CAD Forum

What workstations do you guys use? We've been using Thinkstations by Lenovo for about 8 years and their more recent models aren't quite as 'neat' as I'd like them to be. The graphic card makes a lot of noise when doing analysis and the workstation eventually overheats if there are many analysis made consecutively or if the analysis was too large. They've supposedly adressed the issue in their latest workstations, which we received about a month ago. The workstation hasn't overheated yet, but it is certainly loud which is an annoyance. We've used HP Workstation at first but the graphic card that came with them were sub-par. The HP Workstation worked great, the graphic card didn't. We eventually switched the graphic card in those and that made them a whole lot more proefficient.


I was wondering what do you guys use? Are there workstations that 3D Softwares tout to use? Our next workstation update is in 2 year and I'd like to take a headstart on gathering information.

We have a bit of a rotation, we've been trying to get on a rotation of a few machines every FY, but last couple years got skipped so now we're behind again. Newest are:

Precision 3640 Tower
Intel Core i9-10900K CPU
nVidia P2000/2200
32 GB memory installed
512GB NVMe SSD

I have a Lenovo ThinkStation P330 with a Quadro RTX 4000. I'm typically running SW along with two Windows virtual machines. I did some very intense flow simulation analysis last year, running inside one of the virtual machines and never had an overheating problem.

The fans are noisy, and you have to choose between noisy all the time or noisy when it's working hard, but that's pretty much all the time, so I live with it.

Precision 5820 Tower.
Windows 10 NVIDIA Quadro P2000 Video Card
SATA 512 GB Drive

3 Monitors (just normal 22" monitors)

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Feb 16, 2023 9:11 am What workstations do you guys use? We've been using Thinkstations by Lenovo for about 8 years and their more recent models aren't quite as 'neat' as I'd like them to be. The graphic card makes a lot of noise when doing analysis and the workstation eventually overheats if there are many analysis made consecutively or if the analysis was too large. They've supposedly adressed the issue in their latest workstations, which we received about a month ago. The workstation hasn't overheated yet, but it is certainly loud which is an annoyance. We've used HP Workstation at first but the graphic card that came with them were sub-par. The HP Workstation worked great, the graphic card didn't. We eventually switched the graphic card in those and that made them a whole lot more proefficient.


I was wondering what do you guys use? Are there workstations that 3D Softwares tout to use? Our next workstation update is in 2 year and I'd like to take a headstart on gathering information.

If it's the graphics card making the noise there isn't a whole lot you can do about it, yes the design of the internal cooling may have some impact on the graphics card cooling but the fundamental noise is coming from the graphics card fan(s) when they kick in. Some of the newest Nvidia workstation cards are supposed to quite noisy (small form).

Personally I stick to HP with the 3 year next day on site warranty. They tend to be well designed workstations mean't to be on 24hrs a day. I would avoid small form factor so they have better cooling design = less fan noise.

I spec'd the last few to order so I get what I need instead of buying one off the shelf.

Lastly I don't go by age, I wait if necessary, to get a new generation of MB and processor - this is where you to get the best bang for buck because that is where the real big increase in performance is.

RichGergely wrote: ↑Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:37 pm If it's the graphics card making the noise there isn't a whole lot you can do about it, yes the design of the internal cooling may have some impact on the graphics card cooling but the fundamental noise is coming from the graphics card fan(s) when they kick in. Some of the newest Nvidia workstation cards are supposed to quite noisy (small form).

Personally I stick to HP with the 3 year next day on site warranty. They tend to be well designed workstations mean't to be on 24hrs a day. I would avoid small form factor so they have better cooling design = less fan noise.

I spec'd the last few to order so I get what I need instead of buying one off the shelf.

Lastly I don't go by age, I wait if necessary, to get a new generation of MB and processor - this is where you to get the best bang for buck because that is where the real big increase in performance is.

We rotate 2 workstations out of 12 every year unless there isn't a need for it but generally after 6 years of working, Workstations have done their fair share. We "recycle" them eventually to feed the rest of the departments with quality hardware, even if it's outdated.

Using Dell 3240 Compact at work.
nVidia P1000.
Not my choice. IT know better then user
The plane take off whenever the model is moving, zooming.
I can keep my coffee warm beside the computer.

Basically don't use "thin", "compact".
The case need air flow to cool everything.

We previously used Dell (Company has a Dell account, which we use for all other computer buys), but after receiving a few underwhelming workstations, we switched to BOXX for several years/purchases.
It seemed to us that the Dell systems should work well, but were "bloaty" on receipt and we didn't see the expected performance jumps.

We have been happy with our BOXX workstations, they seem to come out of the box fast and they have lasted pretty well, but they come with a price.

I recently chose to do some shopping, and we ended up purchasing a Velox PRO workstation from Digital Storm for the first time for our CNC Programmer and saved a bit of coin over a comparable workstation from BOXX.
Our programmer has been happy with it so far.

Dell come with it's "support" programs.
They were using a GB or 2 RAM. I disabled some them.

We need the mobility, so we are using HP Z book Fury 15's. We reimage all new machines with our own image and thus remove any bloatware that may be installed by HP.

Since others mentioned it, the reimage might be as significant as hardware. Our IT department does that for us on new workstations as well as when we recycle one to a different user. Sometimes I ask them to image a workstation before doing update of CAD. Sometimes it's my "complete uninstall" tactical nuke button. They don't mind doing it as it usually reduces gremlin chasing for them.

I attached the specs for the last one I ordered (though the next one will be a laptop). I don't have any complaints.

Frederick_Law wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 11:22 am Dell come with it's "support" programs.
They were using a GB or 2 RAM. I disabled some them.

The first thing I do on our machines is delete all of the Dell bloatware.

The HP Z4 G5 release is immanent.
Sales blurb highlights. Next gen board/processors. Available with two addition easy load front panel NVMe bays you can load M.2 storage in. Improved cooling. Improved operational noise plus other stuff but I guess they are the main highlights.

brandonklar wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 11:17 am We previously used Dell (Company has a Dell account, which we use for all other computer buys), but after receiving a few underwhelming workstations, we switched to BOXX for several years/purchases.
It seemed to us that the Dell systems should work well, but were "bloaty" on receipt and we didn't see the expected performance jumps.

We have been happy with our BOXX workstations, they seem to come out of the box fast and they have lasted pretty well, but they come with a price.

I recently chose to do some shopping, and we ended up purchasing a Velox PRO workstation from Digital Storm for the first time for our CNC Programmer and saved a bit of coin over a comparable workstation from BOXX.
Our programmer has been happy with it so far.

Boxx are incredibly sharp workstations. I'd love to convince my boss to switch to these lol

ROG Zephyrus M16
Core i9-12900H (running @ ~4 GHz)
RAM - 40.0 GB DDR5 4800MHz
Graphics - Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, 8GB GDDR6
Using both Laptop Screen (QHD) and 24" Monitor (WUXGA)
Drive - XPG 1TB GAMMIX S70 Blade, PCIe Gen4 M.2 2280 SSD, 7,400 MB/s
Windows 11 Home Version 22H2

zxys001 wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 11:35 am RAM - 40.0 GB DDR5 4800MHz

I thought memory is always based on powers of 2 (2-4-8-16-32-64-128...)
I never knew 40GB is possible too.

SPerman wrote: ↑Mon Feb 27, 2023 12:30 pm The first thing I do on our machines is delete all of the Dell bloatware.

For the same exact reason, we never buy a PC with installed OS. All our Dells, have been purchased as an empty box without OS.
Then the IT fresh installs the OS using our license.

Tera wrote: ↑Tue Feb 28, 2023 9:40 pm I thought memory is always based on powers of 2 (2-4-8-16-32-64-128...)
I never knew 40GB is possible too.

Hi Tera, yeah, that's typical but some laptops have soldered on modules, this one had 8GB soldered on and a 16GB module (24GB). I replaced the 16GB with a 32GB = 40GB.

These are our newest systems. Pretty happy with them.

P3 Tower Workstation – Type 30GS
Processor：13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-13900 vPro® Processor (E-cores up to 4.20 GHz P-cores up to 5.20 GHz)
Operating System：Windows 11 Pro 64
Graphic Card：NVIDIA® RTX™ A4500 20GB GDDR6
Memory：128 GB DDR5-4400MHz (UDIMM) - (4 x 32 GB)
Storage：1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal
AC Adapter / Power Supply：750W
WLAN：Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX vPro® & Bluetooth® 5.1

Bradfordzzz wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 7:24 am These are our newest systems. Pretty happy with them.

P3 Tower Workstation – Type 30GS
Processor：13th Generation Intel® Core™ i9-13900 vPro® Processor (E-cores up to 4.20 GHz P-cores up to 5.20 GHz)
Operating System：Windows 11 Pro 64
Graphic Card：NVIDIA® RTX™ A4500 20GB GDDR6
Memory：128 GB DDR5-4400MHz (UDIMM) - (4 x 32 GB)
Storage：1 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal
AC Adapter / Power Supply：750W
WLAN：Intel® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 2x2 AX vPro® & Bluetooth® 5.1

Okay now I'm jealous

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 7:49 am Okay now I'm jealous

Me too! Our designers get these. Mine isn't quite as elaborate.

Lenovo ThinkPad
Intel i7-9850H @ 2.6
32 GB Ram
Samsung 500GB SSD
Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 - 6 GB GDDR6

Bradfordzzz wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:18 am Me too! Our designers get these. Mine isn't quite as elaborate.

Lenovo ThinkPad
Intel i7-9850H @ 2.6
32 GB Ram
Samsung 500GB SSD
Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 - 6 GB GDDR6

My workstation(designers) is this:

Lenovo ThinkStation P340
Intel Xeon W-1290P @ 3.7GHz
32GB Ram
1TO SSD + 2TO HDDrive
Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 - 8GB DDR6


Engineers get this:
Intel core i7-12700 @ 4.9 GHz
128GB DDR5
1TO SSD PCI Express with TCG Opal encryption
Nvidia RTXA4000 - 16GB DDR6

AlexLachance wrote: ↑Thu Oct 19, 2023 8:30 am My workstation(designers) is this:

Lenovo ThinkStation P340
Intel Xeon W-1290P @ 3.7GHz
32GB Ram
1TO SSD + 2TO HDDrive
Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000 - 8GB DDR6


Engineers get this:
Intel core i7-12700 @ 4.9 GHz
128GB DDR5
1TO SSD PCI Express with TCG Opal encryption
Nvidia RTXA4000 - 16GB DDR6

We have all this power, and then along comes Solidworks with a new service pack and nothing works again. LMAO.

I currently use a Gigabyte laptop with an AMD Ryzen 7 chip and Nvidia RTX 3060 laptop GPU. Running 64 GB RAM.

Middle of 1st semester in my AAS program, had to upgrade from the lower range gaming laptop I had as ports were getting some corrosion in them and the build quality was not that good to be sinking money into it. It is an i5 with 16 GB memory and a mid tier AMD laptop graphics card.

Also have a Brother laser printer because f*ck HP ink jets. What HP does should be criminal with their ink scams.

All laptops are still being used, though.

- Big laptop is hooked up to a large UHD monitor. MAN, THIS HAS BEEN A GAME CHANGER! I can not stress enough if you are doing serious drawings how awesome it is not to have to squint!

- Big laptop screen itself is usually on the recorded lectures from my CAD professor.

- Old laptop is a document computer is where I pull up the pdfs of the assignments so I can see what some obscure angle is on something without having to tab out, losing train of thought.

One awesome side effect as well as a negative side effect of a CAD workstation is it SCREAMS with modern games. Too much so. I sometimes have to force myself to get off and do some work!