Workstation for CFX Post-Processing

-Maxim- · March 7, 2016, 08:09

Hi everybody,

I am currently working on a Xeon 2x E5-2637 v3 3.7 GHz Quad Core with 128 GB RAM (8x16 GB 2133 MHz). When I use all of our 8 HPC Ansys CFX licenses, this PC is quite busy

A student would like to do his master's thesis with us. For his calculations, he would use the OpenFOAM cluster of his university and needs a desktop PC (running Linux) in our office for setting things up and post-processing.

I pitched the idea to my boss that we get him a decent workstation for his thesis now and I will use this workstation for my post-processing in CFX after he is done.

Which setup would you suggest? Is one Quad Core CPU enough? How much RAM?
Budget should be under 4000 €uros.

Thank you for your suggestions!

Regards,
Maxim

-Maxim- · March 18, 2016, 02:47

Here's one offer that I got:

Xeon E5-1630 v3 3,7GHz Quad-Core
64GB RAM (4x16GB DDR4 ECC 2133MHz)
nVidia K2200 4GB
Samsung SSD 250GB
2x2TB HDD

That sounds good to me. What do you think?

flotus1 · March 18, 2016, 05:06

Looks like a reasonable build for a post-processing workstation.
You should make sure the mainboard has 8 DIMM slots for RAM upgrades.
If you have some money to spare, you could think about getting SSDs instead of or in addition to HDDs. A decent 1TB SSD will only cost you around 300$.

-Maxim- · March 18, 2016, 05:16

Thank you Alex for your input. I will make sure that the mainboard has enough slots for a RAM upgrade in the future.
You're right - the prices of the big SSDs went down a lot the past year - I will discuss a bigger SSD with my boss.

bindesboll · March 22, 2016, 07:16

If you are going to do parralel meshing with more than 4 blocks in the mesh, you should consider the Xeon E5-1650 v3, which has 6 cores at almost the same clock speed.

March 7, 2016, 08:09	Workstation for CFX Post-Processing	#1
-Maxim- Senior Member Maxim Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Germany Posts: 415 Rep Power: 12	Hi everybody, I am currently working on a Xeon 2x E5-2637 v3 3.7 GHz Quad Core with 128 GB RAM (8x16 GB 2133 MHz). When I use all of our 8 HPC Ansys CFX licenses, this PC is quite busy A student would like to do his master's thesis with us. For his calculations, he would use the OpenFOAM cluster of his university and needs a desktop PC (running Linux) in our office for setting things up and post-processing. I pitched the idea to my boss that we get him a decent workstation for his thesis now and I will use this workstation for my post-processing in CFX after he is done. Which setup would you suggest? Is one Quad Core CPU enough? How much RAM? Budget should be under 4000 €uros. Thank you for your suggestions! Regards, Maxim

March 18, 2016, 02:47		#2
-Maxim- Senior Member Maxim Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Germany Posts: 415 Rep Power: 12	Here's one offer that I got: Xeon E5-1630 v3 3,7GHz Quad-Core 64GB RAM (4x16GB DDR4 ECC 2133MHz) nVidia K2200 4GB Samsung SSD 250GB 2x2TB HDD That sounds good to me. What do you think? Last edited by -Maxim-; March 18, 2016 at 05:11. Reason: typo

March 18, 2016, 05:06		#3
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,399 Rep Power: 46	Looks like a reasonable build for a post-processing workstation. You should make sure the mainboard has 8 DIMM slots for RAM upgrades. If you have some money to spare, you could think about getting SSDs instead of or in addition to HDDs. A decent 1TB SSD will only cost you around 300$. -Maxim- likes this.

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March 18, 2016, 05:16		#4
-Maxim- Senior Member Maxim Join Date: Aug 2015 Location: Germany Posts: 415 Rep Power: 12	Thank you Alex for your input. I will make sure that the mainboard has enough slots for a RAM upgrade in the future. You're right - the prices of the big SSDs went down a lot the past year - I will discuss a bigger SSD with my boss.

March 22, 2016, 07:16		#5
bindesboll Member Kim Bindesbøll Andersen Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Aalborg, Denmark Posts: 39 Rep Power: 15	If you are going to do parralel meshing with more than 4 blocks in the mesh, you should consider the Xeon E5-1650 v3, which has 6 cores at almost the same clock speed.