Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

I am the mentor for team 1466. We have underutilized the Autodesk and PTC software in the past. I want to rectify this and I am requesting guidance on what computer(s) I should purchase. In this case it is unfortunate that I am a Mac user. I need help getting through the thicket of getting a reasonably priced Wintel box. I am particularly daunted by all of this video stuff.

So, can you suggest a machine that cost maybe $800 or less without monitor and will run the PTC software and the Autodesk software with decent efficiency?

I appreciate all of you in the community!

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Do you have any special requirements for purchasing? For example, does your school district have preferred suppliers, or require a warranty? Also, how eager would your students be to build (and support) computers for the team?

For CAD, you should be looking for a processor with the fastest single-threaded performance you can afford (so probably an Intel Core i5 or low-end i7). For 3-D rendering, speed is still useful, but you can also take advantage of multiple cores. A mid-range consumer video card will generally be fine, unless you're aiming for high-end work—in which case the optimized drivers of a low-end professional-grade card (i.e. with the same specs as a mid-range consumer card) will help significantly.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

I would recomend the Dell insprion 580s or studio XPS 8100

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/deskt...-580s-anav21~~

http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/deskt...s-8100-anav1~~

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

I am currently running Inventor 2010 on the following, and it runs relatively well:

Athlon 64 2.0Ghz Dual Core (not threaded)
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics (1408MB)
3 GB DDR2 RAM

It should be pretty easy to beat these stats, but make sure you have plenty of RAM. Based on the likely size of your assemblies, things can get a little bit slow fully assembled, so a better processor should be a top priority.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Take a look around the Lenovo outlet. It will be hard to beat those deals.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Do you or any of the parents/students/mentors/anyone have experience building your own machines?

You may be able to build a machine with better specs if you do it yourself. I know I put together my CAD machine for ~$1400 but $500 of that was dropped on my hard drives (it doubles as a media server). The only thing that does not include was a copy of Windows (provided through MSDNAA for me). It is a lot of extra work but it does save money.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

This. In addition, the specs are not that bad, for Windows anyway...

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

This is the most important question in the thread. I just made a Newegg shopping cart for a friend that is $800 but a ridiculously high powered rig, so if you are not adverse to assembling it yourself (or if you have team members who could, it's about as easy as Legos, really), I recommend putting it together yourself.

If you would like, I'll post the Newegg shopping cart here.

1.5tb hard drive
4gb DDR3 ram
HD 5830 graphics card
Antec 900 case
650w Antec TP power supply
Asus motherboard, with USB3
AMD Quad core (Athlon II X4) 2.9ghz processor

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

This.

Nowadays, it is almost ALWAYS easier and less expensive to build your own machine, than it is to find one at a store with all the specs you need. These days, unless you're in the market for a laptop, building your own is the best way to go. Whoever said it's like Legos, you're almost dead on with that description: not all Legos need an operating system...LOL!

(P.S.: I work at a computer repair/sales shop here in Monroe. Shoot me a PM if you're interested in getting one built for you.)

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Our team built 10 workstations this year for $750 a pop, including 20" monitors, they are monsters! Definately recommend building your own...

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

if you've got someone who knows what they're doing, definitely build one yourselves. otherwise, I'd say check the Dell outlet as well. I'm a bit partial to Dell systems, at least as far as purchasing a full system goes, and you can pick them up open box and refurb through the outlet for less than retail, and they work just as well as a brand new machine. you might need to pick up a RAM upgrade and a video card, and maybe a monitor, but you're still looking at a pretty good system for around $600-700

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Be careful with the graphics card for Pro/E - consult the PTC web site for approved cards. On many laptops it's a bit flaky if you don't have a compatible card. I have a Dell laptop from Walmart that we used this year and it was a bit of a challenge at times (are you listenting PTC?) Turning off preselection highlighting helps some. (By the way, our Pro/E robot model turned out well - PTC used it to demo their software in Atlanta - that was pretty cool.)

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Be sure to check with your school/sponsor to see if they get discounts from Dell. I know that buying my netbook through their EPP program saved me ~$50.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Depending on how old the Macs you have are, they may have boot camp installed. You can use boot camp to run windows on your mac and then run your PTC and Autodesk software. all you would need to do is buy a windows OS and install it.

If your macs don't have boot camp you could buy other software like VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop to run windows on your Mac.

Be sure the Macs have enough power. Autodesk Inventor Pro 2010 requires 2gbs of ram but more is always better.

Re: Please help: computer purchase for FIRST sw
 

Anyone have any suggestions for laptops?