[sanddrag]

I run Solidworks on a laptop with a Pentium Dual Core T2330 1.6GHz with 2 gigs of RAM. It is usable, but it doesn't work fast enough for a person without the patience for it. Especially in large assemblies.

I also have it on an older machine with a P4 2.4GHz 533MHZ FSB 512k cache with 3 Gigs DDR400 RAM and a Geforce 6200 AGP 8x 256mb card. Again, it works, but not well enough to be productive with.

Go higher with specs. You don't need a dual hex-core Xeon machine. But try at least something like a Core 2 Duo, with a little more cache, higher bus speeds, DDR2 (or DDR3), a PCIe x16 graphics card, etc.

As mentioned previously, the graphics card you select is going to be important. Make sure it's something that is known to work well with Solidworks. Sometimes certain cards will have their own specific glitches with software like that. I know Autodesk puts out a list of certified cards. Not sure if Solidworks does.

I'll also note, I've seen it run beautifully with large assemblies in Windows on a Macbook Pro (uncertain of specs).