[Thad House]

Originally Posted by jdbrindis

In our teams rookie year, we had trouble running CAD software on the computers available to us. Being such demanding and essential software, our team is now allotting funds and as a summer project to build a 3D modeling specific computer. If any teams in the past have done this, are there any suggestions on graphics cards, other components, specs, etc. to be considered or bought for this endeavor? I appreciate all suggestions! Thanks.

Last year we actually bought a gaming/multimedia laptop to use for CAD. They have enough power, and its nice to be portable around the lab.

Personally, I would recommend on of the 15 inch models out of Lenovo's Y series. I know many people that own different models and they are all very reliable. The only thing is to make sure you get a model with at minimum a 1080p display. But they are nice, and good value for money.

If you do want a desktop, you need to look more towards the gaming side. This would mean at minimum an i5 quad core haswell, and a decent gaming graphics card, such as an R9 270 or a GTX 760 or above. 16 GB of Ram is definitely a plus, but you can get by with 8 if you are short the money for more.