Gaming Machine/Workstation build

[mokrunka]

Hey guys. I've starting to do more consulting work on the side of my full time job, and I'm starting to consider building a workstation/gaming PC combo so that I can do both on one machine. Current PC specs in signature. the workstation stuff I do is CAD (solidworks, NX, etc.), analysis (finite element), and working with large datasets (I'm a mechanical engineer). My current PC runs what I would call "ok" on these work type tasks (obviously runs great for games). I'm wondering if anyone here has ever tried to dual purpose a machine to have both great gaming performance, and a really solid workstation computer. One of the biggest questions is graphics card, the 1080Ti is great for games, but leave a bit to be desired in the CAD and FEA department. Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions? Or should I let the dream go, and just build a separate dedicated workstation?

 

[trents]

As you suspect, the GPU component will necessitate a compromise for a dual purpose machine with these two usage scenarios unless you add a second video card dedicated to the professional tasks you want to do. You could have two cards installed and switch your monitor input between the two.

Otherwise, you would do well to look at the AMD Threadripper series.

 

[mokrunka]

Thanks trents, I kind of figured. Just wanted to run it by everyone and see if anyone had anything I hadn't thought of.