desktop vs workstation | lenovo | solidworks world 2012
DESCRIPTION
How do you know whether workstations or desktops are a better option for CAD/CAM engineers and designers? This presentation will help you decide how to make the best decision for your business. Created by Lenovo's CAD/CAM Evangelist, Bill Martin-Otto and presented at SolidWorks World 2012.TRANSCRIPT
Agenda
Desktop vs. Workstation
Overview
ECC Memory
CPUs - Xeon vs. Core
Video – Integrated and Discrete
ISV Certification
Hard Drive Options
Price Performance
Workstation Attributes
ECC Memory
Up to 12 DIMM Slots Max
Up to 6 I/O Slots
Intel Xeon CPUs
Professional Graphics
ISV Certification
SATA, SAS HDDs
Many RAID Configs
Price Performance Lead
For Content Creators
Runs SolidWorks faster and more reliably!
Desktop Attributes
Non-ECC Memory
4 DIMM Slots Max
4 I/O Slots Max
Intel Core-i CPUs
Consumer Graphics
No ISV Certifications
SATA HDDs
Limited RAID Configs
For Content Consumers
Can run Solidworks
Error Correcting Code (ECC)
• When a memory bit inadvertently flips states
• Caused by radiation, design problem, hardware failure
• Consequences• System crash… Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)• System lock up• Possibly no impact• And the worst thing…
• Bit errors occur approximately 1 per month per GB• Some data suggests a much higher error rate, up to 1 per day!
• Approx 25 times more likely to have system outage with non-ECC memory
Binary Decimal
10010011 147
10000011 131SolidWorks Data Corruption!
Bit flipped! I thought I made that a 147!
• ECC memory uses a 72 bit word size (64 bits for data and 8 bits for the ECC code)• Any single bit error is corrected
$0
$200
$400
$600
$800
$50 $80 $100 $150
4 Hour Down Time
User hourly rate
• Only in Workstation/Server chipsets• Xeon CPUs• Desktop motherboard chipsets do not support ECC
• ECC memory is about twice the cost of non-ECC• About $35 per GB
• Downtime cost to your business!
•What’s the cost if bad data is released to production?
• ECC memory support • Better Graphics• More Performance
Intel® HD Graphics 2000
Intel® HD Graphics 3000
Intel® HD Graphics P3000
1.Intel® Xeon® E3 1225 supports 6M Cache – 2. Intel® Xeon® E3 1225 does not support Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology 3. Intel® Xeon® E3 1225 only supports up to 8 way multi tasking 4. Intel® Core™i3 processors will support ECC memory when paired with the Intel® C200 Chipset Series used on workstation platforms.
4 4 4
Workstation Desktop
Recommend Xeon CPUs for 3D CAD
Recommend HD P3000 graphics or discrete video
Recommend using ECC memory
For Content creators
Higher performing Xeon CPUs for;
•Need more than one discrete video card•Need more than 32 GB of memory•Need more cores for improved simulation and rendering!
85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120
Score (sec, lower is better)
SolidWorks 2011 Performance Processor Subscore
Core i3-21203.3 GHz
Xeon E3-12203.1 GHz
Xeon E3-12703.4 GHz 15%
7%
Professional Workstation Features Supported such as RealView
Intel® Xeon® processor E3 family Intel® HD Graphics P3000
Intel® Core™ i7Intel® HD Graphics 3000
SolidWorks 2011 Performance TestGraphics Score
50 52 54 56 58 60 62 64 66 68 70
Xeon E3-1275
Core i3-2120HD 2000
10%
Graphics Score (Lower is better)
Note: All of the Intel Xeon E3-12x5 CPUs have HD P3000 graphics and all perform the same on this test
• Longer life cycles• More reliability and stability• Certified drivers that have been tested with ISV software
Target User
Enterprise Support
NVIEWSupport
Productivity Apps
TestingMulti Display Technology
Prof3D AppsISV Cert
Product Lifecycle
NVIDIA Warranty
Quadro®Design &
VisualizationProfessional
Mosaic Professional
Display Scaling
36 months 3-year
GeForce Consumer Surround 9-12 months 1-yr
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
SolidWorks 2011 Performance TestGraphics Subscores
Score (lower is better)
Core i3-2120Intel HD 2000
Xeon E3-1275Intel HD P3000
Xeon E3-1270 NVIDIA Quadro 400
Xeon E3-1270NVIDIA Quadro 600
Xeon E3-1270NVIDIA Quadro 2000
Intel Integrated
Video
NVIDIADiscrete
Video50%
If you need the horsepower of a 3D video card, this demo will help illustrate the performance difference between
integrated and discrete graphics
If you are using an older video card…
If you work on… Recommended Video Solution
Small assemblies with simple parts Intel Integrated HD Graphics P3000
Medium assemblies with simple parts NVIDIA Quadro 2000
Large assemblies with simple parts, orMedium assemblies with complex parts
NVIDIA Quadro 4000
Large assemblies with complex parts NVIDIA Quadro 5000
• SolidWorks has been tested on the hardware platform
• Assurance that SolidWorks will run properly
• Many problems and bugs have been fixed
• Better customer support, some ISV’s will not support their app on non-certified platforms
• Less risk having to spend time figuring out why your hardware is not running SolidWorksproperly!
• Optimized drivers for SolidWorks
Consumer Video (GeForce/Radeon) Intel HD P3000 NVIDIA Quadro
400 - 6000SolidWorks
Version
2012
2011
2010
Data from SolidWorks website, using Windows 7 64 bit OSNot all certified Professional cards are listed
SolidWorks Certified Video Solutions
Attribute SATA SAS SSD (SATA)
Acoustics Low High None
Reliability (MTBF) 700k hrs 1.6m hrs Depends on usage
Sequential Read Max (MB/s) 70 170 260
Sequential Write Max (MB/s) 70 100 250
4K Random Read (MB/s) 0.3 1.4 14
4K Random Write (MB/s) 1 1.1 35
Approximate Price $0.2 / GB $1.1 / GB $1.6 / GB
Platform Support All Workstation/Server
All
RAID Name MinHDDs What it does Benefit
0 Striping 2 Writes data across multiple drives, allows data to be written andread faster
Speed
1 Mirroring 2 Writes the same data across multiple drives Redundancy
5 Striping with Parity
3 Writes data across multiple drives with parity bits Speed and Redundancy
10 Striped with Mirroring
4 Combines RAID 1 and RAID 0 together - Speed plus fault tolerance Speed and Redundancy
Notes – Raid 5 vs. 10When a drive fails in a RAID 5 config, you can continue to read data but can no longer write until the failed drive is replacedWhen a drive fails in a RAID 10 config, you can continue to operate as usual and replace the failed drive at a later time
• Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)• Different ways to use more than one HDD
• To improve performance• To improve availability• To improve both performance and availability
Notes; • Performance desktop was an Intel Core i5-2400, 4 GB RAM, Integrated Intel HD Graphics 2000 • Lenovo ThinkStation E30 CPUs as listed, all had 4 GB RAM• Video as listed (NVIDIA Quardro = Qxxx)
Lenovo E30 ThinkStation Vs. Performance Desktop
For less than the cost of a performance desktop you can get more performance out of a workstation!
Increasing PerformanceIn
crea
sing
Cos
t
Check out my blogsite at www.cadcamperformance.com
• Not a commercial for Lenovo! • Weekly blog roundup• Papers related to SolidWorks performance
• Case studies• Reference Architecture• etc.