Spec advice please :) - Work/CAD Machine c. £1400 exc. VAT

N

Narley19

New member
Hi All,

I have a budget for a work PC of ~£1400ex VAT. I'm a surveyor by trade and do a lot of Charting/Mapping work over large areas in AutoCAD, and I also use some specialist maritime charting software (Hypack), which is what I need the PC to do mostly in terms of 'heavy lifting' say.

CAD wise, I don't do much if any 3D work or rendering but I do need my PC to handle lots of point data. Sometimes I can be dealing with a more than a few hundred thousands points + text + polylines (3d and 2d) + sold hatches etc. and occasional 2D wireframe models.

From what I understand these type of software don't take advantage of having lots of cores on the CPU, and so I believe my focus should be single-core clock speed, RAM quantity and speed, and relatively decent GPU. Regards the GPU, I've done a bit research on Quadro vs GeForce, and I don't think I'm going to get bang for the buck with a Quadro type workstation GPU compared to a regular consumer GPU.

Below is what I've come up with myself.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated e.g. should I go for cheaper GPU and a higher CPU? Less RAM more budget for CPU etc. etc.

PS. I don't need a monitor or keyboard, speakers or any of that.. I'm currently working off of an HP 1080p 32in monitor...but might look to upgrade to a 1440p later on... can't see me going 4k anytime soon.

Thanks in advance,

Case
NZXT H511 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (WHITE)
Overclocked CPU
Overclocked AMD Ryzen 7 3800X 8 Core (3.9 GHz @ up to 4.4 GHz)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
1TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 120 2.5" SSD, (up to 560MB/sR | 540MB/sW)
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00001]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
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 - Approximately 15 to 17 working days
Price: £1,646.00 including VAT and Delivery
 
L

Luffy

Bronze Level Poster
AMD processors do not need to be overclocked so how about this.
Case
CORSAIR OBSIDIAN SERIES™ 750D FULL TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS WiFi (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
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
Noctua NH-U14S Ultra Quiet 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 (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KK3-00002]
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 15 to 17 working days
Price: £1,631.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/k86KWMzEs!/

Happy to be corrected by anyone on the forums
 
N

Narley19

New member
Thanks a lot for the quick reply,

I see you've swapped the SSD for a seagate HD, any thoughts on that? I only ask because when I upgraded an old laptop recently it made a huge difference in system performance going from a standard HD to an SSD - if I can live with 1Tb do you think I will see a benefit sticking with an SSD? or does the 256mb cache on the seagate close the gap in performance between the two?

I had a look on cpubenchmark-dot-net at the processor specs, and I see that the R5 5600X performs better than R7 3800x on single-thread performance.. which is great... what is the difference otherwise between Ryzen 5 and 7 (apart from # of cores)? I wondering if I'm missing some other fundamental difference.

Also, for the power supply, do you have any thoughts on whether or not I'd be safer going for something a bit beefier? or will I be fine with the 550W?

Thanks,
 
AgentCooper

AgentCooper

At Least I Have Chicken
Moderator
Hi there. So it does indeed sound like your uses are more memory intensive than CPU bound and the new Ryzen processors are absolute beasts for single threaded performance. I would ideally want an eight core processor in there to cover all the bases but if budget is a factor then the 5600X is a sensible choice (from what I’ve read, Hypack appears to favour a similar configuration to a gaming PC). GPU you’ve opted for is wise and should cover you nicely. I’d push up the PSU to a 750w unit so it doesn’t have to work as hard and it’ll also cover you for future upgrades. I’d also highly recommend having two separate drives, one for the OS/programs and one for your actual files. This setup will mean your system stays running fast and in the event of Windows needing to be reinstalled ensures your files are safe on a separate disk. M.2 drives are the next generation of SSD and I think you’ll really appreciate the speed they’ll bring. Here’s a suggested re-jig of the spec...

Case
NZXT H511 MID-TOWER GAMING CASE (BLACK)
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU (3.7GHz-4.6GHz/35MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
8GB NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 3060 Ti - HDMI, DP
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT (Wi-Fi NOT INCLUDED)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 10 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
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 - Approximately 15 to 17 working days
Price: £1,688.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/nqcxFWf2x9/
 
N

Narley19

New member
Thanks for the advice and the suggested config, its much appreciated! :) Am I right in saying the 8 core equivalent of the 5600X would be the 5800X?
 
L

Luffy

Bronze Level Poster
Narley19 said:
Thanks a lot for the quick reply,

I see you've swapped the SSD for a seagate HD, any thoughts on that? I only ask because when I upgraded an old laptop recently it made a huge difference in system performance going from a standard HD to an SSD - if I can live with 1Tb do you think I will see a benefit sticking with an SSD? or does the 256mb cache on the seagate close the gap in performance between the two?

I had a look on cpubenchmark-dot-net at the processor specs, and I see that the R5 5600X performs better than R7 3800x on single-thread performance.. which is great... what is the difference otherwise between Ryzen 5 and 7 (apart from # of cores)? I wondering if I'm missing some other fundamental difference.

Also, for the power supply, do you have any thoughts on whether or not I'd be safer going for something a bit beefier? or will I be fine with the 550W?

Thanks,
Click to expand...
I thought it was ssd. Me stupid!
 
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