[swingwing205]

First, I hope I'm posting this is the correct forum, but I wanted everyone who runs Solidworks to look at this post, I need some advise....

I'm getting ready to buy a computer so I can run Solidworks 2010/2011 Student Edition, and I need to ask experienced Solidworks users what works best, and what's best to stay away from. I'm guessing the system requirements are the same between the student and professional versions, and I'm giving thought to try to freelance once I'm capable of doing so.

I know RAM is a big issue, and more than recommended is a great idea (which I'm going to make sure of), but is there a particular video card/driver combo that really works well, maybe outperforms other combos? Solidworks has a number of the card/driver combos listed up on their website, but who here has any experience with different combos perhaps?

I've been advised that a tower (w/o monitor, but with better video card) capable for running Solidworks well is going to run about 500 to 600 dollars. I'm cool with that, but I need to make sure of what I'm getting and make sure it has "growing room" for more future editions, at least to a point. I'll cough up additional funds IF there's a benefit on the investment. Then there's being practical about it, and anyone can go overboard, and I can't go overboard because of budgeting.

Please, before giving advise, keep in mind that I need to keep the cost down enough to afford it, but I need bang for the buck in a major way. So for additonal benfits, I'll pony up a little more cash, but I need to keep it practical cost wise.

[friedsnickerssa]

Here you go: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Pu...umber=11541454
High core speed, enough ram to get the job done but very expandable, decent video card, plenty of storage and good quality components. It's all custom built, so if you want something new, just swap out the old part for the new one. Also, you can go up to 8GB of ram for about another $80. Should come shipped to your door for less than 600 even with more ram. Nvidia based graphics cards in my experience tend to work better for CAD/CAM. ATi based cards are a better bang for the buck, but the drivers just aren't there. Have fun!

[laszlozoltan]

you can get by with an ati firegl v3600; it is a very very stable card that can give you realview graphics as well; I'm using that with a q9550 overclocked to 3.4ghz. I also picked up a firegl v7700 cheap about a year ago, but haven't put it in anything yet because the v3600 works so well. 4gb memory, xp pro system sw2010; gigabyte motherboard

[pointcloud]

I recently had to start over and I went with a laptop. I'm running windows 7 now and its really much better of an operating system for the graphics.. I do not use SW but I do use rhino and render with lots of detail. So far my intel I7 Q800 1.7ghz with 6 gig ram and video is ati radeon hd 5870 is working like a champ, even rhinocam isnt a problem..

[BurrMan]

Rememeber when anybody's talking about more than 3 gig's of ram, you will need a 64 bit OS to use it.... FYI

[pointcloud]

I thought 7 was 64 only?

[BurrMan]

No, you specify 32 or 64....

The other thing is getting 64 with a computer that is speced out for it... Trying to load it on your old 32 bit system will most likely have driver issues...

[pointcloud]

I didn't specify, but it's 64bit. It was preinstalled by Alienware....

[swingwing205]

Thanks for all the inpuit guys, please keep anything that pertains coming! I do appreciate it!

[Ed_R]

If you're running a high-power graphics card I recommend a 700 watt power supply or better.

[friedsnickerssa]

Solidworks runs well on Win 7 64bit, been there done that. The ATI FireGL cards that were aforementioned are good cards, but only if you want to spend 5-600 per card for a decent quality one that will perform like an $80-90 "gaming" card. The only difference between these types of cards is the software drivers and maybe a small hardware tweak or two. Unless you are a full blown professional and do this day-to-day, those cards are a waste. Same goes for the nVidia quadro lineup. Most companies producing computer components now are "going green" and producing components that consume much less power. Large power supplies are now generally reserved for gaming monstrosities and enterprise level CAD machines. If you need a giant power supply, it generally means you would have spent $4-500 on a graphics card. A solid, high quality 4-500 watt power supply should be plenty to do the trick. Also, don't necessarily buy into the "we have multi-core support" alot of software companies tell you they have. Most are optimized for dual core, if that. A higher core frequency yields better bang for the buck, then spending an extra hundred or so for 4 cores and less core frequency(ie 2.4GHz quad core vs 2.93GHz dual core). Good luck to you!

[AndrewJP]

The most important thing when building a workstation computer for a CAD application is the graphic card. Go with a Nvidia Quadro FX card. The only thing that makes a computer a "workstation computer" is the graphic card it has in it.

[andy55]

anyone found an affordable 2560-pixels wide 30" screen yet?
I'm using 1920-wide 24" monitors, but more pixels is never wrong

[friedsnickerssa]

anyone found an affordable 2560-pixels wide 30" screen yet?
I'm using 1920-wide 24" monitors, but more pixels is never wrong

Dell makes about the best. Affordable? Probably not, but then again, nothing in that size/pixel range is.

[leggazoid]

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...ents,2735.html

This is pretty good bang for the buck.

[swingwing205]

Guys, I need some computer oriented advise...again.

I've been looking at specs and processor combos, and I'm wondering if for lower money this would be a good choice for a computer (This Intel processor is considered a Core, right?), and I'll be coupling this up to an nVidia Quadro FX 580 graphics card....

PC Connection Express - Detail

The Solidworks system requirements are as follows:


Windows Professional versions and higher (XP, Vista, or 7)

Intel Pentium, Xeon, or Core processors or AMD Athlon, Opteron, or Turion processors

1 GB RAM min

Tested OpenGL workstaion graphics card and driver combo
(SolidWorks)

[CarbonKevin]

The only thing that makes a computer a "workstation computer" is the graphic card it has in it.

Not exactly.

There are many things that can be done differently when building a system that will lend itself to SW.

Take RAM. A gaming or multimedia rig would emphasize faster memory.

The last workstation I built got spec'd with slower RAM, for stability over speed.

Hard drive? Dedicated workstations require a fraction of the storage of a typical gaming/surfing/multimedia rig. There's a reason 2TB hard drives exist, and it isn't SolidWorks. A pair of RAID'd VelociRaptors or SSDs would be great, and 100gb of storage is far more than you would ever use.

File access. If everything is stored locally, great. Server storage is another story. Time is money, and slow network connections (That would be plenty fast for gaming or internet downoads) cost a company money. Server-grade NIC, anyone?

If you look at how SW actually utilizes computer resources, it becomes apparent that the hardware needs are vastly different than an average consumer PC. That said, SW will run well on most things out there today.

BUT

If your business relies on Solidworks, if you've just shelled out $5k or more for a SW license...why wouldn't you be optimizing your system for SW?

[JerryFlyGuy]

I say go big [CarbonKevin and I think alike]. I'm working on a system right now, Evga SR-2 , 2 of the X5680 [7560's if I could find them]. Couple of Raid solid state drives w/ for local operating system stuff, a pair of mirrored 2TB's for storage [I don't have a server] Fx5800, finally 12 sticks of crucial 4gb [they haven't come out w/ the Ballistix in a 4gb yet or I'd spec that]. Set it up on a tech's lab bench and make it a piece of PC-Art, a working pc-of-art

A couple 32HDTV's running an extended desktop to top it all off..

All told your looking at a ~$6-7k [50% more if a person could find the x7560's]

That doesn't include the complete cooling kit from koolance [another ~$1k] but w/ the UV coolant and all the LED's, she'd be a beauty!

Should be a smoking machine! [now I've just got to pitch it to the powers that be ]

JFG

[giz]

I see you chose to go down the Quadro FX route and that is good way to go. For others reading this - avoid non-workstation GPUs! I work Technical Support for SolidWorks and I handle cases everyday where people are experiencing problems due to non-supported cards.

Also be sure to find the most up-to-date drivers here:

SolidWorks

SolidWorks is very CPU intensive - this is where you don't want to skimp on money. You will see the greatest performance gains here.

Choose 64bit and run at least 6GB of ram. Unless you are doing large simulations, very large assemblies, etc you should need more then 6 or 8.

[john huijben]

It's possible to softmod some of the "Gaming" graphic cards into workstation cards. This can be done with a lot of the Geforce and ATI cards. I had a geforce 7900GT card which I softmodded into a quadrro fx card. Worked great, the only difference in the cards really is the drivers, and maybe a different clock speed. If you go all business and plan on using solidworks a lot than go for the real thing, but since you're using the educational version. maybe it's an option.