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!

[AdamHeard]

Glenn, Hawaii sounds like a great option, still have to finish school first though! What happens after that is still up in the air.

Originally Posted by scottydoh

Again, it all depends on what you're using the computer for. Outside of my FIRST involvement, I'm an architecture student, and a majority of my work is done in Autodesk Revit Architecture. And when it comes to renderings (the most resource hogging) Revit (and the render engine Mental Ray) could care less about my GPU, all it wants is CPU power.

With that being said, the System requirements pretty much covers it. Get a good CPU, memory is cheap these days, so get as much as you can, and a decent GPU and you'll be fine for most "FIRST scale" models.

That's not really a fair argument, as rendering is a completely different process and isn't affected by the computer's ability to push pixels to the screen. A slow GPU can make even a very high end computer a pain to CAD on as it's constantly struggling to keep up with you rotating, zooming in, etc...

[Nemo]

You can get the most bang for your buck by getting the most powerful CAD specific graphics card in your price range and a healthy amount of RAM. Spending extra on the processor will probably provide less performance per dollar.

This summer I put together a computer specifically to work on Inventor models at home and have been very happy with it. I was looking for good value, and this is the meat of what I ended up buying:

ATI FirePro V4800 ($160)
AMD Phenom II x4 965 3.4 GHz ($130)
BIOSTAR A870U3 motherboard ($65)
8 Gb RAM (G Skill model F3-10666CL9D-8GBRL) ($55)

I have been very pleased with the build. It has no problems with robot assemblies with hundreds of parts, and its frame rate is really nice with smaller stuff. It is also at least decent while running the most complex assemblies I've created or the ones you can download courtesy of teams 148/228/973/etc. It doesn't run those larger assemblies at a sick frame rate or anything, but I'm also not waiting around for it to zoom or rotate (or restart from a crash) like I was on my old computer.

The processor could have been any number of other chips - I picked this one because I liked the performance vs price. I thought about spending twice as much on a Core i5, but now I'm glad I didn't. It is important to note that Inventor makes very little use of multiple processors, although I suppose that could change in future versions. And I like having spreadsheets and browsers open while I play with Inventor.

When you research video cards for Inventor, you will quickly identify the ATI FirePro line and the nVidia Quadro line. There is a price jump from $160 to $400 in each company's product line, ignoring older models. Both of the $160 cards can handle my most complex models pretty nicely.

If you are interested in a pre-built computer, you will want to be careful. You will pay a little extra for the convenience of having HP build it, of course. A bunch of workstation builds have weirdly chosen components, with unimpressive graphics card on the low end and pointlessly expensive processors on the high end. Our school just bought a handful of HP workstations with Core i5 processors, 4 GB RAM, and Quadro 600, and that particular workstation is about the most balanced build I can find if you want a decent amount of power for under $1000. I opened up a complicated robot assembly on one of them, and it ran nicely. I don't know the model number of that workstation, but you can search it up for something like $700-800. HP doesn't sell any low-mid models with 8 gigs of ram, but you can get the extra 4 GB for $30 if desired.

Happy shopping!

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by scottydoh

How is that unfair? I clearly stated that I was doing something very different from the example you stated.

My response was based on the fact that he asked about inventor, presumably for conventional CAD design and not rendering.

[mesamb1]

Do I get to be the first to talk about your 'L' level cash for your CPU? (better performance is had on CPU's with higher L1,L2 and L3 Cache[particularly L1 level]).

Yalib, it sounds like you are just getting started with inventor. May I recommend that you get your foot in the door before you build a high end computer. If your desktop/laptop meets the minimum requirements download inventor and start to play with it. If you notice a lag in commands, menus, and selecting you likely need more RAM then what you have. If you notice items lags/issues with graphics, you likely need a graphics card with a) dedicated memory b) a higher speed processor. Your CPU is not likely an issue. At inventors minimum specs, your L level cache is more an issue then your CPU processing speed(L level is basically where binary commands about to be processed get stored on the CPU).

if you have to by a computer, listen to the good advice on the thread. Let me add get a desktop computer with a motherboard with alot of expansion room. Your computer will be able to last longer, and you can upgrade the insufficient parts easily. These will have 16ish PCI express slots, no on board graphic capabilities, 4 memory slots.

[AdamHeard]

Originally Posted by scottydoh

You win. I retract my statement before this blows up in typical forum fashion.

mesamb1 is on to something there, its not like you're going to be modeling jet fighters here, even a below average computer should handle basic parts and small assemblies no problem.

Yeah, what I usually recommend to students who have a desktop at home that is mediocre, but no (or no decent) gpu, is to pick up a decent used quadro on ebay for $50 or so. They're often amazed at the difference that makes for them. Down the road if they want a nicer computer, building is discussed.

[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.