Hardware recomendations?

[rghay]

Looking for hardware recomendations -- new workstations may be in the works for next year, but need pricing now.

Most of our modeling is for metal castings. A typical part may have 250-350 features:

20% basic extrusions and revolutions
30% free form shapes
50% edge blends and face blends

Part file sizes range between 3 M and 12 M.

We are not looking for the ultimate machine - just a good productive machine.

Our present Dell's with 1 GRAM and 32 M graphics cards begin to drag as we get towards the end of our models and changes take much longer than anticipated.

Since vendors don't provide comparative specs on their graphics cards, perhaps someone has switched to a higher end card and could share their experience. In particular, was it worth the money? With cards exceeding the cost of the computer, this is important.

 

[Azrael]

I think any new computer with a gig of ram and good graphics, say quadro or 3dlabs realizm, will do.

Don´t think you need a workstation.

 

[looslib]

We run IBM Z-Pro's with 2.8Ghz processors, 2GB ram and Nvidia Quadro4 980XGL graphics cards.

For the number of features and the part file size you have, 2GB of ram would be minimum, in my book.


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli
CAD/CAM System Analyst
Ingersoll-Rand