3D Modeling/CAD Computer Components

[sanddrag]

Found a couple great deals on eBay. Not the newest hardware but very capable.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/151208282293

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171091900689

[cadandcookies]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Found a couple great deals on eBay. Not the newest hardware but very capable.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/151208282293

http://m.ebay.com/itm/171091900689

Proof that a proper CAD computer doesn't have to break the bank.

[Michael Hill]

With an application like Solidworks, it's all about the GHz. Solidworks solves all of the assemblies and such in a single thread, so it solves it on a single core, though sketches is an exception. The GPU is important if you want real view graphics and you SHOULD get a workstation graphics cards (though some people have figured out how to fool SolidWorks into using GeForce series cards). But in the end, you can get by with a lesser GPU. I'd say absolutely nothing less than 8 GB of memory for a CAD workstation, with 16 GB preferred. For storage, an SSD would really help out a lot if you're tired of solidworks taking forever on startup. Possibly keeping parts and assemblies on an SSD would help out a lot as well.

[Michael Hill]

One question to the others though: how does SolidWorks work with the QHD+ displays on the new Dell laptops? I hear some applications have a rough time scaling to the high resolution (they're 3200 x 1800).

[z_beeblebrox]

Originally Posted by Michael Hill

One question to the others though: how does SolidWorks work with the QHD+ displays on the new Dell laptops? I hear some applications have a rough time scaling to the high resolution (they're 3200 x 1800).

I just ran it at very high resolution on my Retina MacBook Pro and it appeared to behave fine.