Hardware for CFD simulations
This page shows some hardware recommendations which were extensively tested at CFDSUPPORT. More information, comments and experiences about hardware configurations for CFD (and FEA) simulations can be found in this article:
Laptop
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, 16″ IPS 2560 × 1600 165Hz, RAM 16GB DDR4, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB 140 W, SSD 1000GB
Full solution price level: $2,000
PC
SUPERMICRO Mid-Tower 4x SATA FIX (3,5″), Drive bay (2x 5,25″, 1x 3,5″), 500W
ASRock Rack EPYCD8 1x SP3, 8x DDR4 ECCreg, 9x SATA, 2x M.2(22110,2280), 7x PCIe3, 2x LAN, IPMI
AMD CPU EPYC 7002 Series 16C/32T Model 7302P (3.0/3.3GHz Max Boost,128MB, 155W, SP3) Box
or: AMD CPU EPYC 7002 Series 24C/48T Model 7402P (2.8/3.35GHz Max Boost,128MB, 180W, SP3) Tray
or: AMD CPU EPYC 7002 Series 32C/64T Model 7502P (2.5/3.35GHz Max Boost,128MB, 180W, SP3) Box
or: AMD CPU EPYC 7002 Series 32C/64T Model 7532 (2.4/3.3GHz Max Boost,256MB, 200W, SP3) Tray
or: AMD CPU EPYC 7002 Series 32C/64T Model 7513 (2.4/3.3GHz Max Boost,256MB, 200W, SP3) Tray
Supermicro H11 AMD EPYCTM 7000 4U Series Servers and Workstations active heatsink
Memory: 8xKingston DDR4 16GB DIMM 3200MHz CL21 ECC Reg DR x8 Micron E IDT
or: 8xKingston DDR4 32GB DIMM 3200MHz CL21 ECC Reg DR x8 Micron E Rambus
2xWestern Digital SN640 SSD 800GB U.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3.1 x4, 3000/1000MB/s, 414k/108k IOPS, 2DWPD
2xCorsair SSD adapter 2.5” –> 3.5” for SSD in desktop
2xSupermicro 55cm OCuLink to U.2 PCIE SFF-8639 with Molex Power Cable
Graphic card: GeForce RTX 2060
Monitor: 2×32 inch, e.g. 32″ Philips 328P6VUBREB
Full solution price level: $6,000
Cluster - Server
You need one Infiniband Switch:
Mellanox® Quantum(TM) HDR InfiniBand Switch, 40 QSFP56 ports, 2 Power Supplies (AC), unmanaged, standard depth, P2C airf
Price: 24,000 USD
And then you can scale the cluster by units per 64 physical cores. One unit is this:
ASUS RS700A 1U server 2x SP3, 32x DDR4 ECC R, 12x sata /4x U.2, 1600W (plat), 2x 10Gb LAN, IPMI 1pcs
AMD CPU EPYC 7003 Series 32C/64T Model 7543 (2.8/3.7GHz Max Boost, 256MB, 225W, SP3)Tray 2pcs
Kingston DDR4 16GB DIMM 3200MHz CL22 ECC Reg SR x8 Hynix D Rambus 16pcs
Samsung SSD PM9A3 1,92TB NVMe U.2 (2,5″/7mm) PCI-E4(g4) 850/130kIOPS 6800/2700 MB/s 1DWPD 1pcs
ConnectX-6 VPI adapter card, HDR IB (200Gb/s) and 200GbE, single-port QS FP56, PCIe4.0 x16, tall bracket, single pack 1pcs
BX107912 QSFP56 -> QSFP56 IB-HDR 200Gbs metalický kabel, 2m 1pcs
Price: 10,000 USD
Storage - Server
SUPERMICRO 2U chassis 8x 3,5″ HS SAS3/SATA, 600W (80PLUS Platinum)
Jou Jye A24 – Active Cooler for 2U Server & up for AMD® Socket AM4
CPU AMD Ryzen 7 8C/16T 3700X (3.6GHz,36MB,65W,AM4) box
Heatsink 2U Active (pro AMD Ryzen)
4xDIMM DDR4 32GB 3200MHz CL16 KINGSTON HyperX FURY Black
8xHDD HGST (WD) Ultrastar 8TB SATA 8
MB ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T AM4, 4x DDR4 ECC, 8x SATA, 2x M.2(22110/22080), 3x PCIe (4.0), 2x 10Gb LAN, IPMI
Kingston SSD 500GB KC2500 PCIe NVMe Gen3x4 M.2 TLC (read/write: 3500/2500MB/s; 350/300K IOPS)
Full solution price level: $4,000
Performance matters!
For CFD (and FEA) simulations, the CPU power is very important. You can check & compare the CPU performance on the benchmark website: CPU benchmark
Last update: March 23, 2023.
Feel free to ask us about the performance, our experiences, and advice.
Best Regards,
Team CFD SUPPORT