DEVELOP3D CAD/CAM/CAE workstation special report – December 2012

CAD/CAM/CAE WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

4

solid state drives (ssds) to transform your workstation

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workstations for all budGets

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professional Gpus for enhanced 3d

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input devices for close control

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WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

SSDs FOR CAD

CAD/CAM/CAE users should sit up and take notice. A Solid State Drive could be the most important workstation purchase you make this year, writes Greg Corke

W

hen choosing a CAD workstation, storage often plays second fiddle to the CPU and GPU. Buy from a tier one vendor – the likes of Dell, HP, Fujitsu and Lenovo – and the default option is often a single 7,200 RPM SATA hard disk drive (HDD), even on some quite highend machines.

The reality is, unless you’re buying from a specialist system builder – Workstation Specialists, Scan, and InterPro, for example – high-performance Solid State Drive (SSD) storage is still considered a bit of a luxury.

But it shouldn’t be like this. Prices of SSDs have dropped considerably and long-term reliability has improved. SSDs should now be considered a stock component for the modern workstation. But what exactly is an SSD and how does it differ from a standard HDD?

SSD VS HDD HDDs store data on platters that spin at high speeds (typically 7,200RPM).

In order to read or write data, the drive head has to move across the platter, much like a laser moving across a CD when skipping from track to track.

When data is accessed from the same part of the platter, sequential read / write performance is pretty good.

However, when data is more random, perhaps when retrieving multiple CAD parts that are stored on different parts of the platter, performance can be extremely poor. The reason for this is the drive head has to physically move into all the different positions, which can slow things right down.

SSDs are different insofar as they contain no moving parts at all. Data is stored on an array of NAND flash memory, which is managed by a controller, a dedicated processor that provides the bridge to the workstation via the SATA interface.

SSDs offer faster read and write transfer rates than HDDs – Operating Systems will boot quicker and applications will load faster.

The time taken to open and save CAD data will also be reduced.

These are all important for CAD users, but the biggest advantage of an SSD over a HDD is when it comes to latency and random read / write performance.

Latency (the time taken to respond to a read/

write request) is vastly superior in an SSD and it is this that makes the workstation as a whole feel incredibly responsive.

Much superior random read/write performance also means multi-tasking workflows are lightning quick. Opening apps, loading and saving data all at the same time shouldn’t cripple your workstation as it often does with a HDD. SSDs are also more durable than HDDs and handle shock and vibration much better.

As there are no moving parts, they are silent in operation. Power consumption is also significantly reduced, as is heat production.

All of these characteristics make them an excellent choice for mobile workstations.

The main downside of SSDs is the price per GB is quite high (approx £0.60 per GB compared to £0.04 per GB for HDDs). SSDs also have a limited maximum capacity, peaking at 512GB, compared to 2TB

or 3TB for HDDs. This can be a big limitation unless you have a huge budget. As a result, most CAD users will supplement a SSD with a HDD to store a significant part of their CAD data.

UPGRADING TO AN SSD When upgrading a workstation most users tend to focus on memory, graphics and CPU, while changing a hard drive tends to be about increasing capacity. But upgrading to a SSD can offer huge performance benefits.

Swapping out a HDD for a SSD should be pretty straightforward for most IT savvy users, but if you’re a small design firm with limited technical knowledge it can be a daunting task.

First off, it needs to fit your workstation’s drive bay. Most SSDs come in a 2.5-inch form factor, which is fine for laptops, but a 3.5-inch adapter will be needed for most desktop

workstations. Adapters sometimes come with the SSD drive, as part of an add-on kit, or are even included with your workstation chassis.

Setting up the drive is the next step. Off the shelf backup and recovery software from Norton or Acronis, for example, can handle migration from your HDD, but additional technical knowledge can be required.

Some SSD manufacturers also develop dedicated migration tools, which are bundled in with their drives.

Of course, if your workstation has slowed down from years of abuse, there’s much to be said for starting from scratch with a fresh install of Windows and applications.

SIZE MATTERS A popular choice in CAD workstations is to have two storage devices. An SSD for operating system, applications and current datasets, and a HDD for other data.

A 256GB SSD is a good size for the primary disk, supplemented with a 1TB or 2TB HDD. There are caveats to this and those on a strict budget may look to invest in a 128GB drive. However, some manufacturers offer reduced performance at lower capacities so check out the specs first.

It’s also important to know that an SSD’s performance can slow down when it becomes too full. Workstation Specialists, one of the UK’s leading workstation manufacturers, recommends that drives should be kept no more than two thirds full for optimal performance.

Those with bigger budgets may look to 512GB drives. At this capacity it’s also feasible that a HDD won’t be required, particularly if a lot of their data is stored on servers.

For high-end workstations it is possible to boost performance by combining two SSDs to create a RAID 0 array. While this may improve sequential read/write rates, we have heard mixed reports about the benefits for random read/write performance. We have not tested this at DEVELOP3D.

RELIABILITY AND ENDURANCE For professional designers and engineers, endurance and reliability is every bit as important as performance. And while SSDs are much better than HDDs at withstanding shock, vibration, and temperature extremes, they are by no means immune to failure.

The good news is flash technology is

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HARDWARE getting better all the time and the controllers becoming more advanced with features specifically designed to prolong the life of the drive. Wear-leveling, for example, helps move program/erase cycles around the drive to ensure even wear.

Most professional SSDs come with a fiveyear warranty, compared to three in most consumer models. Manufacturers define drives by their mean time between failures (MTBF) predicted in millions of hours.

Some manufacturers also give their drives an ‘endurance rating’.

Monitoring software is sometimes bundled with SSDs to keep track of drive health. This

can help predict when a drive might fail, helping minimise the risk of unplanned downtime or catastrophic loss of data for those that don’t follow a strict backup regime.

There’s also the important issue of drive performance slowing down over time due to the NAND flash cells wearing down.

Workstation Specialists says low cost SSDs can slow down by as much as 50% within a year of use. Suddenly the high performance drive you bought could actually be slowing your system down.

To assess long-term performance and reliability there’s no substitute for broad testing out in the field. Workstation Specialists

PNY Prevail Elite Capacity (GB)

240GB

(also available in 120GB and 480GB)

has worked closely with Intel, Kingston, Corsair, Crucial and OCZ over the years and has found that Intel and Kingston are by far the most reliable, suffering from the least failure rates and long-term performance problems.

The Derby-based firm is currently investigating PNY and Samsung, who are relatively new to professional-grade SSDs.

SSDS ON TEST For the purpose of this article we looked at four SSD drives – the Intel SSD 520 Series, OCZ Vertex 4, PNY Prevail Elite and Samsung SSD 840 Pro. All come in a 2.5inch form factor, meaning they are suitable

Samsung SSD 840 Pro 512GB

(also available in 128GB and 256GB)

Interface

SATA 6Gb/s

SATA 6Gb/s

Controller

SandForce SF2281

Samsung 3-core MDX controller

Memory Type

Enterprise Multi-Level Cell (eMLC)

Three-Level Cell (TLC)

Warranty

5 year limited

5 year limited

Manufacturer’s quoted Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)

2 million hours

1.5 million hours

Manufacturer’s quoted sequential read/write performance (MB/s)

Up to 550 / 520 MB/s

Up to 540 / 520 MB/s

Manufacturer’s quoted 4k random read/write performance (IOPS)

Up to 85,000 / 85,000

Up to 100,000 / 90,000

Website

pny-europe.com/ssd

samsung.com/ssd

Windows load (secs)

37.5

37.5

SolidWorks 2011 application launch (secs)

6.9

6.2

SolidWorks CAD dataset open (secs)

43.3

42.8

SolidWorks Pack and Go (secs)

35.7

17.5

Sequential read / write (MB/sec) (AS SSD benchmark)

516 / 310

513 / 453

Sequential read / write (MB/sec) (CrystalDiskMark)

513 / 324

537 / 518

4k random read / write (MB/sec) (AS SSD benchmark)

21 / 73

29 / 73

4k random read / write (MB/sec) (CrystalDiskMark)

31 / 92

33 / 88

512k random read / write (MB/sec) (CrystalDiskMark)

459 / 322

489 / 503

4K-64Thrd random read / write (MB/sec) (AS SSD benchmark)

201 / 74

373 / 210

4K QD32 random read / write (MB/sec) (CrystalDiskMark)

208 / 255

408 / 363

Access time read / write (ms) (AS SSD benchmark)

0.114 / 0.222 (lower is better)

0.066 / 0.040 (lower is better)

Price

£149

£346 (256GB model = £158)

Application benchmarks (lower is better)

Synthetic benchmarks (bigger is better)

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WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

for laptops and desktops (with an adapter).

All are SATA 3 (6GB/s), which will need to be supported in your workstation to get the best performance out of these drives, particularly with regards to sustained read/ write performance. All support AES 256-bit encryption to help keep data secure. All come with a 5-year warranty.

The Intel SSD 520 Series offers a huge range of capacities but the 180GB or 240GB are likely to appeal to most CAD users. The 60GB and 120GB models are arguably too small for serious CAD use and also deliver reduced performance, as does the 480GB version.

Check out intel.com for the full specs.

While the NAND flash memory is home grown, Intel uses a third party controller – LSI’s SandForce SF-2281.

The retail box, which is about £10-15 more than the bare bones drive, comes kitted out with everything you might need for installation – desktop adapter, power and data cable, and a DVD of software. The Intel Migration software, which helps transfer OS, apps, documents, and personal settings from an old drive, and the Intel SSD Toolbox software, which monitors and manages the health of the drive, are also available for free download.

The PNY Prevail Elite is classed as an enterprise SSD. PNY makes a lot of noise

OCZ Vertex 4 256GB

(also available in 64GB, 128GB and 512GB)

Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB

about its endurance, which it rates at 10,000 program /erase cycles. To put this in perspective, this is over three times that of its entry-level enterprise SSD, the Prevail and ten times that of its entry-level consumer SSD, the XLR8. All the other drives on test don’t rate their products in this way so it’s not possible to give direct comparisons.

The Prevail Elite’s high endurance rating is partly down to the enterprise class NAND flash memory that it uses (eMLC). However, like the Intel 520 Series, it also features LSI’s SandForce SF-2281 controller, which includes some advanced NAND flash management technology. According to PNY, this helps

Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001

(also available in 60GB, 120GB, 180GB and 480GB)

2TB

SATA 6Gb/s

SATA 6Gb/s

SATA 6Gb/s

Indilinx Everest 2

SandForce SF2281

N/A

Multi-Level Cell (MLC)

Multi-Level Cell (MLC)

N/A

5 years

5 year limited

1 year

2 million hours

1.2 million hours

N/A

Up to 560 / 510 MB/s

Up to 550 / 520 MB/s

Up to 210 MB/s

Up to 90,000 / 85,000

Up to 50,000 / 80,000

N/A

ocztechnology.com

intel.com

seagate.com

40.2

40.7

74.5

6.1

7.1

9.7

43.0

43.4

46.1

14.0

35.1

90.3

481 / 398

501 / 234

156 / 177

429 / 423

500 / 244

183 / 180

28 / 86

23 / 75

0.6 / 1.1

31 / 102

27 / 89

0.7 / 1.4

337 / 427

436 / 188

59 / 94

336 / 288

232 / 75

1.5 / 1.1

354 / 342

238 / 171

1.5 / 1.5

0.136 / 0.024 (lower is better)

0.158 / 0.199 (lower is better)

14.65 / 19.38 (lower is better)

£136

£155

£58

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840pro_M2M_develop3d_A4 copy.pdf 1 12/12/2012 15:05:28

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CM

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CMY

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SSD 840 PRO. Performance at a different level.

Your PC, but with faster read speeds (up to 100k IOPS, up to 540MB/s) and faster write speeds (up to 90k IOPS, up to 520 MB/s). Engineered, rather than manufactured, for sustained performance levels as never before (with a 5 year warranty). www.samsung.com/ssd

WIN A 512GB SAMSUNG SSD 840 PRO! m2m-direct.co.uk/winsamsung

Experts in Memory taking care of all your SSD needs Call or email for expert advice or sales ¡ 0208 676 6067 ¡ sales@m2m-direct.co.uk

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

hard drive, something that would probably maximize endurance while keeping the drive ways. Some have linear workflows in a single occur naturally in a real world scenario, it is at top performance levels.

CAD application. File > open > edit > save. likely that performance would slow down.

The Prevail Elite is available in 120GB, Others absolutely hammer the machine, Our ‘Pack and Go’ test yielded some 240GB and 480GB capacities. The retail running multiple applications, opening, interesting results. The Intel and PNY drives, version ships with a SATA data cable but copying and saving files at the same time – which use the same SandForce SF2281 doesn’t come with dedicated software for perhaps running multiple CAE simulations controller, were noticeably slower at this task. migration or drive management. or renderings in the background, while With multiple read/write requests coming in OCZ’s Vertex 4 is more targeted at the evaluating new designs. Most designers and at the same time, this increase the disk queue high-end consumer market as opposed to the engineers sit somewhere between the two. depth. i.e. the number of read/write requests enterprise sector, but still comes with a 5-year Our basic real world tests record waiting in the queue for the SSD to process. warranty. According to OCZ, this is made straightforward metrics that everyone can possible by its Indilinx Everest 2 controller’s relate to: the time taken to boot into Windows, Our test results correlate with the good scores enjoyed by the OCZ and Samsung drives dynamic wear-leveling and Ndurance 2.0 to launch SolidWorks, and to open a 300MB NAND flash management technology.

CAD assembly. These tests don’t really stress in the 4k QD 32 and 4K-64Thrd synthetic benchmarks. It’s with these more random The Vertex 4 is available in 64GB, 128GB, an SSD, but are important all the same. read/write requests that the limitations of 256GB, 512GB capacities, though the We also test with ‘pack and go’, a routine the HDD become more apparent as having maximum performance comes from the in SolidWorks that packages up every part 256GB and 512GB models. within an assembly, reading and writing data to continually move from sector to sector The retail kit is the only drive to include a at the same. The CAD dataset comprises 200 literally gets its head in a spin.

Looking through the results table on page 4 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch adapter in the box, but part files mostly ranging from 200k to 2MB as the Samsung SSD 840 Pro leads the pack in there’s no bundled software. However, for well as a 75MB assembly. many of the synthetic benchmarks, topping. around £10-15 OCZ offers a SSD upgrade kit These tests are supplemented with the charts in sequential read and write, which comprises Acronis True Image HD two synthetic benchmarks: AS SSD and access time, and 512k random read / write. software, USB and SATA cables, a desktop CrystalDiskMark. Both record sequential adapter and an external drive enclosure. transfer rates (reading/writing large amounts However, it should be pointed out that we tested the 512GB capacity model, whereas all Samsung is a relatively new name to SSDs of data from one location) as well as random other drives were around half that size. We do but its second generation family of products read/write rates using different block sizes not think this would have had a major impact it already causing quite a stir. The Samsung (4k and 512k). on our test results, but we can’t be sure.

SSD 840 Pro is designed for professional Of these, the 512k tests is probably most Finally, it’s important to note that while use and is available in 128GB, 256GB and relevant to CAD data, the 4k test most benchmarking is important, all the 512GB capacities. Samsung is one of performance in the world isn’t worth a rare breed of SSD manufacturers anything if the SSD loses data or slows that designs and builds its products An SSD is certainly not the answer down over time. completely in-house, combining to all workstation bottlenecks, but Samsung NAND Flash Memory and a 3-core MDX Controller. there’s no doubt it can do wonders for CONCLUSION The Korean firm makes some bold Having spent weeks testing SSDs, we’re your productivity claims with regards to long-term in no doubt that a drive upgrade can be performance. It says its SSD 840 Pro one of the most important investments will maintain its rated sequential read a CAD user can make. At the very least, and write speeds over the entire life of the relevant to general system performance, swapping a HDD for an SSD will make a drive, even when more than half of the drive and the 4k Queue Depth 32 and 4K-64Thrd workstation feel much more responsive is full. It also puts long term drive life in tests most relevant to heavy multi-tasking than before, responding to requests almost context. With 43GB/day, what it describes workflows, simulating scenarios where instantly. as a typical use scenario for heavy 3D there are a number of data requests in a But this is only part of the story. Most CAD mechanical CAD, it predicts the SSD 840 Pro queue waiting to be processed by the SSD. users will experience their workstation would last over 100 years.

Finally, access time gives an indication of grinding to a halt many times throughout For this recently released product Samsung how responsive a drive is when it is given a the day. Launching multiple applications at has replaced Norton Ghost with its own Smart request to read or write data. the same time; saving a CAD assembly while Migration software, which it claims is much Our test machine, a Workstation Specialists opening a rendering tool; copying part files easier to use. It’s specifically designed to make WSX 6 V2, features an overclocked Core i7 from multiple folders all at the same time, to it easy to migrate system and data files, and 3930K CPU, as reviewed on page 15 of this reference some common examples. offers advice when dropping down capacity. guide. We set up all of the drives in exactly the Standard HDDs will struggle to keep up i.e. from a 2TB HDD to a 256GB SSD. same way and ran the tests multiple times. All with these types of tasks. And while we all Samsung’s Magician software includes drives were formatted with 64k cluster NTFS. know everything will finish quicker if we features such as Drive Health Status, Total There was very little to separate the four instruct the workstation to do all of these Bytes Written (TBW), and Disk Scan & Error SSD drives in most of our real world tests, operations in serial (i.e wait for one task to Reporting. An optional install kit is also all launching Windows and opening data finish before starting another), as designers available, which comes with SATA data and in pretty much the same timescale. Even we simply don’t work this way. power cables, a 2.5-inch to 3.5-inch adapter the SATA drive was able to keep pace when We’re an impatient breed and want bracket, a SATA to USB adapter cable, and a opening the SolidWorks dataset. This is everything to happen instantly. Hardware mounting spacer for mobile workstations. probably because it was retrieving data from shouldn’t limit the way we work. It may be a single location on the hard drive platter and a cliché, but it stifles creativity. An SSD is a good proportion of the time is taken up certainly not the answer to all workstation PERFORMANCE TESTS processing the files with the CPU. If the part bottlenecks, but there’s no doubt it can do Testing SSDs is far from straightforward files were saved in different locations on the wonders for your productivity. as all CAD users access data in different

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GPUGROUP TEST Greg Corke puts five new professional graphics cards through their paces

A

MD and Nvidia have yet again raised the stakes in professional 3D graphics.

AMD’s new FirePro W Series features four new GPUs for mid-range and high-end 3D workflows. Meanwhile, Nvidia has given a hint of what to expect from its Kepler architecture with the launch of the high-end Quadro K5000.

AMD FIREPRO W SERIES AMD has gone ‘all in’ for its new generation ‘Southern Islands’ 28nm GPUs, with four new cards based on its Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture: the FirePro W5000 (2GB), W7000 (4GB), W8000 (4GB) and W9000 (6GB). We also expect AMD to release one or two lower-end cards in 2013, targeting entry-level CAD. In terms of price/performance, the FirePro W5000 and W7000, both single height cards, look to be at the sweet spot for most CAD users. The FirePro W7000 stands out for its 4GB of GDDR5 memory, more than enough for most CAD workflows and double that of

its predecessor, the FirePro V7900.

The FirePro W8000 and W9000 take up two PCI Express slots on the motherboard and are more suited to high-end workflows, particularly where users are looking to use the additional performance on offer for GPU compute (see box out).

In addition to performance for graphics and compute, AMD’s new W Series cards can be differentiated by the number of display outputs on offer. The W5000 has three for extended desktop support through AMD Eyefinity. The W7000 and W8000 have four and the W9000 six, which also makes these cards suitable for powerwalls with multiple HD displays arranged in a 2 x 2 or 3 x 2 array.

Moving beyond six displays, all but the FirePro W5000 can be used to drive even higher-resolution powerwalls. Here the optional S400 Synchronisation Module is used to sync cards in multiple workstations.

Stereo support is standard on the FirePro W8000 and W9000.

For a more in-depth look at the AMD FirePro W Series see DEVELOP3D September 2012 - tinyurl.com/D3DWseries

NVIDIA QUADRO K5000 Nvidia has kicked off its Kepler-based professional GPU family with a single highend card – the Quadro K5000. We expect it will be joined in 2013 with lower cost boards offering price / performance more suited to mainstream CAD, as well as a high-end GPU to replace the Fermi-based Quadro 6000.

The Quadro K5000 is a double height card and features 4GB GDDR5 memory, more than enough for most CAD-centric workflows.

Four display outputs and a new display engine make it possible to support up to four HD displays, a feature that was previously exclusive to high-end AMD FirePro cards.

As with AMD, it’s also possible to step things up and use four Quadro K5000s together with Nvidia Quadro Mosaic technology for an ultra high-resolution 3D powerwall. Here, up to 16 displays can be driven from a single workstation or from multiple machines using the optional Quadro Sync card.

Power efficiency is a big focus for the Quadro K5000 with Nvidia claiming Kepler is three times more energy efficient than its predecessor, Fermi. This is highlighted in

AMD FirePro W5000

AMD FirePro W7000

Memory (interface)

2GB GDDR5 (256-bit)

4GB GDDR5 (256-bit)

Memory bandwidth

102GB/sec

154GB/sec

Compute performance (single / double precision)

1.3 TFLOPs / 79 GFLOPs

2.4 TFLOPs / 152 GFLOPs

Max power

75W

150W (one aux power connector required)

Supported displays

3 (2 x DisplayPort + 1 x Dual-Link DVI)

4 (DisplayPort)

Website

amd.com/firepro

amd.com/firepro

Driver

8.982.8.3

8.982.8.3

PTC Creo 2.0 SPECapc graphics composite (shaded / wireframe)

6.33 (6.90 shaded / 5.80 wireframe)

6.99 (7.62 shaded / 6.41 wireframe)

SolidWorks 2013 (Camera model - RealView on)

80

87

SolidWorks 2013 (Engineering model - RealView off)

50

51

3ds Max 2011 SPECapc (interactive graphics / GPU shaders)

16.2 interactive / 20.1 GPU shaders

16.5 interactive / 24.9 GPU shaders

Price

£349

£549

225W

Graphics performance benchmarks (bigger is better)

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WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

PERFORMANCE We tested all the new cards with three real world applications: PTC Creo 2.0 and SolidWorks 2013 for CAD, as well as 3ds Max 2011, which is used for design visualisation.

Our test machine, a Workstation Specialists WSX 6 V2, features an overclocked Core i7 3930K CPU, 32GB of RAM and an Intel 520 Series SSD. See page 15 for a full review.

For Creo we use the SPECapc benchmark (spec.org), which tests for wireframe, shaded and aggregates the two (composite).

For SolidWorks we test with two different models — an engineering model with shading and edges, and a camera model with RealView, the real time rendering mode.

For 3ds Max we use the SPECapc benchmark, which features a wide variety of models to test for interactive graphics and GPU shaders.

First off, our tests show that the new AMD FirePro cards are big step up from the previous generation with the W5000 significantly outpacing the V5900 it replaces.

Our results also confirm what we have maintained at DEVELOP3D for some years: a high-end card is overkill for most CAD-based workflows, with both the FirePro W5000 and W7000 offering excellent price/performance.

In the past there have been caveats to this, such as the amount of on-board memory, but with all the new cards now starting at 2GB, this is no longer an issue for all but the most high-end of CAD workflows.

The fact is that 3D performance in many CAD applications is still limited by the GHz of the CPU, which means high-end cards like the Quadro K5000 and FirePro W8000 are not able to fulfil their true potential.

There are glimpses of what more power can offer when a heavier load is placed on the GPU. The shaded (Creo), RealView (SolidWorks) and GPU shaders (3ds Max) tests all show a significant jump when moving from the FirePro W5000 to the W7000.

Beyond the benchmarks, there are other benefits to be had. Creo 2.0 users, for example, may be interested to learn of a new GPUaccelerated mode called Order Independent Transparency (OIT), which can significantly boost performance when using transparency.

This feature is currently specific to AMD FirePro graphics cards, however.

For Nvidia, the Quadro K5000 gives a glimpse of what Kepler can achieve with excellent scores in all of our tests. At £1,459, however, the card is too high-end for most CAD users.

All eyes are now on Nvidia to see how it scales things down in 2013 for the volume CAD market. Its new cards will need to deliver a compelling balance of price/performance and features, to take the fight to AMD and its impressive FirePro W5000 and W7000.

GPU CoMPUte IMAGE COURTESY OF ALTAIR

the Quadro K5000’s max power consumption rating of 122W, lower than its predecessor, the Quadro 5000, as well as AMD’s new FirePro W8000, which is pitched around the same level in terms of features and performance.

A GPU isn’t necessarily just for 3D graphics. It can also be used to solve complex calculations, such as those used in simulation (CAE) and ray trace rendering. This is called GPU compute and should probably be given some consideration before investing in your next GPU. First of all, it’s important to understand that AMD and Nvidia differ in their approaches to GPU compute.

AMD FirePro GPUs are designed for both graphics (OpenGL / DirectX) and GPU compute (OpenCL). The high-end FirePro W8000 and W9000 are the most suited to GPU compute, boasting good double precision performance, which is important for simulation. So while the FirePro W5000 or W7000 should satisfy most 3D CAD requirements for graphics, GPU compute workflows will benefit from investment in a higher end card.

AMD relies on OpenCL for GPU compute, but the number of applications that support the open standard for parallel programming are still quite thin on the ground. This should change in 2013.

Nvidia takes a different approach. It recommends using two GPUs: a Quadro GPU for 3D graphics (OpenGL and DirectX) and a Tesla GPU for GPU compute (CUDA and OpenCL). This is tied together with Nvidia Maximus.

Maximus has the advantage of being able to dedicate individual GPUs to both graphics and GPU compute.

However, this means the overall system cost is higher. As Maximus supports Nvidia CUDA as well as OpenCL there are a lot more options when it comes to simulation and rendering applications.

For more info see DEVELOP3D’s GPU compute guide. tinyurl.com/GPUCoMPUte

AMD FirePro W8000

AMD FirePro W9000

Nvidia Quadro K5000

AMD FirePro V5900 (legacy)

4GB GDDR5 (256-bit)

6GB GDDR5 (384-bit)

4GB GDDR5 (256-bit)

2GB GDDR5 (256-bit)

176GB/sec

264GB/sec

173GB/sec

64GB/sec

3.2 TFLOPs / 806 GFLOPs

4.0 TFLOPs / 1.0 TFLOP

2.15 TFLOPs / 90 GFLOPs

N/A

225W (two aux power connectors required)

274W (two aux power connectors required)

122W

< 75W

4 (DisplayPort)

6 (Mini DisplayPort)

4 (2 x DisplayPort + 2 x Dual-Link DVI)

3 (2 x DisplayPort + 1 x Dual-Link DVI)

amd.com/firepro

amd.com/firepro

nvidia.com/quadro

amd.com/firepro

8.982.8.3

8.982.8.3

307.45

8.982.8.3

6.88 (7.55 shaded / 6.27 wireframe)

7.13 (7.72 shaded / 6.59 wireframe)

7.07 (7.42 shaded / 6.73 wireframe)

3.19 (3.12 shaded / 3.25 wireframe)

89

90

78

50

55

53

62

46

17.1 interactive / 25.7 GPU shaders

17.4 interactive / 28.0 GPU shaders

20.9 interactive / 35.8 GPU shaders

14.7 interactive / 14.1 GPU shaders

£999

£2,499

£1,459

£297

DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 ix

WORKSTATION SUPPLEMENT.indd 9

19/12/12 10:25:04

DESIGN AND SIMULATE WITHOUT COMPROMISE

FUJITSU® CELSIUS & AMD FIREPRO™ ALLOW YOU TO DO MORE The Fujitsu Celsius M720 workstation is specifically made for professional engineers and designers who need a powerful and reliable platform for advanced CAD/CAM/CAE design workflows. Powered by AMD’s next generation of professional graphics, experience high performing advanced 3D graphics when manipulating large CAD/CAM/CAE datasets on screen.

CELSIUS M720 •• Original Windows® 7 Professional (64-Bit) •• Intel® Xeon® E5-1620 Processor (3.60GHz) •• AMD FirePro W5000 Graphics Card with 2GB Memory •• 8GB (4x 2GB) DDR3-1600 ECC RAM •• AMD Eyefinity supports up to three displays •• SSD SATA III 256GB high speed •• DVD SuperMulti Drive •• 3-Year Warranty

£1,379

RRP VFY:M7200WXC11GB Price excl. VAT

AMD FirePro for SolidWorks®

AMD FirePro for PTC® Creo® Parametric 2.0

Powerful Real-time Previews with RealView®

Rapid design with GPU-accelerated transparency mode Unleash the power of GPU-accelerated transparency mode (OIT - Order independent transparency), a feature uniquely available to AMD FirePro Professional Graphics customers running Creo® Parametric 2.0. OIT uses ultra-fast, GPU-accelerated OpenGL functions that provide up to 9X faster 3D frame rates than Wildfire 5.1

Without RealView

With RealView und Ambient Occlusion

AMD FirePro Professional Graphics unleashes the power of RealView® and brings your models to life. SolidWorks® 2012 now offers even more advanced shading in real time with RealView and Ambient Occlusion, which delivers outstanding depth and realism helping reduce the need for ray-traced rendering.

Without OIT

With OIT

OIT fixes visual artifacts caused by inaccurate “depth sorting” of the geometry that often happens in the older “blended mode”.

For more information visit www.fireprographics.com © 2012 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All rights reserved. AMD, the AMD Arrow logo, ATI, the ATI logo, FirePro and combinations thereof, are trademarks of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective owners.

MA3741 - AMD Solidworks Advertorial Fujitsu V2_2 UK.indd 1

22/11/2012 14:17

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

WORKSTATIONS Workstations for all budgets tested to the limit by DEVELOP3D’s Greg Corke

HP Z220 CONVERTIBLE MINI TOWER

T

his convertible mini tower (CMT) is not the only machine in HP’s Z220 range. Its little brother, the Z220 Small Form Factor (SFF), offers a similar spec, but limits the expandability and graphics so it can cram everything into to a compact chassis.

With this in mind, it was a touch disappointing that our test machine didn’t come with an add-in GPU board, relying instead on Intel’s HD Graphics P4000, the low-end GPU that’s embedded within the quad core Intel Xeon E3-1225v2 CPU. Our benchmarks confirmed

that Intel still has a long way to go before its GPUs can be considered a serious option for 3D CAD. In SolidWorks 2013 for example, performance could be boosted three-fold, simply by adding a £100 AMD FirePro V4900 GPU. The Intel GPU is also limited in its CAD software certifications, with nowhere near the same number of applications as there are with a professional GPU from AMD or Nvidia.

The system memory may be high-quality ECC (Error Correcting Code) RAM, but with only 4GB in total our test machine struggled during

£768 HP.COM/UK/WORKSTATION our multi-tasking CAM test, slowing right down when running three tests at the same time. With the system running out of memory, data has to be swapped to the 7,200RPM hard drive leading to a big hit in performance. Swapping 4GB of ECC for 8GB non-ECC would be shrewd move here.

All of these limitations take the shine off what is otherwise a well-built entry-level machine.

But with this particular spec the Z220 is really limited to 2D or entry-level 3D work. And at this price many CAD users would expect a little bit more.

SCAN 3XS GW-HT15

S

can is back with another of its trademark overclocked Intel Core i7 3930K workstations. The build quality and acoustics are superb, performance excellent and there’s a good balance of memory and storage, making it a good fit for most high-end CAD users.

The standout component is the FirePro W8000 GPU, second only to the FirePro W9000 in AMD’s new generation professional graphics family.

It’s possibly overkill for most mainstream CAD users, with the excellent W7000 demonstrating similar levels of performance in

£2,292 3XS.SCAN.CO.UK SolidWorks and Creo for almost half the price. However, Scan has also set its sights on low cost design review, for which the W8000 is ideal.

To help users really get inside their designs, Scan shipped the GW-HT15 with four 23-inch HD Dell UltraSharp displays.

Arrange in a 2 x 2 array and you’ve made yourself a 3,840 x 2,160 resolution 46-inch powerwall for digital mockup or client presentations. It’s low-cost too – a mere £596 for the displays plus an extra £300 for a stand, such as the Ergotron DS100.

The experience is good – it’s

possible to see detailed parts in the context of an assembly.

However, the bezel that surrounds each of the screens can be distracting, though compensation in the AMD driver helps remove the stepping effect.

One would think that driving this many pixels would mean 3D performance takes a big hit, but we only experienced a 20% drop in frame rates when running SolidWorks 2013.

With a hardware bundle price of £2,888 Scan’s offering gives small firms an affordable entry into powerwalls. Forget the iPad, this is a sure way to wow clients.

It’s like holding the 3D model in your hand A 3D Mouse revolutionises the way you work with your 3D applications. Increase productivity, enhance performance, enjoy comfort.

Find out more 3dconnexion.eu DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 xi 3dx-advert-develop3d-190x55-en-v5.indd 1

WORKSTATION SUPPLEMENT.indd 11

19.01.12 17:49

19/12/12 10:25:24

HARDWARE Graphics composite - PTC Creo 2.0 SPECapc (bigger is better)

RealView graphics - SolidWorks 2013 - (bigger is better)

HP 1.06

HP

Scan 3XS GW-HT15

6.15

Scan 3XS GW-HT15

Workstation Specialists WSX6 V2

7.07

InterPro IPW-DX8

Details of all benchmarks can be found at tinyurl.com/D3Dbench

0

1

2

4

48

SuperMicro RX-W280i-QK5

4.72

3

72

Lenovo ThinkStation C30

5.22

Dell Precision M6700

Dell Precision M6700

5

78

InterPro IPW-DX8

5.31

SuperMicro RX-W280i-QK5

90

Workstation Specialists WSX6 V2

5.72

Lenovo ThinkStation C30

14

6

7

80

44 40

20

40

60

80

100

HP Z220 convertible mini tower

Scan 3XS GW-HT15

Workstation Specialists WSX6 V2

Class

Entry-level

Mid-range

Mid-range

Processor (CPU)

Intel Xeon E3-1225v2 (3.2GHz) (4 cores)

Intel Core i7 3930K (clocked to 4.4GHz) (6 cores)

Intel Core i7 3930K (workstation enhanced to 4.3GHz) (6 cores)

Memory (RAM)

4GB 1,600 MHz DDR3 ECC

16GB (4 x 4GB) Corsair DDR3 Vengeance 1,600MHz

32GB (8 x 4GB) PC3-1600MHz Quad Channel DDR3

Graphics (GPU)

Intel HD Graphics P4000

AMD FirePro W8000 (4GB)

Nvidia Quadro K5000 (4GB)

Storage

1TB 7,200RPM SATA

240GB Corsair Neutron + 2TB Seagate Barracuda, SATA 6Gb/sec, 7,200RPM

240GB Intel 520 Series SSD + 2TB SATA Hard Disk Drive 7,200RPM

Motherboard

HP motherboard (Intel PCH C216 chipset)

Asus P9X79 (Intel X79 chipset)

Workstation Specialists motherboard (Intel X79 Express chipset)

Size (W x D x H)

178 x 455 x 447mm

232 x 523 x 464mm

220 x 500 x 500mm

Operating System

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Warranty

3 year limited warranty including parts, labour, and next-business-day onsite service

3 year – 1st year onsite, 2nd and 3rd year return to base (parts and labour)

3 year full parts & labour system warranty

Website

hp.com/uk/workstation

3xs.scan.co.uk

workstationspecialists.com

CAM (Delcam PowerMill 2010)

i) 187 ii) 298 iii) 470

i) 130 ii) 168 iii) 218

i) 134 ii) 172 iii) 229

CAE (SolidWorks 2010 Simulation)

121

71

75

Rendering (3ds Max Design 2011)

316

147

151

CAD (SolidWorks 2013)

14

90

78

CAD (PTC Creo 2.0)

1.06

6.15

7.07

Price

£768

£2,292

£3,395

CPU benchmarks (smaller is better)

Graphics benchmarks (bigger is better)

xii DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 DEVELOP3D.COM

WORKSTATION SUPPLEMENT.indd 12

19/12/12 10:25:47

L

2 x In

16GB (4

M

X6 V2

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

CPU rendering - 3ds Max Design 2011 (smaller is better) HP Z220

316

Scan 3XS GW-HT15

147

Workstation Specialists InterPro

151

71

Workstation Specialists WSX6 V2

129 114

5.31

75

100

5.22

108

SuperMicro RX-W280i-QK5 256

150

101

Lenovo ThinkStation C30

Dell Precision M6700

50

121

InterPro IPW-DX8

Lenovo C30

0

HP Z220 Scan 3XS GW-HT15

91

SuperMicro

CAE - SolidWorks Simulation 2010 (smaller is better)

200

250

116

Dell Precision M6700

300

350 0

30

90

60

90

120

Lenovo ThinkStation C30

InterPro IPW-DX8

SuperMicro RX-W280i-QK5

Dell Precision M6700

High-end

High-end

High-end

Mobile

2 x Intel Xeon E5-2640 (2.50 GHz) (6 cores)

2 x Intel Xeon E5-2670 2.60GHz (8 cores)

2 x Intel Xeon E5-2650 (2.0GHz) (8 cores)

Intel Core i7-3920XM (2.9GHz) (4 cores)

16GB (4 x 4GB) PC3-10600 1,333MHz DDR3 ECC

64GB (8 x 8GB) DDR-3 1600MHz ECC (PC3-12800)

32GB (8 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 ECC

8GB (2 x 4GB) 1,866MHZ DDR3

Nvidia Quadro K5000 (4GB)

AMD FirePro W7000 (4GB)

Nvidia Quadro K5000 (4GB)

AMD FirePro M6000 Mobility (2GB) + (17.3”) UltraSharp (1,920 x 1,080) LED-backlit display

ATA

2TB SATA 6Gb/s HDD 7,200RPM

240GB Intel 335 Series SSD + 2TB Seagate SATA 3 drive 7,200rpm

120GB Intel 520 Series SSD + 2TB Western Digital SATA 3Gb/s 7,200RPM

512GB SATA

rd

Lenovo motherboard (Intel C600 Series chipset)

Supermicro X9DAi mainboard

Supermicro mainboard (Intel C602 chipset)

Dell motherboard (Mobile Intel QM77 Express chipset)

130 x 444 x 427mm

193 x 424 x 525mm

178 x 452 x 648mm

417 x 271 x 33 (front) 36 (back) mm

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64

Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64

3 year-on-site

3 year return to base (RTB) (Inc. parts and labour) or “swap out”

3 year next business day warranty

3 year Dell ProSupport (premium support from expert technicians 24x7 global) + NBD on site

lenovo.com/uk

ipworkstations.com

supermicro.co.uk

dell.co.uk/precision

i) 197 ii) 201 iii) 243

i) 179 ii) 182 iii) 207

i) 221 ii) 261 iii) 302

i) 172 ii) 255 iii) 360

108

101

116

90

129

91

114

256

48

72

44

40

5.31

5.72

5.22

4.72

£3,999

£4,295

£5,632

£4,083

ores)

64

ranty

DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 xiii

WORKSTATION SUPPLEMENT.indd 13

19/12/12 10:25:51

150

Maximise Productivity...

P Ab erfec aq t fo us r 6.1 2

Thanks to the power of NVIDIA GPUs the latest WS GPU workstations allow you to capitalise on: • Twice the Design Candidates • Higher Product Quality • Improved Simulation Performance (typically 3.5x) • More Productive Engineering • Running Simulations with Higher-Fidelity Models • Accelerated Time to Market (TTM) • and more……

NVIDIA Quadro® and Tesla GPUs work together, with the Tesla Co-Processor(s) taking on the complex tasks of simulation and/or rendering whilst the Quadro GPU enables rich interactive graphics.

You can do it all, all at the same time....

Our latest range of NVIDIA Maximus Certified 3D CAD/CAE Workstations start from as little as £1495 and are available to suit any project/budget. Configurable with 1-2x CPUs, 16GB > 512GB RAM and up to 4x NVIDIA Tesla GPUs for masses of processing power.

+44 (0) 800 180 4801

sales@wksmail.com

www.workstationspecialists.com

@WSpecialists (C) Copyright Workstation Specialists – Acecad Software Ltd. E & OE - Prices exc. VAT + Delivery and are subject to change without notice. All rights reserved. Logos, images & company/product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

WS Ad.indd 1

24/10/2012 21:02

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

WORKSTATION SPECIALISTS WSX6 V2

I

vy Bridge, the codename for Intel’s third generation Core architecture, may have been available for over six months now, but specialist system builders are still relying on the previous generation Sandy Bridge chips to drive their the top-end single CPU workstations.

The Sandy Bridge Core i7 3930K at the heart of this WSX6 V2 offers similar single threaded performance to the Ivy Bridge Core i7 3770K, but trumps the newer chip due to the number of cores on offer. Six versus four won’t make much difference to the average CAD user, but bring

a ray trace rendering application into the design pipeline and you’ve cut 50% off your render times in one fell swoop.

Workstation Specialists has turbocharged the Core i7 3930K and, by giving it its ‘workstation enhanced’ treatment, clocked it up from 3.2GHz to 4.3GHz. Supported by a whopping 32GB of RAM it’s clear this high-end CAD workstation has large assembly modelling in its sights.

For graphics the WSX6 V2 sports Nvidia’s brand new Kepler-based Quadro K5000.

This double height board certainly delivers, but its high-

£3,395 WORKSTATIONSPECIALISTS.COM end specification will possibly be wasted on most CAD-centric workflows. At the moment it’s the only Kepler-based Quadro in existence, but we expect Nvidia to extend the family up and down the range in 2013, introducing some more CAD-focused cards along the way.

With Kepler, Quadro is all about graphics, but with three spare PCI Express slots there’s also plenty of scope for adding multiple Tesla GPU compute boards, transforming the WSX6 V2 into high-performance Maximus compute workstation for simulation and rendering.

LENOVO THINKSTATION C30

L

enovo’s ThinkStation C30 is a remarkable feat of engineering. Two Intel Xeon CPUs crammed into a chassis that’s smaller than most single processor workstations.

It’s also incredibly quiet, even under intense loading.

There is of course a trade off in having such a compact frame. The C30 only supports two GPUs and up to 128GB of memory. In reality though, this really shouldn’t matter for most CAD/CAM/CAE workflows.

Lenovo’s choice of Xeon E5-2640 CPUs suggests our test machine

is more suited to simulation than design visualisation. The two six core chips should offer good price/performance for FEA or CFD, whose solver codes tend to peak at 2 or 3 cores per job. Ray trace rendering, on the other hand, thrives when more CPU cores are thrown at a problem, so really warrants investment in two eight core Xeons.

With this in mind some might consider the rest of the system to be a little unbalanced — 16GB RAM too light for complex CAE workflows and the 2TB 7,200RPM SATA crying out for a

INTERPRO IPW-DX8

W

hen it comes to dual processor workstations, hitting the sweet spot for a pair of Intel Xeon CPUs is a big challenge.

Aim too high and the top-end chips often bring the overall machine cost to over £6,000.

Aim too low and the low GHz processors can’t keep up with lower cost overclocked single CPU workstations.

For price sensitive users of design visualisation software, InterPro has got things just about right. The two Intel Xeon E5-2670 processors in this IPW-

£3,999 LENOVO.COM/UK 256GB SSD to add some punch to the storage. However, if £4k is at the top end of your budget, don’t fret. For most simulation workflows, the more cost-effective Quadro 2000 or 4000 should be an adequate replacement for the high-end Quadro K5000, though it’s worth noting that both these cards are a generation behind.

Of course, the C30 can pretty much be tweaked for any processor-intensive workflow.

Its beauty lies in its chassis, which as far as we are aware is unrivalled when it comes to compact dual CPU workstations.

£4,295 IPWORKSTATIONS.COM DX8 workstation boast 16 CPU cores between them, making light work of complex ray trace rendering calculations. This is demonstrated by topping the charts in our 3ds Max benchmark this month. And with a clock speed of 2.6GHz the GPU isn’t throttled so much that it can’t deliver the frame rates required to smoothly navigate around complex 3D models.

InterPro has made an interesting choice when it comes to graphics. Typically this type of design viz workstation is paired with a high-end GPU,

but InterPro has opted for a mid-range card, the AMD FirePro W7000. With a list price of £499 it’s significantly cheaper than an AMD FirePro W8000 or Nvidia Quadro K5000, but ticks all the right boxes in our 3D benchmarks. The GPU also comes with 4GB of memory, meaning it’s more than capable of handling some hefty scenes.

The same is true of the system memory, which at 64GB should give plenty of headroom for even the largest of datasets – and with eight free RAM slots there’s even room to grow.

DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 xv

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19/12/12 10:26:18

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

SUPERMICRO RX-W280i-QK5

T

ake one look at the SuperMicro RX-W280iQK5 and it’s clear this is no ordinary workstation. With a depth of 648mm it has the look of a server. With support for up to 8 hot-swappable 3.5-inch hard drives and an optional rack mount kit it also has many of the characteristics.

The reality is that this has the potential to be a very powerful machine, best suited to high-end design visualisation. But we’re not just talking about ray trace rendering here, serving up huge datasets and textures in lightning quick time. With support for up

DELL PRECISION M6700

£5,632 SUPERMICRO.CO.UK to eight high-performance SAS drives it also has the potential to deliver the hard disk throughput required for studio grade compositing and video editing.

With this in mind our review machine’s two hard drives look a little lonely in the eight front loading bays. The 120GB Intel 520 SSD is a good solid performer when it comes to professional grade storage, though some may find it a little under capacity for heavyweight 3D apps and datasets. There is, however, a 2TB 7,200RPM SATA to back it up.

With 16 cores and 32 threads in total, the two Intel Xeon E5-

2650 processors deliver a solid score in our 3ds Max ray trace rendering benchmark, but the 2.0GHz clock speed, the lowest of all the workstations on test this month, sees it slipping down the benchmark charts in all of our other CPU tests.

There’s huge potential for this colossus of a workstation – up to 512GB of RAM, lightning quick storage and room for two highend Nvidia Tesla compute GPUs to support the Nvidia Quadro K5000 – but as it stands one can’t help feeling it needs a bit more investment to make the most of the server-grade chassis.

£4,083 DELL.CO.UK/PRECISION

D

ell’s top-end mobile workstation has come a long way since its humble beginnings, when its body was borrowed from a Dell consumer laptop.

Now with a dedicated chassis, minimal in looks and solid in its construction, the Precision M6700 literally shouts quality.

The keyboard is firm, the trackpad responsive and there’s a reassuring solidity to the hinge that supports the 17-inch HD UltraSharp LED-backlit display.

Until recently, our test machine’s quad core 2.9GHz Intel Core i7-3920XM was the highest spec mobile chip on the market, but was recently trumped by the 3.0GHz

WORKSTATION SPECIALISTS RS-D2850

T

his compact box of tricks has one job and one job only. To process network rendering jobs, leaving your single CPU workstation free to get on with other tasks. And it does it very well.

With two 2.2GHz Xeon E5 2660 CPUs, there’s a total of 16 cores and 32 threads to chomp through ray trace renders. This is all backed up with 32GB ECC memory and a 120GB SSD.

3940XM. The good news is Dell charges the same for both chips.

Graphics-wise, we’re used to seeing Dell’s 17-inch mobile workstations partnered with an incredibly high-end Nvidia Quadro GPU. For most CAD workflows, however, this is probably overkill, and our tests show that the 2GB AMD FirePro M6000 should offer more than enough performance for the average Creo or SolidWorks user.

The best news is the FirePro M6000 will save you £1,734 over Nvidia’s high-end 4GB Quadro K5000M. It should also help extend battery life — though for intensive 3D CAD the Precision M6700 should never be taken too far away from a mains socket.

For storage our single 512GB SATA drive doesn’t really do the Precision M6700 justice.

Rip out the optical drive and there’s actually support for an incredible four devices: 3 x 2.5inch SATAs or SSDs and a solid state Mini-Card.

The final word should go to memory. 8GB of very fast 1,866MHZ RAM is a good starting point for CAD, but with four DIMM slots the M6700 is actually capable of holding up to 32GB of 1600MHz RAM. Fully loaded the M6700 can handle some sizeable datasets and, despite being limited to four CPU cores, will give most desktops a good fight when it comes to mainstream CAD.

£3,150 WORKSTATIONSPECIALISTS.COM Unlike a traditional render node, the RS-D2850 sits on top of a workstation, making it suitable for small design firms who don’t want to invest in a dedicated rack.

For our tests, our partner WSX6 V2 workstation was connected via Gigabit Ethernet with 3ds Max rendering jobs managed by Autodesk backburner. It ripped through our 5,000 x 3,000 pixel render in two thirds the time it took the six core 4.3GHz Core i7

machine but, with all fans at full pelt, did give out quite a noise.

With a combined cost of over £6,500, buying both machines is not cheap. But there are clear advantages over a dual Xeon workstation. One, being able to render without taking a hit on modelling productivity, and two, being able to share the render resource with others. Overall, it’s niche, but well worth a look if you’re serious about rendering.

xvi DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE

WORKSTATION SUPPLEMENT.indd 16

19/12/12 10:26:35

PROFESSIONAL GRAPHICS PERFECTED NVIDIA® QUADRO® K5000

The NVIDIA® Quadro® K5000 graphics card takes advantage of the NVIDIA Kepler™ architecture to dramatically accelerate professional applications. You get greater levels of interaction when designing with the most complex models, richer scene details and effects for content creation, and faster results.

Insight

http://uk.insight.com/ Tel: 0844-846-3333

Jigsaw

www.jigsaw24.com Tel: 03332-400-888

Scan Computers

www.scan.co.uk Tel: 0871-472-4747

Misco

www.misco.co.uk Tel: 0800 038 8880

To learn more visit www.nvidia.com/quadro or www.pny.eu/quadro © 2012 PNY Technologies. The PNY Technologies logo is a registered trademark of PNY Technologies. © 2012 NVIDIA Corporation. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, NVIDIA Quadro, and NVIDIA 3D Vision are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation.

All rights reserved. All company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are all subject to change without notice

PNY Ad.indd 1

12/12/2012 11:54

Lenovo® recommends Windows® 7 Professional.

IDEAS SHOULD RACE FROM DESIGN TO TESTING. NOT FROM ONE MACHINE TO ANOTHER. Meet the all-powerful Lenovo ThinkStation®. Unlike other workstations, these machines are built to handle everything from design to simulation - meaning you can get your concepts up and running on a single machine.

Lenovo ThinkStation® E31

Lenovo ThinkStation® S30

• Intel® Xeon® E3 1290V2 processor

• Intel® Xeon® E5 2600 processor

• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit

• Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-bit

• Tower or Small Form Factor chassis

• Tower or Small Form Factor chassis

• Up to 32GB RAM

• Up to 128GB RAM

• Intel or NVIDIA® Quadro® Graphics

• Up to dual NVIDIA® Quadro® Graphics

• 3 year On Site Warranty

• 3 year On Site Warranty

Prices from £741, Excl VAT

Prices from £795, Excl VAT

0845 4751155 www.thinklogic.co.uk/workstations

01234 757 170 www.majentaplm.com

WWW.LENOVO.COM/THINKSTATION for any editorial, photographic or typographic errors. All images are for illustration purposes only. For full Lenovo product, service and warranty specifications visit www.lenovo. com The following are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do and ThinkStation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, Core Inside, Xeon and Xeon Inside are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. ©2012 Lenovo.

WORKSTATION SPECIAL REPORT

INPUTDEVICES

Al Dean test drives two gaming mice that also offer precise control for CAD

H

ealth and Safety managers will spend hours scrutinising the position of a CAD user’s office desk, adjusting the chair and positioning the monitor, but how much attention is paid to the device that is actually used the most — the mouse?

Below we look at two new “Gaming” mice,

which also happen to be ideally suited to complex CAD work by offering impressive levels of customisation for operation and ergonomics.

Firstly, DPI switching enables the user to toggle between tracking speeds. I’ve found this invaluable: speeding things up for general computer work and then slowing things down

for more precise CAD work.

Secondly, these devices typically have a greater level of adjustability in terms of ergonomics. Both of the devices have adjustable palm rests, with one of them even offering weight adjustment, alternative palm and finger rest positions and different options for grip.

TT ESPORTS LEVEL 10 M MOUSE

£83 TTESPORTS.COM

D

esigned by BMW DesignWorks, the Level 10 M Mouse is quite a beast. Built on an aluminium chassis, it offers DPI switching with a set of fully configurable presets, the usual three mouse buttons plus scroll wheel. It also features a host of back/forward buttons either side of the unit that can be fully customised.

To adjust, the palm rest can be raised

MAD CATZ CYBORG R.A.T.7

and lowered (by 5mm) as well as tilted to find the best working position, with a single allen key included in the rather fancy packaging.

Those with small hands might find it to be a bit on the big side, but for those with large bear paws, it’ll prove up to the job. It’s a wired device, with a tangle free braided cable and enough LED lights to be mistaken for a Christmas decoration.

£67 MADCATZ.COM

T

he RAT7 is one of the most configurable products I’ve come across. It features a fully adjustable set of thumb and palm rests, supplied with rubberised alternatives as well. The device can be adjusted for weight in 30g increments by removing small weights in the unit.

In terms of customisation, it has the usual three buttons and scroll wheel, as well as a thumb activated

3DCONNEXION SPACEMOUSE PRO

back/forward buttons. DPI settings can be preset, located just behind the scroll wheel, as well as a target button that momentarily down-samples the tracking speed when the user is doing precision work. Again, the cable is braided resulting in no tangled cables if put into a bag. The same product is also available in a wireless configuration as the RAT9, if that’s your bag.

£249 3DCONNEXION.COM

N

o feature on input devices for CAD would be complete without a tip of the hat to 3Dconnexion. The company’s 3D control devices are used in conjunction with a standard computer mouse, providing exact control when manoeuvring 3D models on screen.

3Dconnexion offers a comprehensive range, from the entrylevel SpaceNavigator, right up to the high-end SpacePilot Pro. All devices feature a controller cap that gives the

user free control over a 3D model on screen. It can be twisted, turned and pulled to navigate around the model freely, while the 2D mouse is used in the other hand to work directly with the CAD geometry on screen.

The SpaceMouse Pro is one of the most popular for desktop CAD — a slick, comfortable unit which has a wealth of common keyboard modifiers (control, alt, shift, escape etc) as well as fully customisable short cut keys that work on a per application basis.

DEVELOP3D.COM/HARDWARE DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013 xix

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SOLIDWORKS RUNS FASTER WITH NVIDIA.

For the best SolidWorks experience, make sure you’re using NVIDIA graphics. In fact, you can increase performance by as much as 4x when upgrading to SolidWorks 2013 and a new NVIDIA® Quadro® GPU. Visit www.nvidia.co.uk/solidworks to view videos of how Quadro lets you simulate models to see exactly what you’ve designed before the first prototype is built. You’ll also find side-by-side comparisons, case studies, and tips for choosing the right GPU.

SOLIDWORKS BENCHMARK RESULTS SolidWorks 2013 on latest Quadro GPUs compared to SolidWorks 2012 on Quadro FX GPUs

SW 2013

SW 2012

Quadro K5000 Quadro FX 4600 Quadro 4000 Quadro FX 3700

Experience Real-Time Interactivity

Quadro 2000 Quadro FX 1700 Quadro 600 Quadro FX 500 Frames Per Second 0

10 5 15 Below Recommended Performance

20

25 30 35 Meets Recommended Performance

40

www.nvidia.co.uk/solidworks © 2012 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Quadro, and GPU Genius are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation. All company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective owners with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are all subject to change without notice.

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