Enjoy this guide, compliments of Dell and Intel

www.dell.com www.intel.com

Workstation
RESOURCE GUIDE

2012 | $25

The fastest route from vision to reality.

Powerfully execute your ideas with Dell Precision Workstations.
Get the hardware performance you need to maximize the CAD and BIM (Building Information Modeling) processes with ISV-certied Dell Precision Workstations. Experience the power of Intel Core Processors or Intel Xeon processors along with optimal 3D image quality from NVIDIA and ATI professional graphics. With up to 1.5TB* of storage on mobile systems and easy memory upgrades with the new tool-less chassis design on tower workstations, theres plenty of room to grow. Plus, exclusive Reliable Memory Technology on xed workstations means less downtime.

Dell Precision Workstations Get uncompromised performance for your specialized applications.

Find your ideal workstation conguration at www.dell.com/smb/workstations.

*GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. TRADEMARK/COPYRIGHT NOTICES: Ultrabook, Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

86239_us_smb_fy13q1_mag_wkstn_cad_aec_8p5x11_fa.indd 1

4/12/12 1:50 PM

2012 | $25

Workstation
RESOURCE GUIDE
Why Buy a Professional Workstation?
Support your CAD software investment with the hardware it demands. Page 4
How Do I Convince Management That We Need Better Hardware?
Page 9

CAD Workstation Resource Guide

More Content Online!

Search this easy-to-use list to help you find answers to all your workstation questions. Weve brought together information from the Cadalyst CADspeed blog, the Cadalyst web site, and more to make it easy for you to find what you need to know.

Case Study: KEE Action Sports

Using Dell Precision workstations with Intel processors, KEE Action Sports accelerates design cycles and enables faster rendering, bringing products to market faster. Page 5

www.cadalyst.com/ cad-workstation-guide
ArchiCADTM AutoCADTM Benchmark Tests Connectivity Data Backup Displays GPU Technology Graphics Cards Hard Drives/Storage Mobile Workstations Large-Format Printers/Plotting Memory Network Processors Remote Graphics RevitTM Solid EdgeTM SolidWorksTM TurboCADTM Upgrade VectorworksTM WindowsTM Workstations

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

Performance, longevity, value: Your next system can have it all if you know how to shop. Page 10
Go Beyond Benchmarks to Gauge Workstation ROI On The Road, Again Dells New M4700, M6700, and Covet Mobile Workstations Why ECC Memory? Revolutionize Amazing: With the Right Workstation Configuration, courtesy of Intel
P.O. Box 832 Dover, MA 02030
2012

Page 12 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16

This guide is produced by Cadalyst, a publication of Longitude Media, LLC. Copyright 2012 by Longitude Media, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including by photocopy, recording, or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients is granted by Longitude Media, LLC, for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center; contact us for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. For those not registered with the CCC, send permission request to [email protected].

CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 3

1:50 PM

Why Buy a Professional Workstation?

Support your CAD software investment with the hardware it demands.
Investing in professionalgrade hardware can bring a return on investment in mere months or even weeks and can continue to pay off for the life of the workstation.

ompanies including yours pay thousands of dollars for powerful design and engineering software that can propel their business to new levels of innovation, design optimization, productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability. And you know without question that this software is key to your success. Yet when it comes to supporting that software with an equally essential foundation of hardware, these same companies consider cutting corners. Its time to rethink things. Although the standard office-grade PC will adequately support some of your staff, in most cases it cant effectively support those who perform the 3D modeling, analysis, and design visualization that are key to staying competitive in todays fast-paced, cost-conscious business environment. Success depends on staying one step ahead of the competition, and professional workstations provide the performance and reliability that users need to accomplish more in less time and bring projects to fruition more quickly. IS IT REALLY WORTH THE EXTRA INVESTMENT? How much impact can a better computer really have? Consider the results of the AutoCAD 2011 Productivity Study. In addition to assessing the productivity impact of a software upgrade, author and CAD expert David S. Cohn measured the performance of AutoCAD 2011 before and after some basic workstation upgrades. The newer Intel-based workstation, equipped with the Windows 7 operating system and a better graphics card, completed test drawings 44% faster than the older computer. The relatively small savings a company might experience up front by opting for standard PCs will quickly be negated by lost productivity due to slow performance, system downtime, and frustrated staff. On the other hand, investing in professionalgrade hardware can bring a return on investment in mere months or even weeks and can continue to pay off for the life of the workstation. Not incidentally, professional workstations tend to outlive consumer-grade PCs because they are more rigorously tested and because most are upgradeable further boosting ROI. All in all, the money you invest in professional hardware could be some of the smartest money youll ever spend.

WHO NEEDS A PROFESSIONAL WORKSTATION? In the world of design and engineering, if youre doing any of the following tasks, you are a strong candidate for upgrading to a professional workstation: You need support for large models, multitasking, and/or complex data sets You want to optimize the performance of multithreaded and/or graphically intense software applications Youre experiencing system crashes or downtime that lead to significant loss of productivity and user frustration. You want RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) for an extra layer of data protection. WHY BUY A PROFESSIONAL WORKSTATION continued on page 9
2012

4 | CAD Workstation Resource Guide

Image courtesy of Intel

KEE Action Sports says ready, aim, innovatetwice as fast with Dell Precision

Customer prole

Company Industry Country Employees Web site

KEE Action Sports Manufacturing United States 350 keeactionsports.com

Challenge
KEE Action Sports needs a computer platform that enables it to maximize the speed with which it can design, manufacture and market paintball equipment, increasing market share and building its leadership in this category.

Solution
For the past ten years, KEE Action Sports has been using Dell Precision workstations with Intel processors to accelerate design cycles and enable faster rendering of larger les, bringing enhanced products to market faster.

Benets
10x bigger STL les processed, increasing efficiency and quality 5x faster rendering in Dassault Systmes SolidWorks Photo-realistic, new product images available in days instead of months which enables marketing before prototype is made 25% cut in development time with more enhancement cycles before manufacturing, saving money and increasing innovation Newest design performs as well as competitors but at half the cost, due to design innovation

Our design process, with the Intel Xeon processor E3-1270, is twice as fast. Were able to give players what they want with Dell Precision workstations.
Simon Stevens, VP, Engineering, Research and Development, KEE Action Sports

Application areas
End User Computing

In 1960s, a group of forestry professionals approached a gun manufacturer and asked for help developing a new type of pistol that could shoot balls of paint. The gun would enable forestry teams to mark trees that should be lumbered but were hard-to-reach.
In the 1970s, two friends were arguing about who had better survival skills. One was from the city and the other from the country. They searched for a way to prove who would come out on top in a survival contest, and in a farm equipment catalog, they found paintball pistols that were sold for marking trees and livestock. The sport of paintball was born out of the desire to compete. Its a pulse-pounding, primeval struggle for domination, played indoors or out typically by teams of players with a few obstacles for cover. Are you the hunter or the hunted? Who will live and who wont? Paintball clears the mind, pumps adrenalin and revives instincts hardwired into brains from hundreds of thousands of years before there were words. It revives an era when just making it to see another sunset meant a very good day. Instinct to survive Now paintball is a worldwide sport with passionate enthusiasts and professional teams. And New Jersey-based KEE Action Sports is the worlds leading manufacturer and distributor of paintball markers (guns), goggles, paintballs, clothing and more. In a sport born out of innovation, those who dominateor who are striving to dominateoften tinker with their equipment to discover advantages. KEE Action Sports became a leading innovator the old fashioned way. We have hundreds of patents between us, says Louie Spicer, chief technology officer, speaking about the patent portfolio he has developed with Simon Stevens, the companys vice president of engineering, research and development. The two have worked with the rest of the team at KEE to build Empirethe sports leading brandfrom scratch starting in 2002. Theyve built or acquired a number of other brands as well. To do this, they needed a computer platform on which to develop ideas. Speed is survival Certainly from the design point of view, we need very capable machines with fast processors and high amounts of RAM in order to allow the software to work and to work quickly, says Stevens. Thats been a very important thing. And the Dell Precision xed workstations have always been exemplary in that category.

We can create photo-realistic images of prototypes using Dell Precision workstations that are so vivid that people often cant tell the difference between a real photo and the rendering.
Simon Stevens, VP, Engineering, Research and Development, KEE Action Sports

Technology at work
Services Dell Support Services - Dell ProSupport Hardware Dell Precision M6600 Mobile Workstation with Intel Core processor i5-2540M Dell Precision T1600 Workstations with Intel Xeon processors E3-1270 Dell Precision T1500 Workstations with Intel Core i7-880 processors Software Dassault Systmes SolidWorks 2012 Tebis Version 3.5, R2 Windows 7 64-bit

Weve been with Dell for at least ten years, says Jeff Frye, systems administrator at the company. Besides performance, reliability is a key benet, Stevens adds. The Dell Precision workstations have been phenomenal, he says. Ive had one issue in three years, and it was a power supply that went out. I still have hard drives in my computer from the last three generations of computers because they have such important data on them. Those drives are still doing great. KEE Action Sports has 10 Dell Precision workstations for its research and development team, including Dell Precision T1600 workstations with quad-core Intel Xeon processor E3 family processors, T1500 workstations with Intel Core i7 processors, and a Dell Precision M6600 mobile workstation with an Intel Core i5-2500 Mobile Series processor. Running on those workstations are SolidWorks 2012 from Dassault Systmes for general CAD/CAM and Tebis, a tool used mainly by the automotive and aerospace industries, for reverse engineering CAD/CAM. 10x bigger le processing The design process is faster because the computer doesnt seem to be thinking as long in order to make a process happen, notes Stevens. And thats both on the initial design or processes like reverse engineering. The team can also move faster as it creates tool paths for computer numerical control (CNC) machining, Stevens adds. We can create code that actually has the CNC machine instructions to prototype our parts faster. And then there are processes where we use a laser and rapid prototyping. Five years ago, the team had to keep les small to be productive, Stevens explains. A larger-scale le was slow to process and handle, so we made les

that werent so rened or detailed, he says. Nowadays we can make Standard Tessellation Language (STL) les that are 10 times bigger than ve years ago. That means more screens, more information and greater efficiency. We get a better quality out of them and we save time because we dont have to continually open those smaller les. 5x faster rendering With our latest Intel Xeon processor, the E3-1270, the team can truly multitask on a workstation. Five years ago, with the Intel Xeon processor 5410, we focused on CAD only. Now we can have two or three streams running at the same time and its not a burden on the Precision. Says Stevens: Every two or three years we look at refreshing the workstations because theres a phenomenal difference in Intel processors and RAM with each release. Our Dell Precision workstations with Intel Xeon processor E3-1270 are creating renderings in an hour now that took ve hours or a day just a few years ago, with Intel Xeon processor 5410. Speed at this phase is very important, because were trying to capture a concept and pass it to the rest of the company for feedback. Once feedback has been incorporated, a new design becomes a model for CNC or 3D printing stereo lithography (SLA) laser process for rapid prototyping. After further renement, the model is used for manufacturing. Every one of these stages is compute-intensive, Stevens says. Is it real or is it rendered? Marketing can begin earlier than ever, Stevens adds. We can create photorealistic images of prototypes using Dell Precision workstations that are so detailed and vivid that we can use them on our packaging, he says. A few years ago, we would have had to wait for the nal product to be created and shipped to us so we could complete a photo shoot. Now a picture of the product

With our latest Intel Xeon processor, the E3-1270, the team can truly multitask on a workstation. Five years ago, with the Intel Xeon 5410, we focused on CAD only. Now we can have two or three streams running at the same time and its not a burden.
Louie Spicer, CTO, KEE Action Sports

is available to our internal staff in days instead of months. People often cant tell the difference between a real photo and a rendering. And the rendering is sometimes better because you can get the lighting just the way you want it. Cutting months off design cycles By seeing the nished product earlier than ever, Stevens adds, the team can rene the design with more iterations and get a better design before going to manufacturing. Its more cost-effective to change things before weve done tooling and started manufacturing. Tooling can require a six gure investment, he notes. We save 25 percent of the timethree or four months on a year cycleby doing changes in the virtual front end of design compared to modifying tooling at the end, Stevens says. The company also minimizes risks. Everyone sees what were going to get, so we keep our vendors efficient, says Spicer. We have them work on products that are exactly what we want instead of maybe what we want. The Axe hits the sweet spot More iterations and a fast turnaround have enabled the company to roll out some very successful products recently, says Stevens. We have one gun called the Empire Axe. Its a $500 product that is competing successfully against guns in the $1,200 to $1,500 range, he notes.

More than 1,500 reviews of the Empire Axe have been posted on YouTube. Says Spicer: All the professional teams are using or want to use this gunonce they get it in their hands and see what it feels like. Ultimately, they just want to win. Points out Stevens: The Axe is allowing a lot of people to stay in tournament paintball who couldnt necessarily afford to do itespecially with the economy the way it is right now. Designing twice as fast The Axe is just one example of being able to rene by doing more iterations more quickly, Stevens, adds. We bring products to the marketplace faster than ever, notes Stevens. Adds Frye: A few years ago, we couldnt take a product from idea to sales in 12 months. Now thats possible. Points out Stevens: Our design process, with the Intel Xeon processor E3-1270, is twice as fast as it used to be with the Intel Xeon processor 5410. Were able to keep up with fashion and trends in the market much more quickly, give players what they want and be more successful because of Dell Precision workstations with the latest Intel processors. If you cant innovate and compete to stay in front, then you fall behind very rapidly.

View all Dell case studies at dell.com/casestudies

Availability and terms of Dell Services vary by region. For more information, visit dell.com/servicedescriptions June 2012. Intel, Intel Core and Intel Xeon are registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States or other countries. Microsoft and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. This case study is for informational purposes only. Dell makes no warranties - express or implied - in this case study. Reference number 10010363

WHY BUY A PROFESSIONAL WORKSTATION continued from page 4

HOW LONG CAN WE EXPECT TO KEEP A WORKSTATION IN SERVICE? Workstations are reliable workhorses and should serve you well into the future, with a typical lifespan ranging from 18 months to four years. The decision about exactly when and why to replace existing computers is unique to every company, but these factors will guide you: How often do you upgrade your primary CAD software? Many companies replace software and hardware at the same time every 1836 months, upgrading workstations to support the latest software requirements. If you upgrade software more frequently than hardware, youll have to keep close tabs on the minimum software requirements for each new release to ensure your current hardware can keep up with the latest software demands. What are your resources? Do you have the budget, time, and IT support to carry out a department-wide hardware upgrade all at once? If not, consider a staggered upgrade cycle wherein you equip your CAD power users with the latest systems every 18 to 24 months, then pass their old systems to your midlevel users, who in turn pass their systems to your most junior users on down to the staff level. Everyone gets regular upgrades, but the implementation process and budget hit are more manageable. What are your constraints? Does your company or IT department enforce an upgrade schedule thats not optimal for CAD users? If you cant negotiate an exception to the rules, develop a multiyear plan that serves CAD users as much as possible while staying within company guidelines. Put the plan in writing, get your companys approval, and then stick to it. STANDARDIZE THE PROCESS Once youve made your case and obtained approval for the upgrades you need, take the opportunity to get a long-term upgrade commitment from IT and/or management. While your successful argument is fresh in their minds (and yours), establish a regular, mutually agreeable upgrade schedule going forward and put it in writing. Avoid requesting new hardware on an as-needed basis so you dont have to continually justify upgrades. Document procedures, tips, and lessons learned as you implement your new hardware so you have the information as a reference for future upgrades. GENERAL ADVICE Finally, here are a few parting tips as you undertake a computer upgrade: Configure your new professional workstations beyond the recommended requirements of your core software applications. This ensures longer-term protection of your hardware investment. Communicate and cooperate with your IT staff. If your company has IT personnel who dictate the timing and parameters of hardware upgrades, work to maintain a good relationship with that staff. Communicate the CAD departments needs without complaining or demanding special treatment. Make an effort to understand the constraints faced by the IT staff and work cooperatively to address them. Keep in mind that not all workstation benefits are tangible. Adequate computer support is a key factor in maintaining good employee morale and maintaining good employees. For the relatively small extra investment required to obtain professional hardware vs. consumer-grade PCs, companies can significantly boost job satisfaction among users, which can pay off in increased productivity and employee longevity. To substantiate this, just ask staffers how their current computer hardware is affecting their attitude on the job.
2012

HOW DO I CONVINCE MANAGEMENT THAT WE NEED BETTER HARDWARE?

Professional workstations make work life easier for users and CAD managers, but they also deliver excellent business value: Better hardware leads to increased productivity, which leads to increased profits. Communicate the value of better hardware in business terms: Estimate how much your pro ductivity will increase weekly using a new workstation. How much time will you gain due to reduced system downtime? Approximately how much faster will you be able to perform routine work? Total this amount, and then assign a dollar value to it based on your wage or projects. Factor in the cost in staff time to set up the new system, as well as any revenue from the sale of old equipment or tax deduction from donating it. Quantify how much new hardware will cost. Now determine how many weeks it will take until the productivity gains equal the net hardware expenses. This is your break-even point. Finally, determine how much money the company will save by yearend and over the life of the workstation. Talk to management in terms of benefits for the company rather than benefits to users. When you speak the right language, you greatly increase your chances of being understood.

CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 9

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

10 | CAD Workstation Resource Guide

2012

Performance, longevity, value: Your next system can have it all if you know how to shop. Were here to help.
by Alex Herrera

ets face it: If you were to make a list of your favorite ten or even one thousand ways to spend your time, shopping for a new computer isnt likely to be on it. Choosing the right system for yourself or your entire department takes time, patience, and know-how and is fraught with the risk of unwisely spending an awful lot of money. And yet, you cant keep using that old clunker forever. Were here to help. We cant promise to answer your real question, Ive got $2,000; which workstation is best for me? There are too many variables specific to your job and your workflow to provide a black-andwhite answer for anyone, let alone a

universal solution to satisfy everyone. But we can provide some insight about workstation components and how they affect system performance, plus some practical guidelines to help you determine whats more important, whats less important, and how to get the most bang for your buck. Youll still need to do a fair amount of your own research, but it will be time well spent, as upgrading to a state-ofthe-art machine will reap productivity dividends that will save both time and money. Now is a great time to buy a new workstation, thanks to good, oldfashioned free-market competition. On the platform side, were seeing tremen-

dous advances in performance per dollar and performance per watt. And the competition between the professional graphics card developers has been heating up, raising the level of graphics performance your dollars can buy.

Professional Workstations

What you get when you go pro.

orkstation or consumer-grade PC? Whats the difference, and why should you care? Well, ten to fifteen years ago, no one had trouble distinguishing between one and the other. Workstations were very expensive, highperformance, proprietary, 3D-equipped RISC or UNIX boxes. PCs were lowercost, lower-quality toys that couldnt handle 3D. But all that has changed. Spurred on by technological advances funded by the huge economies of scale in the broader PC markets, workstation OEMs got out of the component-making business, leaving that to independent hardware vendors (IHVs) such as Intel and NVIDIA. As a result, workstations today share technology with PCs and enjoy the economyof-scale benefits that come with massmarket production. That raises the question: If the guts of the PC and of the workstation are the

A new age for Precision: Dells completely revamped premium deskside workstations the Precision T3600, T5600, and T7600 workstations.
2012 CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 11

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

Go Beyond Benchmarks to Gauge Workstation ROI

When to buy, what to buy, and why to buy: When you boil down the issues to what really matters when considering a purchase of a new workstation, answers to these questions arent all that hard to come by. The truth is, the rationale for forking over dollars for a new workstation is no different than for any other capital expenditure. In the end, whether any new capital expenditure makes sense comes down to ROI (return on investment). When your current workstation starts to feel a little long in the tooth, you must decide if its worth replacing it and if so, with what. And that means getting a feel for that ROI proposition. Computer marketing is still driven by benchmark tests, which put a system through a set of standardized processes to produce performance data you can compare and contrast. And although benchmarks have their place, theyre really providing supporting data a set of potential performance indicators that will factor into ROI by churning through tough computing tasks quicker than the old hardware. But, theyre just one set of indicators among many. After you consider features such as ECC and RAID, RAM, multicore processing, and the like, then look at benchmarks. How can benchmarks contribute to this ROI assessment exercise? Simply put: judiciously. Used improperly, benchmark results can be misleading. Used properly that is, as one of several indicators of a CAD workstations ROI potential they can be worthwhile. To help you get a feel for any workstations system-level capability running typical CAD loads, the Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC, www.spec.org) provides some useful benchmarking tools as well as a database of submitted results from a range of typical workstation configurations. SPECs Graphics and Workstation Performance Group manages two benchmark development efforts, SPECapc and SPECviewperf. SPECapc (application performance characterization) tests are some of the better though far from perfect or conclusive indicators of how a system will perform in professional applications, while SPECs viewperf tests effectively isolate the rendering load on the graphics cards themselves. SPECapc tests run application scripts using 3D models that are intended to be representative of what a typical user of that application would work with on a daily basis. One or more among the tests for SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Pro/ENGINEER, NX (Unigraphics), and 3DS Max will pique the interest of the MCAD professional. And for AutoCAD users, Cadalyst has you covered with a system-level benchmark (www. cadalyst.com/benchmark-test) similar to SPECapc. Less formal, more ad hoc benchmarking tools and results can be found elsewhere on the web www.solidmuse. com for SolidWorks is one example but as always, tread carefully, keep a healthy degree of skepticism, and dont dwell on any one number. Definitely do your homework on benchmarks. Use unbiased, third-party test results for benchmarks that are most relevant for your mission-critical and scheduledictating tasks. But dont start and end with individual test results. Instead, think about what your biggest workflow time sink is, be it performance for one application, occasional reliability hiccups, or constraints in your current workstation or display technology that are getting in the way of your own multitasking. Youll likely find many features ones found only in workstations that are at least as valuable as benchmark numbers when it comes to assessing that return on your investment.
iStockphoto.com/Alexander Shirokov

When evaluating a CAD system, test results are only one of several criteria you should consider.

same, why pay a premium for the latter? Thankfully, those exorbitant workstation premiums are long gone. Yes, you can spend your entire system budget on a high-end graphics card, but todays entry-level system which more than 80% of workstation buyers choose (according to Jon Peddie Research) can sell for only about $100 more than a similarly configured PC. Take a look at the Dell Precision T1650, for example, with a price starting well below $1,000. Many such entry-level models incorporate Intel Xeon Processor E3-1200v2 offsprings of Intels latest generation with Intel HD Graphics P4000, which offers integrated graphics processing that is, no discrete graphics card. Now, the demands of graphics-intensive professionals have historically meant integrated graphics solutions werent particularly appealing the hardwares capabilities just couldnt keep up, mandating a discrete graphics add-in card. But thats starting to change. With this new generation In particular, Intels made substantial improvements in graphics performance (near 2X the previous generation) and feature set (now DirectX 11-compliant). That doesnt mean the P4000 is going to satisfy everyone, as the majority of CAD professionals are still going to demand discrete cards from the likes of NVIDIA and AMD. But, by the same token, CAD professionals on a tighter budget will now be well advised to consider taking advantage of the Intel Xeon Processor E3-1200v2 far more capable on-chip graphics processing. According to Wes Shimanek, workstation product manager at Intel, If you have been buying a PC to do CAD, youll want to rethink that investment and consider [an Intel Xeon processor E3-based workstation]. This system offers you better performance for similar dollars to the PC you have been using. Although you dont have to pay much of a premium for a workstation, there are compelling reasons to do so. Theres a whole laundry list of benefits to be had, but at a minimum youll get independent software vendor (ISV)
2012

12 | CAD Workstation Resource Guide

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

certification, meaning your CAD software developer has tested the hardware and vouches for its reliability, and in most cases, youll get a professional graphics card as well. It is important that CAD users select an ISV-certified workstation to help ensure that the demanding applications they depend on run smoothly, right out of the box, said Greg Weir, director of Precision Workstation Product and ISV Marketing at Dell. [ISV-certified hardware] comes with supported drivers to help eliminate issues and increase performance after the point of sale. This intense level of testing and development between an OEM and the ISV only comes with workstations. In contrast to the graphics cards sought by gamers, professional graphics processing units (GPUs) enable special rendering modes unique to CAD in general, and often to your specific application as well.

a minimum of 2 GB RAM, but suggests 6 GB. Well, if you go with 2 GB, youll probably regret it even 6 GB isnt necessarily the best choice, depending on your budget, and especially given the incredible amount of gigabytes/dollar that can be had today. Similarly, Autodesk isnt going to stop you from running a PC gamer graphics card, but the company will tell you which cards are optimized for performance and built for reliability when it comes to supporting AutoCAD or Autodesk Inventor.

CPU

More cores or faster cores?

The Dell Precision T3600 tower workstation.

Software Needs

Follow your CAD requirements.

here do you begin your quest? This particular hardware search should start with your software. Lets be real: Nobody relies on just one application over the course of a day. Were all bouncing between disparate tasks and windows. But for the majority of CAD professionals, there is one application or maybe a couple that consumes the bulk of your hours at the desk. Whats the app that dominates your day? Got it? Now hit the web site of the software developer and find the minimum and recommended system requirements for your killer app. In most cases, an applications minimum requirements set an extremely low standard, as the software vendors begrudgingly must address the least common denominator of the installed base. We dont recommend you follow these guidelines. More interesting is the list of recommended or certified hardware. For SolidWorks, Dassault Systmes (as of this writing) specifies

early every professional workstation these days will be equipped with an Intel processor either Intel Xeon Processor or Intel Core Processor. Which to choose? If youre building a dual-socket, maximumperformance beast, there is no choice youll buy a configuration with Intel Xeon Processor. In the high-volume single-socket workstation segment, only the lowest-end machines offer Intel Core i3 or Intel Core i5 processor, while the majority ship with an Intel Core i7 or Intel Xeon processor. Years ago Intel, along with virtually every other processor vendor on the planet, began backing away from a sole focus on cranking up clock frequencies and otherwise striving to squeeze every last possible bit of performance from single-thread processing. That path was heading down the road of diminishing returns and leading to other problems, most notably excessive power consumption and thermal output. Growth of multi-core processing. Single-thread performance hasnt been forgotten, but the dominant thrust has shifted to parallel processing. Accordingly, Intel processors have steadily driven up core count from generation to generation, moving from dual-core to quad-core and, most recently octalcore, in the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 driving Dells new Precision

T5600 and T7600 deskside workstations. Factor in the dual-socket configurations available in mid-range and higher workstations, and today 16 processing cores in a single machine can easily be had. Multi-core approaches have proved to be a great way to gain theoretical speed-ups, but for CAD professionals who have practical computing demands, how well reality tracks theory depends on their application. Some CAD software programs, including AutoCAD and SolidWorks, do limited multitasking if multiple processors are available for example, in managing the user interface and on-screen display. And rendering software, whether running on the CPU, GPU, or both, tends to use multiple processing cores. Given this, most CAD pros will want to find the right balance of multiple cores and increased single-thread performance, the latter enabled by Intel through a combination of architectural improvements in its CPU design and its Turbo Boost technology, which delivers a temporary increase in CPU clock speed to meet spikes in demand. Although an oversimplification, its fair to say that if CAD modeling chews up more hours than anything else in your day, you should allocate more of your workstation budget to buying a fast processor. If you spend most of your
CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 13

2012

On the Road Again

Professional power goes where you need it with Dells M4700, M6700, and M6700 Covet workstations the worlds most powerful mobile workstations.
No one can afford to put work on hold when theyre away from the office. Fortunately, mobile workstation technology has evolved to ensure your deadlines dont suffer, no matter where you are. Whether you need to demonstrate your design in all its rich, detailed glory to a client, or reengineer the design to meet that clients change requests, a mobile workstation can make it all happen.

NEED PROOF?
Look no further than Dells trio of recently revamped mobile workstations, the Dell Precision M4700, M6700, and Covet models. These machines start with the latest 3rd generation Intel Core processors, paired with new NVIDIA Quadro and AMD FirePro GPUs, all comparable to what a deskside workstation can offer. Then combine up to 32 GB of fast memory, high-capacity RAID-capable storage, and multiple highdefinition displays (even 30-bit color) and youve got all you need. According to Dell, the Dell Precision M4700 and M6700s performances are up 21% from their predecessors, the M4600 and M6600.

A WHOLE NEW W WORL WORLD

The Dell Precision M4700s processor, graphics, memory, and stor storage are all custom configu configurable, so you can dial up performance to meet your A new Dell mobile workstation could needs, trim back the dollars to become your go-to 24/7 workhorse. hit your budget, or find that ideal balance in between. With its 15.6 screen, available in full HD resolution, the M4700 gives you enough screen real estate to juggle your tasks, while still fitting neatly in your suitcase, backpack, or under the seat in front of you. If your daily workflow is filled with meticulous designs, complex engineering simulations and detailed renderings, the Dell Precision M6700 will be more up your alley. Choose from the top end of what Dell partners Intel, NVIDIA, and AMD have to offer, all the way up to 2.9+ GHz Intel Core i7 processor Extreme Edition and NVIDIA Quadro K5000M graphics with 4 GB of video memory. Those who handle big datasets will value its maximum-bandwidth, 1,866-MHz system memory, almost 3 TB maximum storage, and solid-state drives (SSDs) that can deliver high data throughput with minimal latency, so you can load and manipulate big designs quickly. Dell Precision M6700 is the first mainstream 17 mobile workstation to support optional NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro 3D solution. Plus, the Dell Precision M6700 is lighter than any other mainstream 17 mobile workstation, making it easy to take anywhere. Workstation computing might not be the most glamorous way to spend your day, but it doesnt mean your machine cant have a little style. Equipped with edge-toedge Gorilla Glass 2 and a signature Phoenix Red color, the special M6700 Covet Edition looks good, plus it offers military-grade ruggedness. In fact, all Dell mobile workstations are tested to MIL-STD 810G ratings.

time rendering, you should invest more of the budget in more cores, or in some cases, a more powerful GPU if thats what your application needs. Read on. Where do you draw the line on how much of your budget to allocate to the CPU? Again, theres no universal answer sorry, there never is but keep in mind that the upward climb on this (or nearly any) product spectrum follows a path of diminishing returns. So once youve decided whether to favor most cores or fastest cores, try to get a sense of where the knee is in the price curve. That is, where do you start paying a lot more to get a comparatively small return? Thats likely to be your sweet spot, tempered of course by the constraints in your overall budget.

CAD-Optimized GPU

More power is in the cards.

HIGH PERFORMANCE AND BATTERY LIFE

This new generation of mobile workstations delivers the performance when you need it, but it also packs the technology to reduce power consumption. A range of cuttingedge, performance and power-saving technologies, including Intels TurboBoost 2.0 and NVIDIAs GPU Boost and Optimus technologies, team up to maximize the life of Dells stout 9-cell, 97 watt-hour battery. For example, the M4700 offers up to 24 hours of battery life and the M6700 offers 20 hours of battery life. Dont underestimate the value of good battery life, because the last thing you want is your computer shutting down before you do.

GRAB AND GO
Do it all, anywhere, anytime. Over the past few years, the mobile workstation has earned its stripes as a highly capable, professional-caliber computing platform. It might be the perfect on-the-road complement to your deskside workstation, or it might become your one go-to 24/7 workhorse.
14 | CAD Workstation Resource Guide

GPU manages how your computer graphics process and display and, thanks to parallel processing, is typically more efficient than a CPU. The right GPUs for the more graphicsintensive applications, such as CAD, design visualization, and analysis, are found in workstation-caliber NVIDIA Quadro and AMD FirePro graphics cards. Such professional-caliber GPUs come in a variety of flavors for desktop and mobile form factors. In the more mature desktop arena, they tend to fall into five categories of add-in cards. Professional 2D cards can manage some 3D processing, but are not optimized for regular or intensive 3D applications. They generally arent well suited for CAD use. For professional-level CAD work, youll want a Quadro or FirePro 3D addin card. Each of these product lines includes approximately half a dozen models that fall into the remaining four product categories, as defined here by Jon Peddie Research: entry-level: $350 or less mid-range: $350$950 high-end: $950$1,500 ultra high-end: $1,500 or more
2012

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

Why ECC Memory?

Error-correcting code memory (ECC memory) helps improve the reliability of systems by identifying and correcting memory errors before that wreak havoc. Studies have shown that 1 in 3 computers will have a memory error (Google); a 4 GB system can expect to encounter roughly one error each week (AMD); and a computer has a 96% chance of having a bit error in three days (Lamda Diode.com). ECC memory is slightly slower and more expensive than non-ECC memory but the investment is almost always worth it when you consider user downtime or loss of intellectual property. Intel

There are exceptions, but most buyers will want to match the performance and capabilities of the GPU with the rest of the system that is, an entry-caliber card for an entry-caliber workstation. Achieving good balance, where each component hits a performance level that is supported by the rest of the system, is the best way to maximize ROI for your workstation purchase and optimize your productivity. Fortunately, most workstation OEMs today do this work for you, offering that subset of cards from AMD and NVIDIA that best match the capabilities of the model youve chosen. Optimizing GPU performance. Most graphics cards and all performanceoriented models slide into PCI Express x16 slots in the workstation. Graphics cards can be installed in open slots at the factory when ordering your new system, or later if you buy a card off the shelf. A mid-life upgrade of your system with a latest-generation GPU can provide a cost-effective kick. And unlike the machine thats at your desk today, your new workstation (unless its a smallform factor model) will likely come equipped with at least two PCI Express x16 slots, able to accommodate two cards. Why would you want two (or more)? One reason is that multi-GPU technologies from NVIDIA (SLI) and AMD
2012

(CrossFire) allow the pairing of two cards (rendering alternate frames) to boost performance. Multi-monitor support. The most compelling reason to install multiple GPUs is to drive multiple high-resolution displays. The secrets out that multimon is the single best way to improve your productivity. Anyone whos gone to two displays (or three or more!) will tell you they could never go back to one. And more graphics cards can display more pixels across more monitors. That said, you dont necessarily need to populate two cards to run two monitors. In fact, you no longer need a card at all. Remember that the new generation of processor integrates graphics? Well, one of its enhancements is the ability to drive up to three monitors. Still, if youre thinking maximum resolution and three or more displays, youll need an add-on graphics card. Be sure to pay attention to the cards youre selecting. NVIDIAs Quadro with nView and Mosaic technology can support two displays across most of the product line. A single high-end AMD FirePro V7900, with its Eyefinity technology, can handle four on its own, thank you very much. As such, if your performance demands have you buying mid-range or high-end cards, you might get all the screen real estate you want with one card. But if youre hungrier for pixels and screens than you are for polygons per second, you might consider two less-expensive, dual-monitor cards. A top-end workstation such as the Dell Precision T7600 models can actually accommodate one NVIDIA Tesla Brand GPGPU accelerator and a Quadro 6000 GPU. High-end graphics cards usually require more power than the 75 watts supplied by the typical x16 PCI Express interface. Workstation OEMs accommodate their extra needs via auxiliary power cables drawn from the supply. Some high-end and virtually all ultra high-end graphics cards are dual-slot thickness. They insert into one PCI Express x16 connector, but their thick-

ness means an adjacent x16 slot may be blocked and rendered useless.

System Memory

Stock up on RAM and storage.

long with CPU and GPU, the other key components of a systems big four are system memory (RAM) and storage. RAM. Memory size and speed, or RAM, can significantly impact performance, and depending on the application, could influence throughput even more than the other three components. But usually theres a sweet spot. To find it, start with the minimum recommendation for your primary software, then get a feel for how much more memory youll get with incremental spending. To achieve solid performance within a reasonable budget, that sweet spot today is likely between 8 GB and 16 GB of DDR3 RAM. DDR3 is third-generation, dual-data rate memory technology, with Intels current platforms centered on 1600-MHz clock frequency and is really your best memory option. Also pay attention to how many of your systems dual in-line memory module (DIMM) slots are taken up by the system memory. This should be clear from the system specs and from the system configurator when purchasing a system online. For example, 4 GB might be specified as 1600 MHz, DDR3 SDRAM, ECC (4 DIMMs), meaning that four slots are occupied (out of the total number of slots specified in the models spec page or datasheet). Try to leave some DIMM slots empty so you can give your system a mid-life memory upgrade if needed. Depending on the density youve chosen, leaving empty slots often involves no additional cost. Error Correcting Code. And what of Error Correcting Code (ECC), an upgrade that typically allows single-bit memory errors to be detected and corrected? Intel Xeon processors generally offer integrated ECC, while Core processors generally dont. For most CAD applications, ECC is certainly
CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 15

Choosing the right workstation is a smart investment. Many engineers, designers, researchers, financial analysts, and other highly trained professionals depend on their workstations more than any other single tool to support their creative efforts. A sufficiently powerful system is essential to get the most out of their abilities, and to avoid the difficulties that can result when a workstation cannot keep up with its

workload, introducing delays that can stall and even derail the creative process. Workstations are purpose-built systems that offer enhanced reliability, stability, and often times performance. It is not a singular solution in that there is an entire portfolio of workstation solutions each geared for a certain kind of user from entry to expert.

Matching Your Needs to the Right Workstation

The following recommendations are based on experience and discussions with ISVs serving their respective industries.
EXPERT WORKSTATION Processor Options Number of Processors Processor-Based Graphics Maximum Memory Maximum Memory Channels User Productivity Tools Advanced Business and Finance Applications Risk Analytics Trading Stations 2D and Basic 3D Design Simulation-Based Design Digital Prototyping Large Assemblies Small Assemblies Large-Scale Non-Linear Editing Ray Tracing and Rendering Photo-Realistic Imaging Electronic Design and Analysis Reservoir Modeling Seismic Processing Computation Chemistry Software Development Surveillance and Image Processing
a b

ESSENTIAL WORKSTATION Intel Xeon Processor E5-1600 Product Family One N/A 64 GB 4
a

ENTRY WORKSTATION Intel Xeon Processor E3-1200 v2 Product Family One Intel HD Graphics P4000 32 GB 2 b Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended Not Recommended

Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 Product Family Up to two N/A 512 GB Up to 8 Not Recommended

An entry-level workstation with a smaller memory footprint and fewer memory channels may be adequate to meet these basic 2D and 3D design requirements. If users are doing simple 2D or basic 3D design then a single-processor workstation offers the ideal solution.

Highly recommended - These applications typically benefit from access to additional compute capacity and enhanced I/O capabilities found in the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 product family. Recommended - These applications are typically bandwidth and processor challenged; while they will perform better on a dual-processor workstation, the single-processor Intel Xeon processor E5-1600 product family is capable of meeting fundamental requirements. Acceptable - While not an ideal solution, this processor can meet fundamental needs. Headroom to explore new ideas may be limited.

LEARN MORE Choosing the right workstation is a smart investment. It will impact the rate that you create, test and optimize your ideas with. Visit www.intel.com/go/workstation for more information and resources.

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

The new Dell Precision T7600 features a toolless chassis design with integrated handles and diamond bezel for improved airflow.

valuable but not essential. If the added cost is modest and doesnt sacrifice performance sometimes the DDR clock frequency must drop to accommodate ECC go for it. Making the value proposition a bit more interesting, Dells new, exclusive Reliable Memory Technology (RMT) is provided as a free add-on for ECC-enabled systems. RMT quarantines (forever, even if you put the memory in another system) error-prone address ranges from memory, allowing you to continue to work in the face of an isolated failure or two. Hard-disk drives. The longtime, tried-and-true hard drive remains the backbone of a workstations storage subsystem, but a new breed of solidstate technology is here. Although they share the same basic technology as their ancestors, todays drives are much bigger, faster, and cheaper. Traditional workstation hard-disk drives (HDDs) primarily come in a 3.5 form factor, supporting SATA or SASCSI standards. Essentially the same models that ship in corporate and consumer-branded PCs, SATA drives are less expensive. (A terabyte for $50, anyone?) Pricing increases with drive capacity and RPM, an indication of how quickly the mechanical platter can spin within the drive and therefore how fast the drive can read and write data. The least-expensive SATA drives support
2012

7,200-RPM speeds, while the highestperformance jumps to 10,000 RPM. The second HDD option (which is expected to be available in July/August timeframe), the SA-SCSI drive, requires a motherboard interface that is also compatible with SATA drives (whereas a SATA interface will not support an SASCSI drive). With SA-SCSI, youll get the option to move up to 15,000 RPM, but youll sacrifice capacity and cash. Whether you choose a SATA or SA-SCSI drive, you will generally face a trade-off between paying for more RPMs or paying for more capacity, because buying both can be costly. Most CAD professionals would opt for capacity and cost-effectiveness, because running out of space or money is usually a more glaring roadblock than facing modest shortages of access speed and disk bandwidth. Many of us are paranoid about running out of disk space and we all should be to some degree, because data piles up faster than we think it will. If this describes you, consider purchasing extra drive bays that bring more room to add drive capacity later although you can always fall back on external drives to shore up capacity. Solid-state drives. If performance is your chief concern and capacity and budget are less of an issue, you have another choice altogether. Hard drives, and SA-SCSI drives, face growing competition from a new breed of storage device: the solid-state drive (SSD). An SSD stores data in solid-state memory that is, SRAM chips rather than on conventional hard disk platters. Todays SSDs are large enough to be useful and, although not exactly economical, have come down enough in price that they are worth considering when outfitting a new workstation. The advantage of SSDs? There are several, including less noise and better reliability in the face of environmental issues like vibration. Unlike the HDD, the SSD has no moving parts. But the real motivation to choose SSD is performance. More specifically, its about much lower latency, the time that lapses

between asking the drive for data and receiving it. The SSD doesnt necessarily offer a big benefit over hard drives in bandwidth how quickly the data comes once it starts coming but it eliminates the seek time for the hard drives head, delivering an indisputable advantage in access time. The downside is a glaring one: price. Combination drives. Given the pluses and minuses, CAD users who have a slightly higher but not unlimited budget can entertain the option of SSDs in one of two ways. A combination of HDDs and SSDs in multiple drive bays in particular, a smaller SSD with your OS installed paired with a large conventional disk drive for data is practical. The bottom line on selecting storage: Buy a lot more than you think you need, specially if youve chosen a system that limits you to one or two drive bays.

Data Security

To RAID or not to RAID? It depends.

AID is an option youll likely want to consider for your new workstation, depending on the model you choose. The acronym stands for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and refers to the redundancy that provides reliability and data security. By far, the most common options offered in workstations are RAID modes 0 and 1. RAID 0 is a misleading term, as it implements no redundancy, and focuses on raising storage performance. By striping interleaved data across two drives, read bandwidth (but not write) essentially doubles. Unlike RAID 1, each extra drive in a RAID 0 configuration adds incremental storage. The problem? RAID 0 lacks fault tolerance and, because your system now relys on all drives to function, it is more prone to failure. RAID 1 is straightforward data redundancy, typically mirroring data onto at least two disks. Disks in the array can fail without compromising data integrity as long as one remains healthy. Because data is redundant,
CAD Workstation Resource Guide | 17

How to Configure a Workstation for CAD

you are essentially sacrificing half your capacity in return for fault tolerance. Where your data is stored and how often it is backed up can help you make the call on RAID 1. If your sacred data is on a server or shadow copies are being made frequently, you can probably pass on RAID 1, as you are effectively implementing redundancy already. But if your unique copy of data resides for extended periods of time on your individual desktop machine, RAID 1 can be an attractive option. Other RAID modes are available. RAID 5 offers a performance boost in disk-striping plus the fault-tolerance benefit of redundancy. The drawback of implementing RAID 5 is that it requires a minimum of three disks, limiting its utility to higher-end, higher-price machines.

Connectivity

Components here, there, everywhere.

etworking. Every workstation comes with a wired Gigabit Ethernet network port; higher-end machines might have two or more. USB ports. USB has certainly lived up to its name. The Universal Serial Bus is absolutely universal, in terms of its pervasiveness across platforms and device types. It yields a tenfold increase in maximum available bandwidth, a jump that is easily witnessed when, for example, transferring large models or videos to a flash drive. The jump to next-generation USB 3.0, which is available on the new Dell Precision tower workstations, will also be substantial another tenfold increase but its impact will be less pronounced. Version 2.0 has been a slam dunk for just about every user and for many types of media (music, pictures, even some video). Most workstations today already support 3.0, via an additional motherboard chip. With Intel supporting USB 3.0 in its new Intel Xeon Processor E3 Family Processors, this faster standard will eventually supersede 2.0 over time. Think about the number and location
18 | CAD Workstation Resource Guide

(front vs. back) of USB ports you want and for that matter, flash memory card access, if you need it. PCI. Yes, the old standard PCI add-in card is still around, and from a users perspective is completely different than PCI Express. A PCI slot cant support a PCI Express card, and vice versa. However, workstations will still include a PCI slot or two for low-demand legacy cards. Unless you have some special legacy PCI requirements, youll be fine with whatever your OEM provides. FireWire. In the age of firstgeneration USB, FireWire (also known as IEEE 1394) was pretty much a requirement, as USBs bandwidth was too wimpy to handle video. That changed dramatically with USB 2.0, which more or less matched FireWire in performance. At this point, if you plan to keep a legacy device that requires FireWire and check it out closely, as many devices that support FireWire also support USB 2.0 then of course make sure your machine has a FireWire port (and you can always add a PCI or PCI Express card).

The new design provides front-side ports for user-friendly access and connectivity.

real-world demands. Buyers are left to wonder why they bothered spending the time and money to upgrade. Hearing such stories can lead us to become fearful of making the wrong decision, which can lead to procrastination when it comes to upgrading to a new machine, which can lead to needless frustration and lost productivity. The alternative is to arm yourself with a good understanding of workstation basics and how to determine which components will deliver the performance you need at a price you can afford. Theres a world of compelling technology at your disposal, packaged in systems that can have a dramatic, positive impact on your work life. Now is the time to have a look.
With more than 25 years of engineering, marketing, and management experience in the semiconductor industry, Alex Herrera is a consultant focusing on highperformance graphics and workstations. Author of frequent articles covering both the business and technology of graphics, he is also responsible for the Workstation Report series, published by Jon Peddie Research.

Final Word

The next move is up to you.

AD professionals often spend precious dollars for workstations that meet the specifications imposed by their software applications but ultimately are too minimally equipped to meet

CAD Workstation Resource Guide

More Content Online!

Search this easy-to-use list to help you find answers to all your workstation questions. Weve brought together information from the Cadalyst CADspeed blog, the Cadalyst web site, and more to make it easy for you to find what you need to know.

www.cadalyst.com/cad-workstation-guide
2012

Dell recommends Windows

It turns out you can simulate success.

Dell Precision Workstations power the 3D engineering applications you need to design, visualize and simulate industrial machinery parts, and accurately test them before you begin building.

Now you can: Complete designs and simulations fast with the speed of Intel Xeon processor or Intel Core processors, Windows 7 Professional and up to 256 GB of RAM
*

Maximize software functionality with the reliability of ISV certications and optional 24/7 local, over-the-phone Dell ProSupport

Image courtesy of Mammoth-WEBCO, Inc

Create innovative designs with high-performance, professional-grade ATI FirePro or NVIDIA Quadro graphics

Design at the speed of your creativity with Dell Precision Tower and Mobile Workstations.
Do you need help deciding which workstation conguration is right for you and your applications? Call us at 1-888-418-3355 and well guide you.

Find your ideal workstation conguration at dell.com/smb/design.

Image courtesy of Mammoth-WEBCO, Inc. and Autodesk . AutoCAD Inventor Suite and Autodesk 3ds Max software products were used in the design process. * Graphics & System Memory: GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; signicant system memory may be used to support graphics, depending on system memory size and other factors. Hard Drive: GB means 1-billion bytes and TB equals 1-trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less. 4GB or More of Memory: 4GB or greater system memory capability: A 64-bit operating system is required to support 4GB or more of system memory. TRADEMARK/COPYRIGHT NOTICES: Ultrabook, Celeron, Celeron Inside, Core Inside, Intel, Intel Logo, Intel Atom, Intel Atom Inside, Intel Core, Intel Inside, Intel Inside Logo, Intel vPro, Itanium, Itanium Inside, Pentium, Pentium Inside, vPro Inside, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

104363_us_smb_fy13q3_mag_wk_manu_cadalyst.indd 1

10/2/12 6:18 PM

Dell recommends Windows 7 Professional.

The prototypes are virtual, but the results are incredibly real.

Dell Precision Workstations power the 3D engineering applications you need to design, visualize and simulate consumer products without having to build expensive physical prototypes.
TM

Now you can: Complete designs and simulations fast with the speed of Intel Xeon processors, Genuine Windows 7 Professional and up to 192 GB* of RAM

Maximize software functionality with the reliability of ISV certications and optional 24/7 over-the-phone Dell ProSupport

Create innovative designs with professionalgrade ATI FirePro or NVIDIA Quadro graphics
TM

ISV Certied
Design with Precision and know that your system is tested and certied by many of the top design application providers, such as AutoDesk, so that you get optimized performance and reliability.

Find your ideal workstation conguration at dell.com/smb/workstations.

Image provided by Autodesk . Rendering of a video game controller showing nite element analysis results. Created in Autodesk Moldow. Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. *GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating environment and will be less.

86239_us_smb_fy13q1_mag_wkstn_cad_consumer_8p5x11_fa.indd 1

4/12/12 1:49 PM