Hello SFF Community!
I'm new to the forums and the Discord, but I've been doing loads of research for my first ever PC build! I took advantage of the Black Friday deals and figured I'd start a thread before everything arrives and it's time to start building.
I currently have a pre-built Thinkstation and have been eager to upgrade to something built by myself. After stumbling upon Optimum Tech and finding loads of builds in the SFF community, I've been doing my research and have set my sights on a SFF workstation build in the FormD T1.
The build will primarily be used for school (engineering), CAD, 3D modeling, and other related workloads. The main softwares I’ll be using include SolidWorks, Blender, and NoLimits 2. I'm not planning on upgrading for quite a few years, so this build should take me through the end of university and into my first engineering job(s).
Here is my current parts list:
I currently have an Intel Xeon E-2226G and an Nvidia P1000 in a pre-built Thinkstation. The performance is fine during daily use and best in SolidWorks and Blender, but when I load a park in NoLimits 2, the FPS drops, lag ensues, and everything begins to run unusably hot. My graphics card is pushed to very high temperatures and I actually close the program (even at the lowest settings) as I don’t want to sustain uncontrolled temperatures.
Regarding CPU choice: After a lot of research regarding SolidWorks-focused PC builds, I opted for the i7-8700K as it has very good performance in the program. I was debating going with a newer-gen Ryzen, but from what I’ve seen, Intel supports SolidWorks much better (as it tends to be single-threaded performance that matters most). The main reason I even debated going with a Ryzen CPU is because of the compatibility of the L12S with better looking motherboards. Unfortunately, I decided against it when I found a good deal on the Intel CPU and Z390 motherboard.
Regarding GPU: I actually haven’t decided on a graphics card yet! I currently have an Nvidia P1000 workstation GPU, which does well in SolidWorks, but is almost unusable when I load a park and try to ride a coaster in NoLimits 2. Doing a bit of digging, I’ve seen decent gaming performance from the higher end workstation GPUs (P4000 or RTX 4000), but at that price-point, I feel like I won’t be pushing the capabilities of the card with the majority of my SolidWorks uses. Long story short, I'd be trying to match gaming performance of a lower-end card at a very high cost and not making the most out of the GPU's intended use. I’m planning on trying for a 3060 or 3070 Ti when they drop (just like everyone else, lol) so that I can better run "games" like this. I've seen that using a non-professional card for SolidWorks may bring its own issues, but I’m thinking of keeping the P1000 on-hand and potentially swapping it in if the issues become severe. If anyone else has a workstation build and has had that gaming/professional debate themselves, specifically for SolidWorks, please lmk your suggestion(s)!
Regarding PSU: I believe that I can get away with a SF-600, as I won't be putting the components under full load on the daily. The SolidWorks and Blender work I'm doing has run fairly light on my current PC, so I would only be pushing components when running NoLimits 2. Even then, the game is fairly lightweight, so I'm not too concerned about power consumption. I think the SF-750 would be far too much in my use case.
As of now, I've ordered everything except the PSU and GPU. The T1 was ordered on November 3rd and was initially expected to arrive at the end of December, however, I am aware of the halt and resumption of production.
Wanted to share will all of you as I'm really looking forward to getting the parts in and ready to build in the case! I'm currently planning to get the build up and running, then will do the Chromax swap in the PSU and will potentially make my own custom cables (or order custom cables if I'm not up for the task). Will hopefully be optimizing the thermals in the build after that, so stay tuned!
-anothernoob
I'm new to the forums and the Discord, but I've been doing loads of research for my first ever PC build! I took advantage of the Black Friday deals and figured I'd start a thread before everything arrives and it's time to start building.
I currently have a pre-built Thinkstation and have been eager to upgrade to something built by myself. After stumbling upon Optimum Tech and finding loads of builds in the SFF community, I've been doing my research and have set my sights on a SFF workstation build in the FormD T1.
The build will primarily be used for school (engineering), CAD, 3D modeling, and other related workloads. The main softwares I’ll be using include SolidWorks, Blender, and NoLimits 2. I'm not planning on upgrading for quite a few years, so this build should take me through the end of university and into my first engineering job(s).
Here is my current parts list:
Part | Name | Quantity | Notes |
Case | FormD T1 Black | 1 | originally E-White (discontinued) |
CPU | Intel i7-8700K | 1 | 6 cores vs 4 cores in the 7700K |
GPU | NVIDIA Quadro P1000 | - | taken from prebuilt Thinkstation |
Motherboard | MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC | 1 | - |
PSU | Corsair SF600 Platinum | 1 | should be suitable |
Cooling | Noctua NH-L12S | 1 | - |
Fans | Noctua NF-A12x15 chromax.black.swap | 1 | NH-L12S fan replacement |
Noctua NF-F12 chromax.black.swap | 2 | case fans | |
Noctua NF-A9x14 chromax.black.swap | 1 | PSU fan replacement | |
Memory | G.Skill Value DDR4-2666MHz (19-19-19-35) 16GB (2x8GB) | 1 | 31.2mm height (will fit L12S) |
Storage | Samsung 970 Evo 500MB M.2 SSD | 1 | OS & programs |
Samsung 970 Evo 1TB M.2 SSD | 1 | files & storage |
I currently have an Intel Xeon E-2226G and an Nvidia P1000 in a pre-built Thinkstation. The performance is fine during daily use and best in SolidWorks and Blender, but when I load a park in NoLimits 2, the FPS drops, lag ensues, and everything begins to run unusably hot. My graphics card is pushed to very high temperatures and I actually close the program (even at the lowest settings) as I don’t want to sustain uncontrolled temperatures.
Regarding CPU choice: After a lot of research regarding SolidWorks-focused PC builds, I opted for the i7-8700K as it has very good performance in the program. I was debating going with a newer-gen Ryzen, but from what I’ve seen, Intel supports SolidWorks much better (as it tends to be single-threaded performance that matters most). The main reason I even debated going with a Ryzen CPU is because of the compatibility of the L12S with better looking motherboards. Unfortunately, I decided against it when I found a good deal on the Intel CPU and Z390 motherboard.
Regarding GPU: I actually haven’t decided on a graphics card yet! I currently have an Nvidia P1000 workstation GPU, which does well in SolidWorks, but is almost unusable when I load a park and try to ride a coaster in NoLimits 2. Doing a bit of digging, I’ve seen decent gaming performance from the higher end workstation GPUs (P4000 or RTX 4000), but at that price-point, I feel like I won’t be pushing the capabilities of the card with the majority of my SolidWorks uses. Long story short, I'd be trying to match gaming performance of a lower-end card at a very high cost and not making the most out of the GPU's intended use. I’m planning on trying for a 3060 or 3070 Ti when they drop (just like everyone else, lol) so that I can better run "games" like this. I've seen that using a non-professional card for SolidWorks may bring its own issues, but I’m thinking of keeping the P1000 on-hand and potentially swapping it in if the issues become severe. If anyone else has a workstation build and has had that gaming/professional debate themselves, specifically for SolidWorks, please lmk your suggestion(s)!
Regarding PSU: I believe that I can get away with a SF-600, as I won't be putting the components under full load on the daily. The SolidWorks and Blender work I'm doing has run fairly light on my current PC, so I would only be pushing components when running NoLimits 2. Even then, the game is fairly lightweight, so I'm not too concerned about power consumption. I think the SF-750 would be far too much in my use case.
As of now, I've ordered everything except the PSU and GPU. The T1 was ordered on November 3rd and was initially expected to arrive at the end of December, however, I am aware of the halt and resumption of production.
Wanted to share will all of you as I'm really looking forward to getting the parts in and ready to build in the case! I'm currently planning to get the build up and running, then will do the Chromax swap in the PSU and will potentially make my own custom cables (or order custom cables if I'm not up for the task). Will hopefully be optimizing the thermals in the build after that, so stay tuned!
-anothernoob
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