At my workplace I have the opportunity to get a new system. I would like to get some advice on the specifics. I am using the system as an architect including Revit, Rhinoceros, Sketchup, Vray, Maxwell. I am planning to install UE4 and use it for visualization of buildings, cities and landscape. Can you let me know which parts can be better or changed? Thanks.
Get more ram, you need more ram, then add some more ram. Workstation for architect should have much better hardware.
If your monthly salary is above cost of this hardware (and it should be well above), tell them that every time you wait for that render to finish or some small delay, they are losing money, because you do nothing while waiting. All that time adds up fast, so it is their call if they lose money and time because of your waiting. Or they can spend as much money on better hardware, but get everything faster, because you do not need to wait those few min there and there.
Those are your working tools, you are making money for your employer with this, so you should have very comfortable setup at work.
And if you are at least 10% geek tell your employer that great and comfortable hardware (working tools) make every geek at least as much happy as 50% raise every 2 months.
That said get upgrades:
32gb of ram (does not need to be ddr4), better to have 32gb ddr3 than 8gb ddr4.
get 980ti, no questions here, or if you can wait get new card with new AMD or NVidia chip in few months
2 SSDs 250gb each make them in raid, but do backups daily in this setup!
get that 2tb seagate for backups and big data storage,
get 1tb external usb drive for backups
get one more SSD for system drive
and get 3 decent monitors to make use of that gti 980ti.
You are absolutely right, but I’m not in a situation to make demands. Let’s just say that they are determined to stay on budget. I was also thinking about the RAM. Thanks for the advice. Anything else they can change to make it more comfortable, but in the same budget?
A good 550W wattpower supply can definitely handle a 980ti, but I’m not sure about that Antec BP550. Apparently “A GeForce GTX 980ti NEEDS 38 amps on the 12v + rail” and that PSU only has 25A on the 12v. Even if you had a good enough 550 watt PSU, there wouldn’t be any room for overclocking the CPU/GPU.
You are absolutely right, but I’m not in a situation to make demands. Let’s just say that they are determined to stay on budget. Thanks for the advice. Anything else they can change to make it more comfortable, but in the same budget? I just heard it has 4 time 8GB ddr4. I missed a number.
But the difference between GTX 970 and GTX 980 TI is huge. You should definitely try to upgrade.