Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet
Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals
-
Congratulations waross on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
What should I spend my money on?
Computer Hardware
One of the best things you can do before going out and specifying a new computer for use with SW is to review SolidWorks' website for minimum system requirements:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/SystemRequirements.html?PID=383
You may be tempted to spend cold hard cash (or better yet fill out your company's purchase requisition) on the fastest multi-core processor box, with gigs of memory and a graphics card with the most on-board memory... and you would be spinning your wheels in the mud (wasting money) for the most part when considering this for SW.
Processors
Yes, get the fastest processor you can. Currently Intel is in the lead, but you won't go wrong with AMD either. Also note that 2D drawing performance is primarily dependent on the speed of your processor and the amount of memory you have.
No, don't bother to get a multi-core processor beyond a dual-core system. SW won't make use of the extra processor power for the most part, but your Windows OS will for other tasks.
Yes, consider a multi-core processor if you are going to be doing a lot of other things besides straight modeling and detailing with SW, like FEA, renderings and animations.
What about those 64-bit processors? Many people say they experience a performance increase with 64-bit processors even though SolidWorks is a 32-bit program. SolidWorks is dedicated to the Windows platform, so as popularity of the 64-bit processors increase, so will support for it.
The fastest Intel processor at the moment is the Core 2 Extreme QX9770, which consists of two 3.20GHz dual-core processors. Each of the CPUs accesses a 6MB shared L2 cache. In total, the processor offers four computing cores and 12MB of L2 cache. The front side bus of this CPU has been raised to 400MHz (1600 MHz effective). Officially, this processor is only supported by the X48 high-end chip set.
Memory
Yes, get the most memory you can afford, then get some more. 2GB should cover you for the OS and SW assemblies near 500 parts, and fairly complicated parts. Anything more (or lots of surfaces and radii) and you should look into 3GB at least (enable your 3GB switch in a 32-bit OS), or even more with a 64-bit OS. Prices are coming down all the time and extra memory can make a world of difference with system performance and stability.
Memory will probably offer the biggest ROI. And remember, that 2D drawing performance is primarily dependent on the speed of your processor and the amount of memory you have.
Graphics Card
Yes, purchase an approved card that has been tested and certified with SW. You can find out more by visiting the SolidWorks website:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html?PID=383
Yes, make sure you have the latest approved drivers for your OS and graphics card.
No, don't waste your money on those "3D" gaming cards, even though they might be cheaper, have more RAM and seem to be made for "3D graphics". They will only cause you headaches down the road.
Look for:
nVidia Quadro FX 570 or higher series
ATI Fire GL X and V series
Stay away from:
nVidia GeForce series
ATI Radeon series
A majority of crashes and problems associated with SW can be attributed to poor selection of graphics cards or improper/outdated drivers. For more information on the nVidia cards, checkout this article: http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aaajxm.htm
Hard Drive
Yes, look into using a SATA or Ultra ATA/133 HDD, just be sure your motherboard will support it. These run faster than the standard ATA or Ultra ATA, which will make your wait times a little shorter. SATA drives run cooler and use less power.
Yes, look into getting a drive that has a fast RPM, like 7,200rpm as a minimum, 10,000rpm if you can find them.
Yes, you can use an IDE/SATA drive, and you don't have to go the SCSI route unless you really need the data integrity provided by a RAID set-up. SATA drives are relatively just as fast as SCSI, though the technology continues to leapfrog each other.
For SATA HDDs, consider a 500GB drive (32MB cache) costs about $90 now, so why get the biggest HDD you can afford if you are not working across a network. A Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS) 1.5TB HHD will only set you back around $130.
Operating System
Yes, help get Bill Gates' kids through college, and use Windows XP Pro (32 or 64-bit) or Vista (32 or 64-bit). With the introduction of SolidWorks 2007, SolidWorks will only support 32 and 64-bit versions of XP Pro. WIth SolidWorks 2008 and newer, all versions of XP Pro and Vista are supported. SW is a professional grade CAD system, you should be using a professional grade OS.
I'll try to keep this updated as new information and versions of SW dictate.
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/SystemRequirements.html?PID=383
You may be tempted to spend cold hard cash (or better yet fill out your company's purchase requisition) on the fastest multi-core processor box, with gigs of memory and a graphics card with the most on-board memory... and you would be spinning your wheels in the mud (wasting money) for the most part when considering this for SW.
Processors
Yes, get the fastest processor you can. Currently Intel is in the lead, but you won't go wrong with AMD either. Also note that 2D drawing performance is primarily dependent on the speed of your processor and the amount of memory you have.
No, don't bother to get a multi-core processor beyond a dual-core system. SW won't make use of the extra processor power for the most part, but your Windows OS will for other tasks.
Yes, consider a multi-core processor if you are going to be doing a lot of other things besides straight modeling and detailing with SW, like FEA, renderings and animations.
What about those 64-bit processors? Many people say they experience a performance increase with 64-bit processors even though SolidWorks is a 32-bit program. SolidWorks is dedicated to the Windows platform, so as popularity of the 64-bit processors increase, so will support for it.
The fastest Intel processor at the moment is the Core 2 Extreme QX9770, which consists of two 3.20GHz dual-core processors. Each of the CPUs accesses a 6MB shared L2 cache. In total, the processor offers four computing cores and 12MB of L2 cache. The front side bus of this CPU has been raised to 400MHz (1600 MHz effective). Officially, this processor is only supported by the X48 high-end chip set.
Memory
Yes, get the most memory you can afford, then get some more. 2GB should cover you for the OS and SW assemblies near 500 parts, and fairly complicated parts. Anything more (or lots of surfaces and radii) and you should look into 3GB at least (enable your 3GB switch in a 32-bit OS), or even more with a 64-bit OS. Prices are coming down all the time and extra memory can make a world of difference with system performance and stability.
Memory will probably offer the biggest ROI. And remember, that 2D drawing performance is primarily dependent on the speed of your processor and the amount of memory you have.
Graphics Card
Yes, purchase an approved card that has been tested and certified with SW. You can find out more by visiting the SolidWorks website:
http://www.solidworks.com/pages/services/VideoCardTesting.html?PID=383
Yes, make sure you have the latest approved drivers for your OS and graphics card.
No, don't waste your money on those "3D" gaming cards, even though they might be cheaper, have more RAM and seem to be made for "3D graphics". They will only cause you headaches down the road.
Look for:
nVidia Quadro FX 570 or higher series
ATI Fire GL X and V series
Stay away from:
nVidia GeForce series
ATI Radeon series
A majority of crashes and problems associated with SW can be attributed to poor selection of graphics cards or improper/outdated drivers. For more information on the nVidia cards, checkout this article: http://www.deskeng.com/articles/aaajxm.htm
Hard Drive
Yes, look into using a SATA or Ultra ATA/133 HDD, just be sure your motherboard will support it. These run faster than the standard ATA or Ultra ATA, which will make your wait times a little shorter. SATA drives run cooler and use less power.
Yes, look into getting a drive that has a fast RPM, like 7,200rpm as a minimum, 10,000rpm if you can find them.
Yes, you can use an IDE/SATA drive, and you don't have to go the SCSI route unless you really need the data integrity provided by a RAID set-up. SATA drives are relatively just as fast as SCSI, though the technology continues to leapfrog each other.
For SATA HDDs, consider a 500GB drive (32MB cache) costs about $90 now, so why get the biggest HDD you can afford if you are not working across a network. A Seagate Barracuda (ST31500341AS) 1.5TB HHD will only set you back around $130.
Operating System
Yes, help get Bill Gates' kids through college, and use Windows XP Pro (32 or 64-bit) or Vista (32 or 64-bit). With the introduction of SolidWorks 2007, SolidWorks will only support 32 and 64-bit versions of XP Pro. WIth SolidWorks 2008 and newer, all versions of XP Pro and Vista are supported. SW is a professional grade CAD system, you should be using a professional grade OS.
I'll try to keep this updated as new information and versions of SW dictate.