Best Harwdare Configuration 1

[Ishmael]

I've been asked to write down a specification in order to buy a new high end workstation for my company. This pc will be used mainly for FEM Modeling (Femap) and solving (NeNastran).
Which is the best hardware configuration I should ask for?
I'm puzzled about CPU (Intel Xeon or AMD), and RAM(more than 3 GB is useless for windows XP , isn't it?)
For the HDs, I'm oriented to a scsi configuration, one disc for the operating system and a two disks mirror for the data.
I guess the graphic card will be a Quadro FX, not sure yet about the exact model.
However I'd be more than happy to receive any hints from you.
Thanks

 

[GregLocock]

Give me RAM, lots of RAM, and the starry skies above, don't fence me in.

More seriously - what sort of models? For instance, I run multiple iterations of large models, for days at a time, and then look at some very simple measures of progress. So I don't care about graphics.

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[Ishmael]

Hi Greg,
usually the models are linear, lot's of load cases, big number of dof (>300'000). Windows XP cannot address more than 3GB for a single process, afaik, even though it can handle up to 4GB of ram memory. Sometimes I do some non linear (plasticity and contact).
In those cases it happens to go out of core even with 4GB ram, and then the disk(s) become very important.
Graphic it'not an issue during solving, but I need a decent Cad card for modeling and postprocessing. A NVidia Quadro will do the job.
I'm still stuck on the CPU(s). Xeon Woodcrest or AMD Opteron?

 

[GregLocock]

Sounds like you'll be swapping to disk all the time. Therefore efficient disk handling is the highest priority.

My solve time dropped from ~40 hours per iteration with 256 M of RAM, to about 20 minutes when run in 2 GB of RAM.





Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[cbrn]

Hi,
I think that you have two ways to build up your platform, and they depend upon how you will need to work:
- if you can have your jobs run overnight, then swapping is not a problem and you will have to point to a very stable and reliable SCSI system. In this case, 32 bits OS can be used, XP remains a good choice with 3GB RAM;
- if you really need to have very fast answers, then you have no choice but to step up to 64 bits platforms, with at least 8 GB RAM. Be careful: many softwares have different licenses (and fees...) in 32bits and 64bits versions...

Regards

 

[amorrison]

The wizards at

http://www.tek-tips.com/

(a cousin of eng-tips)

might be willing to give you some "free" advice in the hardware section.

 

[Jordonlaw]

Ishmael,

I run large non-linear models for typically a number of days. I currently use a single processor Xeon machine with 6Gb of RAM and XP64 OS. This OS has proved much more reliable than a 64B Linux installation I used and I can totally recommend it. I need to go a multi-processor route and the Xeon architecture doesn't work well whereas the Opteron chipset has been recommended (memory cheaper than for Itanium)and I'm currently benchmarking the Woodcrest product.

My experience is the smae as for FEA codes themselves; don't believe the salesman but rent a suitable machine and check it out on a real job. In the UK I have a good rapour with the FEA supplier who has helped me arrange the benchmark at no cost.

 

[barrind]

Would any of you guys "trust" a consumer level graphics card for 3d work rather than the often 2x more expensive worksation level graphics cards? I'm using Abaqus CAE and I'm trying to find out whether the likes of the geforce 7900 series would be ok in 3d terms. I've tried it once with a gefore 6800 and it appears to work ok, but was after some experience from others. My abaqus pc is fairly ancient and currently has a lowly matrox g450 in it and it struggles with big models.

 

[NoranTech]

Hi Ishmael,

I would recommend the following system:

Intel Woodcrest (Xeon 5100) 3.0Ghz (dual CPU if you have the $$, for a total of 4 cores).
3-4GB of RAM if you are using XP, 4GB+ if using Windows x64.
Nvidia QuadroFX 1300 or higher (depending upon budget)
A SCSI RAID0 setup with 2-3 drives works very well for temporary file storage.

We have a similar system in the office and it is very fast. The new Woodcrest is faster than the best offering from AMD. As far as the operating system (32-bit vs. 64-bit) it really depends upon if all your applications/hardware can run on x64, and if you really need the extra memory support (note that on x64, a 32-bit application (like NEiNastran) can access 4GB of memory instead of just 3GB in Windows XP). You can always upgrade the OS later or get the 64-bit version of Vista when it is released.

NEiNastran 64-bit for Windows x64 is being released in a few weeks so that is another upgrade path you have avaliable to you (the cost is slightly higher than 32-bit).

On a side note, I run a lot of mid-sized nonlinear models, and I have setup an 8GB RAM drive (16GB total in the system) to use as temporary storage. It works very well for these types of models and there is almost no slowdown due to I/O.

Thank you,

Jonas
Noran Engineering, Inc.

http://www.nenastran.com

 

[crisb]

Jonas

"On a side note, I run a lot of mid-sized nonlinear models, and I have setup an 8GB RAM drive (16GB total in the system) to use as temporary storage. It works very well for these types of models and there is almost no slowdown due to I/O."

What platform is this on and how is it set up?

 

[ThomasH]

On another side note, does anybody know when the plan is to release a 64 bit version of Femap?

And Ishmael, I would not buy any expensive workstation without a look at the upcoming Xeon's with four cores. They might be extremely expensive so it's very much a question of budget. And they might already be available but I haven't seen any priceing.

Just some thoughts

Thomas

 

[amorrison]

General Xeon information here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xeon