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Future workstation build

Question asked by 1-F7YMM6 on Nov 6, 2009
Latest reply on Dec 2, 2009 by 1-F7YMM6

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I'm starting to plan out a new workstation for the foreseeable future. I want to make sure I get something that can scale as time goes by, without having to replace the system completely every few years. I am currently using Solidworks primarily for CAD, but I anticipate I will start to utilize Solidworks Sim and Solidworks Flow quite a bit. I know Solidworks can't use multiple cores, but I was curious about how well Sim and Flow use multi threading, and if Solidworks has any plan to utilize Nvidia's Cuda parallel processing in the future?

Hopefully this will help shape my next build towards single socket/multi socket/Tesla.

Thanks,

Jim

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Corey Vantilborg Nov 19, 2009 2:29 PM
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I am also very curious about this.

It would be very helpful to know when making workstation purchasing choices..

Corey Vantilborg
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David Paulson Nov 19, 2009 2:47 PM
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If you are planning to scale up to Simulation and Flow, multiple cores are definitely supported in versions 09 forward. Not sure how many cores are supported, but I am pretty sure theat Flow will support at least 8. Flow for me is currently limited to four and it uses them all. I can add another quad core xeon to my system, but am thinking about upgrading to Nehalem processors too.

Look at Tyan S7025 mainboard. It has two 1366 sockets, plus four PCI-E x16 Gen. 2 slots which are certified with Tesla. About $415 for the non-SAS board at buy.com. Hopefully, SW has plans to support Tesla for their simulation products.
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Anna Wood Nov 19, 2009 3:04 PM
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Jim,

How long is the time horizon you are thinking about?

Cheers,

Anna
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- 1-F7YMM6 @ Anna Wood on Nov 30, 2009 8:34 PM
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  I'm not sure what the time frame right now is. The biggest thing for me is to find out if Solidworks has any intention of supporting Tesla processing in the future, and then I will start a build that can have Tesla cards added into it down the road. Any ideas if they have plans for Tesla support?
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  - Anna Wood @ 1-F7YMM6 on Nov 30, 2009 10:43 PM
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    Jim,
    
    A person from SolidWorks will have to answer that question. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an answer either.... :-) That type of info on future plans is usually held very close to the vest by SolidWorks.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Anna
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  - Kelvin Lamport @ 1-F7YMM6 on Dec 2, 2009 8:51 PM
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    "If you build it, he will come" ... but as Anna said, don't hold your breath.
    
    Several computer builders are already offering pre-built and configurable systems with the Tesla units. SolidWorks can already run on those systems, but only the rendering and FEA (and maybe some drawing functions) will make use of the Tesla's. (I think)
    
    One current downside of the Tesla is that it only runs under Linux or XP. Might be better to wait till a Win 7 compatible version is released.
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    - 1-F7YMM6 @ Kelvin Lamport on Dec 2, 2009 7:58 PM
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      Thanks for the advice everyone. I am thinking I will just build a good i7 based system for now, something that can use a bunch of RAM to help with big assemblies, and possibly scale up into a Tesla system if that becomes the route to take in the future. I currently have an Asus Rampage II Extreme, still in the box, that I could use, but am thinking that the Asus Supercomputer board might be a better bet to scale up in the future.
      
      Has anyone used the Rampage II extreme as a workstation board?
      
      Jim
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Future workstation build

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