Hello all, fist post.
I am trying to build a new CAD/CAM workstation for our business,
I wanted to get a Xeon processor with a really good single thread processing capability.
Most of what we do would work better with a faster single thread than multi threaded processors.
I cannot find anywhere online to buy hardware that is compatible, and not sold from honk kong.
Any tips or suggestions, and suggestions that are actually in stock somewhere.
Thanks for your help.
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what are the requirements
Do you know what CPU you want? Xeon W Processors are made for things like CAD and should have good support. I have not used them personally, though.
CPU in stock here https://www.ipcstore.com/intel-xeon-w1390p-processor-35-ghz-16-mb-smart-cache-4671181
mobos here ASUS Pro WS W480-ACE LGA 1200 ATX Intel Motherboard - Newegg.com
SUPERMICRO MBD-X12SAE-5-O ATX Server Motherboard - Newegg.com
And ddr4 3200 ECC ram is easy to get.
I was wanting to use a W processor as it is specific to CAD CAM, which is our exact use.
I have never used ECC memory, So I don’t know how much better it would be for use.
I currently have a Xeon E3 1270 v3 processor that I have been running for a long time and its great, no ECC memory running on a ASUS W workstation motherboard(dont know if this is necessary either)
This is the exact setup I was looking for, but the ASUS board is shipping from Hong Kong, sketchy purchase. I cant find a CPU and a Workstation MB that are both in stock (in the US)
Its the mobos that seem missing more so.
I guess Ill have to bite the bullet and order this MB from HK, yuk!
Thanks for your help!
Why not just get a W680 board and a 13900k? There is no entry level Xeon W’s this generation; the 13900k + W680 mobo fills this the entry level Xeon W category with ECC support ect now.
Getting a CPU with older Xeon W branding you’re leaving ~30% single core performance on the table over a 13900k.
Actually I was thinking that this was my best bet, it does get rid of the reliability of the Xeon but its more readily available, I was even thinking the 12900k this is even overkill for our needs, this setup is quite a lot cheaper also.
The one caveat I should have mentioned was that Windows 10 doesn’t always play nice with the e-cores that are in the 12th and 13th generation intel consumer CPUs, so unless you’re running Windows 11, you may need to disable the e-cores in bios to get good performance.
You won’t get any extra reliability from the entry Xeon W’s over the Core i’s (assuming they are paired with a W680 mobo), it was all just branding by intel; they support pretty much all the same features.
I’ve never used ECC memory, is it better to run in the situation of a CAD Workstation scenario with this hardware?
I strongly prefer ECC, it makes the computer more reliable and prevents crashes and data corruptions that were triggered by memory errors.
There is some debate within the community on how prevalent memory errors are but my thinking is that if manufactures are making special ECC hardware to address the problem it must be happening enough.
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Seems legit, ECC it is.
stability and reliability are our #1 concern, not speed, overclocking…
thanks for your help!
Workstations mean reliability… Check out the following video before considering consumer level hardware for applications requiring industrial-strength reliability. Unless you don’t mind seeing the occasional vector storm…
I haven’t watched the vid yet, what is your recommendation.
I was looking at the Xeon w3-2435 and the ASUS W790 if I can actually find the hardware.
or the W-1390P with a ASUS Pro WS W480-ACE but cant find the hardware most the time.
I would really like to use XEON more over having a faster machine, reliability, and stability is key!!!
And I do mind seeing the not so occasional vector storm, especially if using a AMD video card!
w3-2435 is tray only and purchasing them can be a bit more involving. w5-2455X is much easier to come by. Note that even with overclocking, 2455X would still be at most as fast as the 13700K.
Unless you need a lot of PCIe lanes, AVX512, AMX, DSA, or 4 memory channels (max 8 slots), a 13900K+W680+ECC may be a better idea. Memory controller issue should be fine as long as you stay within Intel’s spec (i.e., 5600 MT/s for 13th Gen)
DDR5-8000 or overclocking in general is hardly an argument on unreliable consumer hardware. If you push your overclocks on DDR5 RDIMMs on a W790 it won’t be reliable either.
Xeon is about QAT, Cores, lanes, memory channels and RDIMMs. Reliability argument is a decades old myth from marketing department.
I dont know all the tech behind it, stopped following computer tech a long time ago.
but what I have experienced in my many(33years) years using PC’s and for a short while “Workstations” in a professional environment, CAD/CAM,Engineering.
Is that the video cards are night and day, not in speed, but in reliability, correct performance, stability, drivers…
I have used Intel consumer CPU’s for other workstations and it worked fine, but the system I currently have, that was already a years or so behind when I built it, the Xeon processor is far more stable,reliable, has less(none) issues, problems, crashes, the video even works far better which should be more the video card, but its been my experience.
And then I have to wonder, why would they make “workstation” CPU’s if they werent different from consumer CPU’s.
I know on the video card side of things, the main thing is the cherry picked components, but mostly service, as in drivers, updates, patches, fixes…The workstation graphics cards are night and day.
But everyone keeps mentioning the CPU processor speed, the speed is not even a secondary aspect compared to the need for reliability,stability, upgrades, drivers…
In this light, I have to wonder the background of those who suggest a consumer CPU over a Xeon for a “workstation”.
What are the pros and cons of using a Xeon over a consumer or vise versa CPU for this usage.
A workstation for CAD/CAM, we arent doing any CFD, or simulations, I used to do some mold flow analysis but not anymore.
Some of our 5 axis machining processes are extremely! single thread heavy, So I do know for our use multiple cores is far less useful than fast cores.
But also that stability, reliability, divers, patches… are far more critical to us than speed, realistically any modern CPU released in the past 3 years is plenty fast enough.
And on the topic of overclocking, If a “workstation” means reliable performance, which it mostly does to us, not speed/power. Then why would you ever overclock anything.
If overclocking gives you more speed but at a trade off of stability and reliability, I don’t understand why anyone would overclock a “workstation” I would never.
I dont know those on these forums, Im new, but I do know that in the world when I talk to other computer junkies, they dont know what a “workstation” actually is.
Any enlightening info is much appreciated on all of the above posts. Thanks guys!
All major OEMs have consumer CPUs for their low-end workstations. We have workstation boards with the W680 chipset that runs on Core instead of Xeon. They use the same silicon under the hood for the cores (Golden Cove). In recent years we also got things like Ryzen PRO CPUs and ECC, so the gap is closing to some degree. Intel vPro is available on 12th-13th gen Core.
Server CPU is about features…
And sometimes it’s required for certifications. If you don’t need any of that, Core is way cheaper. But if you need 2+ GPUs/CPUs, 100Gbit networking, 6+ NVMe drives, 256GB+ memory or QuickAssist…Xeon is perfect.
There are use cases for both, 3.000€ and 10.000€ Workstations. We got options.
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