Let's Talk About Your Team's Computers

[Anthony Galea]

Our team has used a 2013 Alienware 14 since the 2014 season to conduct all our team functions (CAD, programming, driver station), however, we need to find a new laptop as ours appears to have been stolen . We highly recommend the laptop, the only problem was the trackpad would act up from time to time, and Dell offers educational discounts.

[Munchskull]

My team uses both my personal and team computers to get done.
Team computers:-Old personal: - New Personal:
CPU- Some Xeon - i5-2400 - i5-6600k
Mobo-? - ? - MSI z-a170 pro carbon
RAM- 4GB DDR2 - 16GB DDR3. - 16GB DDR4
GPU- GTX 480 - GTX 660. - MSI GTX 1060

Current looking to rebuild the old personal in a new case to be an improvement over my teams cad set up. Sadly the CM CPU cooler I have had its back plate lost when I was rebuilding and I am out of money to buy a case.

Ps sorry for the bad format doing this from phone while camping.

[bobbysq]

8 old HP laptops donated by a sponsor. ~1-4 minute clean build time.

[Aeglos]

For Programming/ Doubles as a Driver's Station:

1 x HP ProBook 6550b
Features: WIN7 Enterprise, i5-520M, no dGPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 1366x768 display, dead CMOS battery school will not replace, half- functional BIOS chip that makes the computer fail POST unless booted a certain way, non- functional laptop battery that will die in about 15 mins if unplugged from the wall, keys will occasionally not register, and the icing on the cake: sometimes it just won't charge, or accept any power from the wall outlet, so we have to bring another laptop computer along as a battery charger for the main one.


My Personal Rig, which I can use for programming at home (but mostly gaming and personal programming projects, let me be honest here):

Case: Fractal Design Define R4
Motherboard: MSI Z97S SLI Krait Edition
CPU: Intel i7-4790
CPU Cooler: Phanteks PH-TC12DX
GPU: Watercooled GTX 760
RAM: 16GB Samsung DDR3-1600
Storage: Seagate 2TB Hybrid Drive
PSU: EVGA 500B


For CAD:

1 x HP EliteBook 840
Features: WIN7 Enterprise, i7-4600U, I think no dGPU (but am uncertain), 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 1920x1080 display

20 x HP Compaq 8200 Elite All-In-One (In our CAD/ Technology Lab)
Features: WIN7 Enterprise, i5 2400S, no dGPU, 4GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 1920x1080 display

If you couldn't tell, as a programmer, I am not a huge fan of the programming laptop we are using currently. It has developed major stability issues over the years I have used it.

[Torvando]

My team has two laptops one really old hp and a not as old hp (i think) that we use for programming. Other than that we all have to use our personal laptops for cad and such. We sometimes have access to a mac lab that we can't install cad or anything on so its not really useful.

[gc_coxen]

My team has pretty low-end to moderate machines provided by the school, nothing fancy. The bulk of CAD is done outside of meetings on personal machines. I'm currently running:

CPU: i7 5820k
CPU Cooler: NZXT X61
Memory: HyperX Fury 32GB
Motherboard: MSI X99A SLI Plus
Storage: Samsung 840 evo 250GB
Seagate 2TB SSHD
GPU: Reference GTX 970
PSU: EVGA G2 600w
Case: NZXT H440

[FlamingSpork]

Originally Posted by CMBrandon

Bonus points for anything earlier than Win2K

Does it count if I install an ancient version of Windows on a somewhat modern piece of hardware? If so, I can tell you about a Classmate running Windows NT 4.0 SP6, an OS so old that Internet Explorer 6 is an available update.

[frcguy]

Originally Posted by FlamingSpork

Does it count if I install an ancient version of Windows on a somewhat modern piece of hardware? If so, I can tell you about a Classmate running Windows NT 4.0 SP6, an OS so old that Internet Explorer 6 is an available update.

Wait - did you actually do this? If so, that's super awesome. Please post story and photos!

[FarmerJohn]

Originally Posted by CMBrandon

What kind of computers does your team use? Did the school buy them or did someone make them? Laptop, desktop? Pics of your lab would be great! I am just really curious to see what all of you have to work with.

Who thinks they have the BEST setup?
Who thinks they have the WORST? (Bonus points for anything earlier than Win2K)

I know very little about computers - what would you recommend as a good CAD desktop from your personal CoolerMaster point of view?

[ASD20]

I don't know the specs off the top of my head, but we have gotten our CAD workstations off of the Dell auction site.

[CMBrandon]

Originally Posted by FarmerJohn

I know very little about computers - what would you recommend as a good CAD desktop from your personal CoolerMaster point of view?

As you have probably read here, you have many options varying from complete overkill to barely getting by.

I know AutoDesk has a list of approved graphics cards that will work. I would start there and build around that. The GPU is going to matter more than the processor. Depending on your school's budget I think your best bet is going to be looking for parts that have just been replaced by something newer. i.e. get the Widget 2500 when the 2600 comes out.

Speaking strictly of our products, I would go with the following:

MasterCase 5 Series- Best
MasterCase Pro 3- Better
MasterBox- Good

MasterAir Maker 8- Best
V8- Better
212 Evo- Good

V1000- Best
V750- Better
GM Series- Good

MasterKeys Keyboard Series
Sentinel III or MasterMouse

[GeeTwo]

The school has never provided us a computer that was a viable platform for web development, much less CAD or software development. I believe all of our desktops (4?) were privately donated. Our current CAD computer (and best SW development computer) was donated by someone who has no connection with the team other than he and I work in the same place; he updated his game computer, and was more interested in inspiring high school students than getting a fraction of his money back. When Bob and Riley installed CAD software this weekend, I think they found one other desktop that could run the CAD software they had selected. We have three classmates and two fairly decent laptops, one bought by the booster club, another donated. Most of our history we have depended on laptops owned by the programmers to get the programming done, and about half of the time we have used personally owned laptops as the driver station.

[Sperkowsky]

Currently in our robotics lab we only have 3 computers. Although this is deceiving as 3/4 grades in our school have chrome books.

The first pc is one of my extra workstations with a Quadro k4000 we got out of first choice.

Processor: amd 6300
Ram: 8gbs corsair vengeance ddr3
Ssd: 60gb Patriot Pyro ($200 when I bought it many years ago)
Case: antec p70

The other pc is our lead mentors spare and it has
Intel i5 2500k
8gbs of offbrand memory
1tb hdd
And a 8880 gts that I had laying around (bonus points for such a revolutionary video card?)

What is nice is both of those workstations have 3 monitors. A God send for cad work.

The last pc is our driver station/programming pc.
Its a Lenovo t430 we got for $250 refurbished
We then added an 128gb 850 evo

We are working with a large corporation currently. We asked for 7 of their flagship pc/tablet thingys along with more programming pcs and a few cad stations. We especially lack in programming computers at the moment.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by CMBrandon

I know AutoDesk has a list of approved graphics cards that will work. I would start there and build around that. The GPU is going to matter more than the processor.

This is not correct. CPU is far more important. Any Solidworks certified GPU will get the job done. Best CPU you can afford is by far the number one key to performance in Solidworks.

[asid61]

Originally Posted by Cory

This is not correct. CPU is far more important. Any Solidworks certified GPU will get the job done. Best CPU you can afford is by far the number one key to performance in Solidworks.

I agree, to an extent. I find this document to be really useful in determining how to optimize my SW performance:
http://files.solidworks.com/partners...ance_ ENG.pdf
That being said, it's not perfect. Upgrading to an SSD did not net me massive performance increases, although more RAM and graphics cards seem to help a ton (for my friend's computers).
RAM is a big one too. I run on 8gb RAM, an i7, and no graphics card. In order of priority, I want at least 8gb more RAM, then a graphics card (preferably something good), then a better processor, then another 16gb RAM. I already have an i7, so upgrading my cpu would be far more expensive than changing something else first.