level Poster
Going by the minimum specification of the hardware requirements for running Solidworks (taken from their site), I gave up trying to even attempt to put a spec together when the price went over £2k, as they suggest a quadro 4000 rtx gpu, which would cost approx £900. Now whether one of the more newer Nvidia cards could perform better than this, I'm not sure, but I very much doubt that a 1660 is going to be adequate

Given that this was the cheapest of the 7 recommended builds suggested by Solidworks, and that you also want to run additional programs whose hardware requirements I didnt bother looking into, I would suspect your budget is on the very low side, and I'm not experienced enough with this type of software to know whether the performance you would get would be anywhere near satisfactory.

This is the blurb from the Solidworks site regarding hardware requirements, just as a reference to anyone who wants to try and put a system together for the OP

Mini Tower with latest high end NVIDIA Quadro RTX Graphics and 32GB ram to handle complex data-sets and accelerate SOLIDWORKS Visualize and VR/AR content. Also a good option for users of simulation products with 8 cores and sufficient RAM for most users.

Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K 8 cores 3.8GHz (Turbo Boost up to 5.1 GHz) ¥ Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2933MHz DDR4 ¥ Hard Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive ¥ Chassis: 460W with8x DVD+/-RW, SD Card Reader and Dust Filter ¥ Graphics Card: 8GB NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Graphics Card, 3 x Display Port,1x USB C Virtual Link VR Ready ¥ Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit

Edited after reading Bigfoot's comment :)
 
Last edited:
B

Bigfoot

Grand Master
ColEyt said:
Going by the minimum specification of the hardware requirements for running Solidworks (taken from their site), I gave up trying to even attempt to put a spec together when the price went over £2k, as they suggest a quadro 4000 rtx gpu, which would cost approx £900. Now whether one of the more newer Nvidia cards could perform better than this, I'm not sure, but I very much doubt that a 1660 is going to be adequate

Given that this was the cheapest of the 7 recommended builds suggested by Solidworks, and that you also want to run additional programs whose hardware requirements I didnt bother looking into, I would suspect your budget is on the very low side, and I'm not experienced enough with this type of software to know whether the performance you would get would be anywhere near satisfactory.

This is the blurb from the Solidworks site regarding hardware requirements, just as a reference to anyone who wants to try and put a system together for the OP

Mini Tower with latest high end NVIDIA Quadro RTX Graphics and 32GB ram to handle complex data-sets and accelerate SOLIDWORKS Visualize and VR/AR content. Also a good option for users of simulation products with 8 cores and sufficient RAM for most users.

Processor: Intel Core i7-10700K 8 cores 3.8GHz (Turbo Boost up to 5.1 GHz) ¥ Memory: 32GB (2 x 16GB) 2933MHz DDR4 ¥ Hard Drive: 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive ¥ Chassis: 460W with8x DVD+/-RW, SD Card Reader and Dust Filter ¥ Graphics Card: 8GB NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000 Graphics Card, 3 x Display Port,1x USB C Virtual Link VR Ready ¥ Operating System: Windows 10 Professional 64bit
Click to expand...
The OP is using Solidworks 2013, which doesn’t have the same requirements as later versions. A Quadro 1000 should fit within budget and that should be fine. According to Puget Systems, there wouldn’t be much benefit in higher end cards using versions before SolidWorks 2019, after which the higher end cards can have massive performance improvements. I would go for an RMx 850W PSU. The amount of RAM required depends upon the size of assembly up you are building, but 32MB is a good starting point.
 
Bhuna50

Bhuna50

Author Level
Can’t advise on the build but bear in mind that some items may be pre-order / awaiting stock and timescales are not really known. OP should be made aware of recent queues relating to the 5900x etc as they mentioned needing it now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
S

SlimCini

KC and the Sunshine BANNED
3080 are the main stock shortages at the moment I think. 5900, 5950 and 3090 builds seem to be flying out as long as no 3080 in.

Maybe...

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO P1000 - 4GB GDDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - 4 x mDP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,915.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/NqgjRn4Cy4/
 
Bhuna50

Bhuna50

Author Level
SlimCini said:
3080 are the main stock shortages at the moment I think. 5900, 5950 and 3090 builds seem to be flying out as long as no 3080 in.

Maybe...

Case
CORSAIR 5000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.8GHz/70MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS[emoji2400] ROG STRIX X570-F GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
32GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3600MHz (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
PNY QUADRO P1000 - 4GB GDDR5, 640 CUDA Cores - 4 x mDP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 850W RMx SERIES[emoji769] MODULAR 80 PLUS[emoji2400] GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair H115i ELITE CAPELLIX RGB Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL[emoji2400] Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365[emoji2400] (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft[emoji2400] Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Subject to stock availability on pre-order products
Price: £1,915.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/NqgjRn4Cy4/
Click to expand...

Ok. I wasn’t sure - just thought it worth mentioning to check. Cheers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
A

analog

Member
SlimCini said:
Scratch drive, meh, I'm not someone who uses those softwares so don't really know. Maybe? There's £100 spare budget to play with so the dude can add what he wants. Stick in a PCS SSD in, they're cheap enough.

Configurator already says that psu is overkill. If he's gonna game on it ever then maybe a higher psu I suppose. Depends on possible future use. Budget is budget.
Click to expand...
Hi Slimcini

I have never used a scratch disk and to be honest I had to Google what one was!

should I look into it or not bother?
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
They can be very beneficial, especially if you find bigger projects start maxing out your RAM.
 
BlessedSquirrel

BlessedSquirrel

We love you Ukraine
sibun1 said:
They can be very beneficial, especially if you find bigger projects start maxing out your RAM.
Click to expand...
They’re also a very insignifant cost, you don’t need anything large, 250gb would be ample. SATA SSD also would be fine.

The benefits far outweigh the cost, it’s basically essential these days on a production machine.
 
D

Deleted member 17413

Guest
Or be completely cheap like me and scavenge old SSD's from your old, dead laptop...
That way its free!
 
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