[Closed] solidworks pc

Just get something with an approved graphics card, then as much memory as you can afford.

What are you using it for?

Any modern pc will do if you aren't going to be doing huge assemblies and/or rendering. Just get a decent amount of RAM and look up what graphics cards are recommended by Solidworks.

When I used Solidworks, we had 2Gb of RAM and I can't remember the graphics card, but it was only mid spec.

Currently using Pro-E with a Dell pc. Think it's got an ATI graphics card and 12Gb of RAM. It rarely struggles. Normally it slows down due to writing to/reading from the server.

Just upgraded my pc. A asus motherboard i7 processor and 16GB of ram for £400 odd. Then got a 1.5GB nivida quadro graphics card for £90, 1TB hybrid drive £50 a power supply from an old machine at work and put it all together.
Work great renders models fast enough and seems ok doing some load calculations.

You'll get a very good one for that budget - have a look at Dell outlet or specialist outlet resellers. I need to be mobile so have a top of the range M3800 which is faster than any desktop I've had but is Ultrabook dimensions.

thanks for your comments. Its for work and the budgets there to spend so if you had that cash to spend on desktop and monitor which one??
Just some ideas...

Not got a desktop, just got a Dell M3800 laptop and its lovely and bling. No problems running SW 2014 on it, apart from the scaling (or lack of) of the buttons and text with the hi-res screen. Its very cool using the touch-screen to move the model, although my SPacemouse is nicer.
Just awaiting a 27" Dell monitor to go with it.

Hmm not that big a budget if you've to get a monitor in there.

27" monitor then, and the beefiest precision out the Dell outlet. Updates about 3pm, keep checking till something decent appears with a suitable GPU.

Lenovo S30 (or a D30 if you can find a deal) with the Quadro graphics card

ir_bandito - I love my M3800 but find the screen - both the touch and resolution - a gimmick as none of the software I used is optimised for it.

OP - I got mine from here [url= http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Lapodo-LTD-Computer-Store ]Lapodo[/url] It's a small business so easy to deal with.

Are you looking at pre-built machines from Dell/Lenovo or building yourself? Solidworks tends to be very processor dependent. I would not suggest buying a machine with a processor speed slower than 3.4Ghz. The new i7-4790k is 4GHz stock and turbos to 4.4Ghz and is very well priced. As for graphic cards not had any problems with Nvidia Quadro K2000 or K4000 range. The new K2200 looks amazing value for money though. Oh and dont forget the SSD.
You can usually get more bang for your buck if you choose a lower end Dell machine and put the whistles on bells on than if you buy the base machine of the next model up.

I have an HP Z400 which is a bit slow but does the job.

My main man is a Dell Precision M6600 mobile workstation that is just lovely.

Whatever you find, send the spec to Solidworks for them to confirm suitability.

joepose - Member
thanks for your comments. Its for work and the budgets there to spend so if you had that cash to spend on desktop and monitor which one??

Monitors.....not monitor.

Not sure i could go back to only having one monitor after getting used to two decent sized monitors for CAD work.

As above, monitor[b]s[/b] is what you want.

I go out and about quite a lot, working on customer sites with SW. I have a Dell M6700 laptop (i7-3520 @ 2.9Ghz, 16Gb RAM, M6000 graphics) and it's great. I do some fairly intensive assemblies with some complex geometry (automotive body panels & engine parts)

If there's even a slim chance of going off site, then go for a laptop - they have plenty of ooomph these days to drive SolidWorks.

SW is processor [i]speed[/i] and RAM intensive. Get the fastest processor you can.

Just found this snippet which is very apt:-

In general, rebuild times depend on the [b]speed[/b] of the CPU. Simulation analysis and image rendering time can be reduced by having more cores and RAM. File opening mainly depends on the hard drive speed.

SW only uses multi-cores for certain things, the basic modelling engine is single-core only, hence the rebuild speeds of modesl are dictated by processor speed.

So, if you don't do simulation or image rendering then just get a fast CPU . memory and HDD.

Graphics card - get an OpenCL one - so ATI FirePro or Nvidia Quadro. If you're not doing rendering just get a low end one. If you're rendering and your time is important to you, get a higher end one.

I run the above dell (17" Full HD) docked when in the office and a 27" Dell U2713HM monitor at 2560x1440. Solidworks itself doesnt run well across different res screens, but I use the hi res screen only for SW and run the laptop display for everything else (spec sheets, emails, singletrack)

ps. keep an eye on dell outlet for bargain potent Precision desktops and laptops.