[kaido]

Hi,

so after doing a load of research i am still little confused about what direction i should go in for my build, so just looking for some advice.

The biggest limitation in the build is that it will be used for everything CFD, 3d modeling (Fusion, solid-works), video editing and gaming.

So i am trying to find a balance that will allow me to do all those task

Now i haven't done any CFD modeling yet however i have just gotten an internship with my uni and it's kind of thrown me into the deep-end(will be developing the aero for a solar power car we are building), i am a cloud base student so most of the modeling will need to be done on my desktop.

CPU wise i am looking at AMD 3000 series (3900x or lower), however i am open to intel.

As you can tell i am kind of just stabbing in the dark and trying to get an idea of what i should be looking at and what is important for a CFD build desktop and trying to balance that with my other needs.

Thanks

[flotus1]

At the price point of a system with a Ryzen 9 3900x, you need to decide which are the highest priorities for you.
For CFD: a quad-channel Platform like Intel X99, X299 or AMD X399.
For pretty much everything else on your list: Ryzen 3000

Of course you can do everything with each of these platforms, but the dual-channel Ryzen 3000 will fall slightly behind when it comes to solving CFD in parallel. X399 isn't that great for gaming and with X299 you will have to spend a lot of money to get the cores for video editing/encoding.

Other things to consider: external aerodynamics of a full car typically needs meshes with 20M or more cells in order to get reliable results. So maybe you will run the most demanding cases on a cluster anyway - assuming your university has access to a cluster. You also need to know which CFD software you will be using and especially how many parallel licenses you have available.
For parallel CFD on dual-channel platforms like Ryzen, scaling stops after 6 cores. Additional cores would only be useful for video editing and similar tasks.

In short: budget, CFD software and licenses, priorities

[kaido]

thanks for reply flotus1!

Budget: around $2000 AUD *will most likely go up if i need a high end graphic card for the other things*

CFD software and licenses: ANSYS not sure what licenses i will be using as we haven't gotten that far (whether i will be given a full licenses or be using the student one)

Priorities: at the moment i have a laptop which is my primary pc (i7-4720i7-4720HQ @ 2.60GHz, 32 GB ram, GTX 970M, 2x 500GB SSD), it works fine for doing CAD and video editing (granted video editing can take some time to render) and all the games i want to play run fine.

I guess i just want a balance being able to still have good performance in the other stuff i do but having a relatively good performance while using the CFD software (relative is the key word i guess, as i haven't really used CFD software before i'm kind of guess what is good performance???)

If i was to go down the Ryzen 3000 or i9-9900K cpu route what other components would i need to select to optimize the performance in CFD software.

edit: I guess i also need to have a chat to my uni to find out what license we will be using

Thanks

[me3840]

Originally Posted by kaido

If i was to go down the Ryzen 3000 or i9-9900K cpu route what other components would i need to select to optimize the performance in CFD software.
Thanks

I wouldn't choose either of those chips, go with a quad-channel chip as flotus suggests. If you're happy with your laptop the quad channel chips will do fine gaming.



That being said, I highly, highly encourage you to get cluster resources from the university. Nothing you can afford will match a cluster, and you will be significantly more productive letting another machine do calculations. I too took the "I'll build my own machine" for solar car CFD way back in undergrad. Honestly it was a mistake and we ended up using a cluster anyway.

IMO you are better off writing automated post-processing scripts to drive your results than building a machine to calculate them.

[flotus1]

Originally Posted by kaido

If i was to go down the Ryzen 3000 or i9-9900K cpu route what other components would i need to select to optimize the performance in CFD software.

The single most important component aside from the CPU is memory. With the relatively low prices we have now, you should not start below 2x16GB DDR4-3600. This will give you the best possible performance now and you can still upgrade to 4x16GB if you need to run larger CFD models on your local workstation.

For the GPU you can take whatever fits your requirements for gaming. It has no effect on CFD performance. GPU acceleration is beyond the scope of a cost-efficient workstation.

And of course a good CPU cooler in the 50-80€ price range is a good investment for quiet operation. Both of these CPUs run very hot.

[aparangement]

Originally Posted by flotus1

The single most important component aside from the CPU is memory. With the relatively low prices we have now, you should not start below 2x16GB DDR4-3600. This will give you the best possible performance now and you can still upgrade to 4x16GB if you need to run larger CFD models on your local workstation.

For the GPU you can take whatever fits your requirements for gaming. It has no effect on CFD performance. GPU acceleration is beyond the scope of a cost-efficient workstation.

And of course a good CPU cooler in the 50-80€ price range is a good investment for quiet operation. Both of these CPUs run very hot.

If the budget does not allow x299 or x399, how about 9400f+z370+2*ddr4000? I didn't test such configuration, not able to find tests online either, but I am really curious on the performance of such configuration, especially if someone could link several such computers with cheap 1000M ethernet swich...

[Noco]

I know China produce now many cheap MB on 2011 and 2011-3 socket.

We have old clusters on 2011 and 2011-3, with different CPUs, works good enough for CFD. Even for home PC 2011-3 with good CPU is good for all tasks. Some even in 2019 buy 2011 socket for home PC - because really cheap hardware.

2011-3 is also good for upgrade, there is 16 cores xeon and good memory for 2011-3

If CFD will be more then 50% of time (each night for example) - then 4 channels must be at least

2 channel sockets are very bad for CFD, we tried with Ryzen 1700, and new 9900K 2 weeks ago - too slow. It is gaming CPUs, not for CFD.

[Amiga500]

Originally Posted by kaido

The biggest limitation in the build is that it will be used for everything CFD, 3d modeling (Fusion, solid-works), video editing and gaming.

Assuming you are a student with little experience in CFD (otherwise you prob wouldn't be asking the questions!) - I'd recommend:

1. Find out the license arrangement ASAP - how many cores can you compute across.

2. Find out does the uni have a cluster and if so can you use it.

3. If answers to above are (1) > 8 and (2) No, then for best results, you would be performing the heavy lifting across a big machine. Which is gonna cost you. Quad channel memory, as many full cores as licensing etc, sufficient memory etc.

If the answer to 2 is any other combination, get a dual channel desktop, 8 core CPU and put the money saved toward a 40" 4k monitor (if you don't already have a monitor, get 2 - even if the other is just a HD monitor - you'll work better with 2). The limit won't be the compute time, the limit will be you! So maximise your interactive workflow efficiency.


[To be honest, I'd say that even if the answers were (1) >8 and (2) No - chances are the limiting factor will still be you rather than compute time and I'd focus on getting the most out of you and minimizing mistakes and oversights. Running a job 40% quicker on a 8core quad channel vs. a 8 core dual channel that needs run again 'cos you missed a minor detail in the mesh is still >60% slower!]

[crestang]

Originally Posted by kaido

Hi,

so after doing a load of research i am still little confused about what direction i should go in for my build, so just looking for some advice.

The biggest limitation in the build is that it will be used for everything CFD, 3d modeling (Fusion, solid-works), video editing and gaming.

So i am trying to find a balance that will allow me to do all those task

Now i haven't done any CFD modeling yet however i have just gotten an internship with my uni and it's kind of thrown me into the deep-end(will be developing the aero for a solar power car we are building), i am a cloud base student so most of the modeling will need to be done on my desktop.

CPU wise i am looking at AMD 3000 series (3900x or lower), however i am open to intel.

As you can tell i am kind of just stabbing in the dark and trying to get an idea of what i should be looking at and what is important for a CFD build desktop and trying to balance that with my other needs.

Thanks

When I was building a computer for myself, I chose between the i9 9900k and the Risen 9 3900x. in the end, I still bought the latter, and now I will explain why. First, it is newer and produced using 7-nanometer technology. Second, it has 4 cores more than its competitor. Third, it has much more L3 cache.

https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compar...-ryzen-9-3900x

Ryzen is also more suitable for my tasks. I don't play many games, but it still happens. Intel probably behaves better in games, although I haven't run any tests.

[Shayor]

Originally Posted by crestang

When I was building a computer for myself, I chose between the i9 9900k and the Risen 9 3900x. in the end, I still bought the latter, and now I will explain why. First, it is newer and produced using 7-nanometer technology. Second, it has 4 cores more than its competitor. Third, it has much more L3 cache.

https://nanoreview.net/en/cpu-compar...-ryzen-9-3900x

Ryzen is also more suitable for my tasks. I don't play many games, but it still happens. Intel probably behaves better in games, although I haven't run any tests.

How is the performance of the Ryzen 9 3900X??Did you get good scaling for the 12 cores?Please tell me about the actual performance and hence a review with suggestions.I am scared and confused as this is what I am going to buy for Intermediate level and a bit more CFD on it

[trampoCFD]

Hi Kaido, if you're located in Australia and don't have a cluster at your university, check if you can get computing credit at NCI ANU. That's the supercomputer our service runs on.