I Need a New Workstation

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Paulusgnome Power-User Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Christchurch, New Zealand Posts: 328 Good Answers: 29	I Need a New Workstation 07/21/2020 4:23 PM
	Hi All, I am an electrical/electronics engineer who needs a new workstation. I do a lot of CAD, either in Fusion 360 or in a dedicated printed circuit application, along with heaps of other engineer things that tie it in knots. The cheap ex-lease i5 box that I bought originally as a lab PC is struggling, and my other PC is a 12-year-old i7 box that is about ready for replacement. So I am up for a new machine, and would appreciate some advice on the best way forward. Option one would be a new desktop box, probably with an i9, a stonking graphics card, a big stack of RAM, an SSD and a big fat spinny hd, all new. Option 2 would be a Xeon-based machine, and I can choose from a decent pool of ex-lease machines such as the HP Z400, all of which have a similar set of graphics card, memory and drives. My concerns are that I don't know enough about the relative merits/disadvantages of the Xeon vs the i9. I simply haven't been following this zone for a while, I can tell you more about the relative merits of the ESP32 vs the STM32. So, boys and girls, can some of the more up-to-date among you please give me the benefits of your opinions on what would be my best way ahead? __________________ paulusgnome
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SolarEagle Guru Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: by the beach in Florida Posts: 33392 Good Answers: 1817	#1 Re: I need a new workstation 07/21/2020 4:41 PM
	1. Corsair One Pro i180 The ultimate workstation CPU: Intel Core i9-9920X \| Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti \| RAM: 32GB \| Storage: 960GB SSD, 2TB HDD \| Communications: Gigabit Ethernet \| Dimensions (W x D x H): 20 x 17.6 x 38cm https://www.techradar.com/best/best-workstations-of-2020-powerful-pcs-for-professionals Kinda pricey.... __________________ All living things seek to control their own destiny....this is the purpose of life
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Anonymous Poster #1	#2 Re: I need a new workstation 07/21/2020 5:28 PM
	https://www.decision-making-confidence.com/kepner-tregoe-decision-making.html
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HiTekRedNek Guru Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: 44.56024"N 15.307971E Posts: 8277 Good Answers: 270	#4 In reply to #2 Re: I need a new workstation 07/22/2020 5:37 AM
	You took the course? I took the KT course back in the 70's.Glad to see it is still around. Got the book around here somewhere... Common sense never goes out of style,but it is very uncommon. We need it more than ever now. __________________ "A man never stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child." "Never argue with a stupid person.They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience" "To create an apple pie from scratch, first you must create a universe"
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Anonymous Poster #1	#3 Re: I need a new workstation 07/21/2020 5:37 PM
	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RZZ8CvAY0Y
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rashavarek Guru Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Madison, WI. Posts: 2074 Good Answers: 77	#5 Re: I Need a New Workstation 07/22/2020 12:46 PM
	usually what ever works well for graphics heavy gaming will rock CAD. Gaming machines are a bit focused but the specs for graphics heavy application are second to none and they usually have insane hard drive space. But, as with anything speed related, As Don Garlitts told me years ago, "Speed is money how fast can you afford to go?" Good Luck! __________________ Knowing is the end result of learning, not believing.
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JRiversW Power-User Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: North Carolina, USA Posts: 423 Good Answers: 9	#6 Re: I Need a New Workstation 07/23/2020 8:24 AM
	Depends on your budget more than anything else. I run Solidworks 2019 and Office concurrently inside my company's proprietary work application on a Lenovo i7 with 64gb of ram and it's pretty efficient once I get files loaded. IMO Ram is more important than the graphics card for CAD. I have 2 27" monitors and an NVIDIA Quadro P2000 graphics card. It's not up to gaming levels, but I'm not gaming with it so for the money there are diminishing returns to having an expensive gaming graphics driver. Any speed issues I have are typically network related. I would look at Fusion 360's requirements for the best guidance.
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rick_shoop Active Contributor Join Date: Feb 2018 Posts: 13	#7 Re: I Need a New Workstation 07/23/2020 11:32 AM
	I would suggest that you talk about a workstation and not about a gaming PC. Unless you are willing to spend time providing your own support, the more reliable workstation way more pays for itself. The onsite support provided is the real deal for those of you who are paid to drive a computer for a living.
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