New High-Performance FEA Workstation (mostly ABAQUS/Standard)
Hi all,
I am working on configuring a new dedicated FEA rig. The budget is 10-15k USD, but given organizational constraints, we are limited to the Dell Precision 7920 or 7960 lines. We are also license constrained for ABAQUS and can only run on a maximum of 12 threads at a time. Given these restrictions I have been looking at the Xeon W series processors (e.g., w5-3425 with 30MB Cache, 12 cores, 24 threads, 3.2GHz to 4.6GHz). This thread seems to concur with that conclusion (thanks, flotus1), but it has been a few months. Certainly open to reconsidering Xeon Gold (e.g., 6226R in a 7920) if there are advantages. Here is an example configuration on the Dell website: link The above has 256GB DDR5 memory (4x64GB, 4800MHz, RDIMM ECC). We are also considering going all-out on 8x64GB DDR5, although I'm not sure that merits the extra 5k USD. Any input greatly appreciated! ---
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The new Xeon-W CPUs have some seriously fast cores. I don't think it's worth looking for earlier generations. For an OEM workstation, the 3425 is a good choice.
If you are set on 256GB of RAM, better get the 8x32GB configuration. It costs the same as 4x64GB, but you get to use all 8 memory channels of the CPU. I have to say that I'm impressed by Dell. Charging 10000$ for 512GB of RAM could make Apple jealous. It looks like you have a bunch of "fast" mechanical hard drives in your configuration. I would probably try to get rid of those in favor of SSDs. Compared to even basic NVMe SSDs, they are loud and slow. And definitely not worth the 470$ Dell charges. If this is about write endurance for some reason: in theory, SSDs can fill this gap as well. Though you would need to contact sales directly for that. Dell's nondescript SSD "classes" are no help here whatsoever. I have used Samsung PM1735 for scratch space for Permas in HP workstations. They are fast, relatively cheap for what they offer (currently 1400€ for the 12.8TB model), and have plenty of write endurance. |
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Thanks, flotus1! I will revise the ram configuration and swap in NVMe SSDs as recommended.
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