Recommendation request

a friend of mine wants to build a workstation for cad and simulation purposes and he asked me for advice, so i deceded to ask here for a recommendation, if any of you can say me where do i need to start or what are the things that i need to focus on it would be really helpful.

(im not an english native speaker so i may have committed mistakes in gramar or proper use of the vocabulary)

If you're going in to build a workstation computer, then your best bet would be to opt for an Intel processor and, for general compatibility, an Nvidia Quadro. I would say that, for most light to moderate CAD work, 8GB of RAM should be enough to suffice, but if file sizes are anticipated to be particularly large, then you may want to opt for 16GB or more. Most Quadro graphics cards from Nvidia cost between three and five times more than the consumer counterpart which they are based on, but the performance benefit in applications which they are optimized for is substantial enough to warrant their purchase. If you are already planning to spend over the cost of an Nvidia GTX Titan, then you may want to consider purchasing one of those instead, as they also perform exceptionally well for rendering tasks. In terms of processors, the consumer and the workstation or server processors perform similarly, although, given the usual preference for maintaining stock clocks on workstation computers, you may be able to get better performance for your money out of a Xeon processor rather than a Core series processor. Consider purchasing as many cores as you can, and if you can afford it, hyperthreaded cores as well. If you opt not to overclock, then you can save some money by purchasing a Bxx or Hxx series of motherboard chipset instead of needing to purchase a Zxx series. For workstation applications, RAM speed is not particularly important, so a generic speed of 1600MHz is more than sufficient.

is a 2011 socket xenon worth it

Well before anything Mndless said could ever possibly be relevant... need you to be more specific about what you meant by CAD? 2D? 3D? What programs? What industry? How big are your file sizes? etc...

file sizes go up to 500mb 

the progams are

creo

altair hyperworks

ansys

also aerodynamics simulation

and finite elements simulation

manufacturing processes simulation like foging 

is for a mecanical engeneering student that wants to reduce the simulation times of his proyects

and play iracing

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/z37Ngs

Given... I have no Earthly idea what your budget is... but with what he's doing, he'll want a fairly powerful workstation GPU... the Quadro's are extremely expensive, especially at the top end, while the top end AMD cards (which perform very comparably) are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper... for the same price as a mid-range Nvidia WS card, you're getting right next to a top of the line AMD Firepro... It should be noted that workstation wards are very expensive to begin with... this is due to much better driver support, tech support options, and honing for compatibility with productivity software (Open GL vs Direct X)...

Without a certified card for the software he's using, he'll likely encounter lines that glitch, and other rather annoying problems with a consumer GPU... if you're on a budget, you have no other option, but with a decent CAD system budget, you will get much better performance at the workstation with a workstation card... Basically the workstation cards focus on precision and stability, while the consumer cards focus on raw graphics power... the GPU will also help in simulation times as well...

I don't think it would be a wise investment to jump to socket 2011 in his situation as a student, but the Xeon E3-1245 V3 is a very powerful processor which will last him a while... The SSD will make things much snappier while on his local system, and the motherboard has the option of an M.2 SSD down the line, should he need even more speed... the Deskstar line of HDDs has proven itself to be the most durable HDD on the market (I run one at home), and 2TB of space should give him plenty of file storage...

This is a computer built for silence, stability, and fast processing... if you need a tighter budget, I could work around a few things, but ultimately this is around what you'll pay for a high-end workstation that can last 5-8 years...

thanks 

will it be good for a 3 monitor setup and iracing?

you can hook up to 4 monitors up to it via HDMI... it should handle iracing fairly easily, as it's not very demanding... I wouldn't recommend it for three monitor gaming in more graphic intensive games, but a workstation card isn't meant for gaming anyways... otherwise, yes... he should be VERY happy with this rig

thanks