Powerful computer

[Yalib]

what specs of a computer are considered powerful and fast for running autodesk inventor smoothley and fast? i mean: processor, RAM, Graphic card etc.

[taichichuan]

Are you looking for a laptop or a desktop? Is inventor the only program you'll be running on it or will you be using the C++ development environment on it as well (it makes a difference on the 32 vs 64-bit thing)?

In general, Inventor 2012 will run on Windows 7 home premium with either 32 or 64-bit processors. If you're planning on doing small models, then you'll need 2+ GBs RAM and a DirectX 9 or 10 enabled video card.

If you're doing large models, then they recommend 8+ GBs of RAM, a 64-bit processor, high resolution screen (I'd just go with 1920x1080 aka full HD) and a CAD class video card. This means one of the Nvidia Quadro or GeForce GT 525M or similar graphics chips. I believe that some of Autodesk's products understand Nvidia's CUDA GPU acceleration. That could give you 2-4X rendering acceleration which is nothing to sneeze at.

How much were you willing to spend on the platform? Do you have any biases against particular vendors? Some answers to these questions and I can point you to a particular machine that would fit your criteria as well as possible.

[Tommy F.]

Well, I would guess that the specs for such a computer are listed in the Autodesk Inventor System Requirements

[Trent B]

I have used inventor on pentium D's and core 2 duos without feeling it was lacking. I have found the biggest speed improvements for inventor come from RAM, you want 4 at the least, probably 8GB.

Graphics cards can help accelerate too, even gaming ones add a bit of acceleration though not nearly to the degree of professional/workstation ones.

[Hawiian Cadder]

I have almost no lag on my current computer which is 6 gigs of ram, core2duo 2.16, Nvidia 9800gtx. As far as I can tell, the GPU doesn't make a whole lot of difference unless you have one designed specifically for CAD. I would say that you need lots of fast ram, and a good Front side bus speed to work with CAD. if you are going to be doing a lot of animations or renders, then the CPU needs to be beefier.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Hawiian Cadder

I have almost no lag on my current computer which is 6 gigs of ram, core2duo 2.16, Nvidia 9800gtx. As far as I can tell, the GPU doesn't make a whole lot of difference unless you have one designed specifically for CAD. I would say that you need lots of fast ram, and a good Front side bus speed to work with CAD. if you are going to be doing a lot of animations or renders, then the CPU needs to be beefier.

GPU's are often overlooked when making a decent CAD computer. I'd take a mediocre cpu/mobo/ram and nice gpu over the inverse.

Also, most geforces can be softmodded to quadros. Done it for a few of the team computers.

[waialua359]

Adam,
whenever you're ready to move to Hawaii, let me know.
Help us out and I'll get you all the equipment you want!

[Micah Chetrit]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

GPU's are often overlooked when making a decent CAD computer. I'd take a mediocre cpu/mobo/ram and nice gpu over the inverse.

Also, most geforces can be softmodded to quadros. Done it for a few of the team computers.

Adam, how do you softmod a GeForce into a Quadro? I personally have ATI so I can't test it yet, but we are looking into an upgrade or two so it would be real useful if you could give me a tutorial.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by Micah Chetrit

Adam, how do you softmod a GeForce into a Quadro? I personally have ATI so I can't test it yet, but we are looking into an upgrade or two so it would be real useful if you could give me a tutorial.

There are lots of good guides you can google. The key thing is to figure out which quadro your geforce equates to. If it doesn't have an equivalent, I believe you're out of luck and can't mod it. It's interesting to see the difference in price between them.

[Trent B]

Granted softmodded quadros have less VRAM than the actual quadros but half the difference is the software.

I wanna say 8800GT, 8800GTS and 260GTX's are pretty common to softmod and all older and thus cheaper.

[sanddrag]

I haven't done any heavy CAD modeling on my new build yet, but in general I've been very happy with my Core i5 2500K overclocked to 3.8 GHz. I have DDR3 1866 RAM. With this combo and a good hard drive you hardly have to wait for much of anything. It is still usable even under 100% load on Prime95. Add solid state caching or a dedicated solid state drive and you'd really be flying. Additionally, the integrated Intel HD Graphics 3000 is not that bad really for being integrated. I run dual monitors and so far even with HD video on one and Inventor on the other (no giant assemblies yet) it seems to work alright. Whether or not it still would for an entire FRC robot remains to be seen. I purposely went this route on my new system, with a Z68 motherboard to save cost and avoid purchasing a video card until I determine I need it. So far I have not. You would probably be fine with a CPU from AMD at about half the cost, but I wanted to have close to the best available CPU at the time for the budget I set. There are often a lot of great deals on AMD processors and/or motherboard combos.

One other thing to consider is having the OS and programs on one hard drive, and all files and storage on another. This will avoid the hard drive read/write speed bottleneck when moving large volumes of files.

[daniel_dsouza]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

One other thing to consider is having the OS and programs on one hard drive, and all files and storage on another. This will avoid the hard drive read/write speed bottleneck when moving large volumes of files.

If I had two drives, one for programs and OS and one for file storage, would I have to set the separation in the OS? If so, how would I do so?

About getting video cards, there was a booth at the 2011 Arizona regional giving out NVIDIA graphics cards, one per team. I believe that we got a GTX 480. If you decide that you don't want to use an Intel graphics system, or can wait, then look for the booth next regional.

[mesamb1]

Originally Posted by daniel_dsouza

If I had two drives, one for programs and OS and one for file storage, would I have to set the separation in the OS? If so, how would I do so?

The simplest way to do it is to just select the hard drive you want for your OS and install your OS. Then install a second hard drive later.
I have to imagine there is a fancier way to do this, but when you install the OS it will create its folders on that drive and the OS doesnt want to move any of those.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

There are lots of good guides you can google. The key thing is to figure out which quadro your geforce equates to. If it doesn't have an equivalent, I believe you're out of luck and can't mod it. It's interesting to see the difference in price between them.

Adam, do you have any advice on specific models to softmod?

[Trent B]

It seems to be typically done with Rivatuner,

When I was looking to see if it was feasible for my card I noticed this site came up a lot http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=539