[Brennan22]

Hi!
I'm currently configuring an FEA rig with a budget of 10k USD. Its immediate usage is going to be for abaqus/explicit and I'm eventually looking to also run Ansys Fluent on it and potentially Comsol. I was using this thread as a starting point (thanks Nucleophobe), but have a more generous license and wasn't sure how to adjust my specs.

I am limited to Dell precision workstations (5820, 5860, 7820, 7865, 7920, 7960). Was initially thinking of TR-5975WX with 256 gb ram, but I've seen mixed opinions on this forum about TR processors.

Here is an example configuration I put together. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!

Which software do you intend to use?
Mostly ABAQUS/Standard
Are you limited by license constraints? I.e. does your software license only allow you to run on N threads?
I believe I have 70 license tokens for Abaqus.
What type of simulations do you want to run? And what's the maximum cell count?
Abaqus/Explicit 10k to 10M element simulation
Ansys Fluent 5-30M, but more headroom is always nice
If there is a budget, how high is it?
10k USD
What kind of setting are you in? Hobbyist? Student? Academic research? Engineer? Academic research
Where can you source your new computer? Buying a complete package from a large OEM? Assemble it yourself from parts? Are used parts an option?
I am limited to Dell precision workstations (5820, 5860, 7820, 7865, 7920, 7960)
Which part of the world are you from? It's cool if you don't want to tell, but since prices and availability vary depending on the region, this can sometimes be relevant. Particularly if it's not North America or Europe.
USA
Anything else that people should know to help you better? Use case is currently for a project using Abaqus/Explicit. Use case is also variable (sometimes small simulations but 1000s for uncertainty quantifications, sometimes large simulations for mesh refinement). This could be subject to change depending on future projects. Also looking to use it for machine learning and data science using Python (If that influences anything).

Thank you!

[CFDfan]

Originally Posted by Brennan22

Hi!
I'm currently configuring an FEA rig with a budget of 10k USD. Its immediate usage is going to be for abaqus/explicit and I'm eventually looking to also run Ansys Fluent on it and potentially Comsol. I was using this thread as a starting point (thanks Nucleophobe), but have a more generous license and wasn't sure how to adjust my specs.

I am limited to Dell precision workstations (5820, 5860, 7820, 7865, 7920, 7960). Was initially thinking of TR-5975WX with 256 gb ram, but I've seen mixed opinions on this forum about TR processors.

Thank you!

I built a system with TR-5975WX and 256G Ram on ASUS Pro WS WRX80E-SAGE SE WIFI II Mobo 6-7months ago. The system is working great at 4.4GHz on all 32cores. The only issue is the high temperature of the CPU (78-81C) at full load (see my CinebenchR23 result at https://gofile.io/d/qywP35).
I tested 5-6 both air and liquid coolers and ended up with AIO 360 cooler with 6x120mm fans in push-pull configuration. Suggesting you to contact Dell about the CPU temperature and CPU speed when running some benchmarks like Cinebench, OCCT, Intel Burn Test, etc. It could be that Dell is throttling the CPU when running these tests so pay attention to the CPU speed and how many cores are having it. If I recall the turbo speed of 5975wx is 4.6GHz, so ideally you should get close to that speed with all 32 cores.

In short, 5975wx is a great CPU for CFD if you could cool it down adequately to run all cores at the highest turbo speed

[Brennan22]

Thank you, CFD fan this is incredibly helpful!

I've reached out to the dell sales rep for my university to try and get some performance data. I had a few more questions:
Should I be considering any other cpus?
Any other system bottlenecks I should watch out for besides overheating?
Is 256 GB of ram too much?
Another thought I had was getting the 5995wx with 128 GB of RAM instead of the 5975wx with 256 GB of RAM. Would this make any sense (Assuming thermal throttling isn't too bad)? I'm not sure if I actually need 256gb.

[CFDfan]

Originally Posted by Brennan22

Thank you, CFD fan this is incredibly helpful!

I've reached out to the dell sales rep for my university to try and get some performance data. I had a few more questions:
Should I be considering any other cpus?
Any other system bottlenecks I should watch out for besides overheating?
Is 256 GB of ram too much?
Another thought I had was getting the 5995wx with 128 GB of RAM instead of the 5975wx with 256 GB of RAM. Would this make any sense (Assuming thermal throttling isn't too bad)? I'm not sure if I actually need 256gb.

I'm not following the CPU market all the time so don't know well its current status. The only thing I could advise is not to buy the very, very latest because it will be unjustifiably (in terms of performance gain) expensive. About the RAM size - it depends on the tasks you do. I personally needed 256G but if you are an academic then 128G might be good enough. You probably have some feeling about that from previous experience. The very important thing here is to have ALL RAM slots accommodated to get maximum memory bandwidth. Again emphasize this requirement to Dell's representative