Workstation Spec, is this enough ?

K31th · January 5, 2017, 05:05

Hi all,

I'm a newbie in CFD. Looking into investing on a workstation. any suggestion?
The usage of this will be purely on CFD simulation.
the software used will be either OPENFOAM. or SU2
I am looking at about 5 ~ 10 million mesh size.

currently I am looking at
- Processor: 8 core (E5-2667 v4)
- RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 RDIMM
- 2TB Storage
- O.S: Red Hat Linux

Is this good enough to run my simulation?? or any bottleneck ?

flotus1 · January 5, 2017, 06:50

That should do it. However, for a single-CPU workstation you don't need the 2xxx Xeon processors. The Xeon E5-1660v4 has similar specs for a much lower price. If you don't need ECC memory the I7-6900k would be an even better choice.

K31th · January 5, 2017, 20:45

Thanks Alex.
Is there any other CPU spec i should look at ?
Also is it possible to use high performance laptop instead of a workstation ?

flotus1 · January 6, 2017, 07:23

Quote:

Is there any other CPU spec i should look at ?

Not quite sure what you mean

Quote:

Also is it possible to use high performance laptop instead of a workstation ?

Of course you can, laptops can handle up to 64GB of RAM nowadays. Keep in mind that you roughly get about half the CFD performance in todays fastest laptops compared to the above workstation. So if you can wait for your simulation results twice as long you can also use a laptop.

January 5, 2017, 05:05	Workstation Spec, is this enough ?	#1
K31th New Member Keith T.- Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 10	Hi all, I'm a newbie in CFD. Looking into investing on a workstation. any suggestion? The usage of this will be purely on CFD simulation. the software used will be either OPENFOAM. or SU2 I am looking at about 5 ~ 10 million mesh size. currently I am looking at - Processor: 8 core (E5-2667 v4) - RAM: 32GB (4x8GB) 2400MHz DDR4 RDIMM - 2TB Storage - O.S: Red Hat Linux Is this good enough to run my simulation?? or any bottleneck ?

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January 5, 2017, 06:50		#2
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,428 Rep Power: 49	That should do it. However, for a single-CPU workstation you don't need the 2xxx Xeon processors. The Xeon E5-1660v4 has similar specs for a much lower price. If you don't need ECC memory the I7-6900k would be an even better choice.

January 5, 2017, 20:45		#3
K31th New Member Keith T.- Join Date: Dec 2016 Posts: 8 Rep Power: 10	Thanks Alex. Is there any other CPU spec i should look at ? Also is it possible to use high performance laptop instead of a workstation ?