Eng-Tips is the largest engineering community on the Internet

Intelligent Work Forums for Engineering Professionals

Register Log in
  • Congratulations waross on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Solid Modeling....Need computer buying advice 1

Status
Not open for further replies.
Barry1492

Barry1492

Mechanical
Apr 12, 2005
65
0
0
US
I've been moved to a new group where I work and don't have a computer. My boss said to find one less than $5,000 and he'll buy it.......and pretty much left it at that. I've never spent more than $600 on a machine, so I'm kinda in the dark and he's not one to be bombarded with questions.


So, the best I can tell, I'll be working with Solid Works, ProE, Catilia (sp?), and some other solid modeling programs. In addition, we do R&D and take alot of photos. I know that the few guys who work on this stuff don't do it on their own machines because they are too slow and prefer to use some in another office.

Anyway, what kind of stuff should I look for and, even better, specificaly what do you reccomend I get and where?

Thanks alot - Barry
 
Replies continue below

Recommended for you

Sort by date Sort by votes
Oh yeah....I'll be using some big 3D scanning tool as well. I'm not sure what it is called but you scan a part and it turns it into a billion data points. You then have to go in and clean it up.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
5000 ?
HeHe ! Your lucky !
How to spend the money wisely.... hmm..
Assuming you are building the system yourself:

mainboard: Anything with a Nforce 4 chipset should be good, but I would recommend Something from DFI. (DFI Lanparty)

CPU : obviuosly a socket 939 type (AMD) most anything will do, But the x2 class with two cores on it would help a lot if you are multitasking. Enables SW to run at 100% on one core while other tasks are performed by the other. SW will not take adwantage of this itself, but you will be able to do other things more efficiently.

Memory: 2 gigs of quality DDR ram. At least pc3200 and CL2

Disks: I would most definitly go for a setup with 3 or 4 disks in raid 5. Prowides exellent speed and security. Go for the most quiet disks , as the raid setup will provide speed and volume without having to by the largest or fastest drives.

Graphics card(s) : Check the solidworks recommended ones. I dont know if SLI ( Scalable Link Interface, enables two cards to share graphics load) is supportet on the nvidia quadro line, but if it is, go for it!

Monitor(s): Dual screen . I love dual screen. I have organized my SW window so that all the tools and the feature tree is on my left screen and my right screen is dedicated to graphic. I will never look back. of course you should go for some kind of lcd monitors with at least 1600x1200 resolution.

Powersupply: At least 400 watt. go for the more expensive ones. DO NOT SAWE MONEY ON THIS ONE.

Cooling : Depends on where your priorities lie, if you want to push your system to the extreme limits, (overclocking) you should go for wathercooling, or; (dribble) phase change cooling. These systems are not at all straight worward to install, so it might not be for you at all. also , with cooling comes noise, so if you are sensitive to that, go for watercooling. it can be a hassle to install, but there is a lot of good complete systems for sale. Alternatively go for the standard Heatsink / Fan for hassle free installation.


Rest of the components : fill up as needed. The top models of the DFI motherboards (and most other Nforce4 cipset based ones) feature raid controllers, sound, and gigabit network, some have dual Gb network.

Best of luck !

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I agree with the above except I would say instead of dual core processors, get one FAST processor because solidworks will only use one processor at a time and the other processor will be wasted unless you are doing tons of multitasking. I would also recommend NOT to spend the extra money on SLI because again solidworks will not take advantage of it, and in some articles I read, SLI actually SLOWED down the video performance in solidworks. These graphics cards are REALLY expensive, some $1K+, so if you have to run 2 graphic cards for SLI you are looking at spending an extra $1K+ for no difference in graphics performance in Solidworks. As for the other programs like Catia, ProE, etc. I can't comment on their hardware requirements.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I picked a Dell Dimension 8300 off their website. I set a budget of $2500 and just kept picking options until I reached it. Runs SW2006 fine and is probably overkill. I bought it for all my flight simulation stuff. It runs fast, has great video and the flat screen, and great sound from 3 speakers.

This was the easy way out. I love it. No researching, no shopping around, no agonizing. Had the computer in less than a week. Most people won't do it that way, though. I'll admit to being slightly nuts.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solidmecman: yes, I guess you are right on the SLI thing, If SW is not supporting it, there is no gain. I have not seen any actual tests on how this works out for SW, but he might get some vendor lend him a card just to try it out. If it works, it might be smart to go for a Card that at least has the possibillity to go SLI on a later point in time to extend the lifetime of the system. It would be a big extra sale for the vendor so he might let him try it out... All said, the price of these cards are ridiculus, especially considering they really only differ in the drivers, so going for two might be a little over the top. Seems he has no financial worries tho :)

On the dualcore CPU: Sw is not supporting multithreading at present, but might wery well in the future. It might also be benificial for stability, when for instance you start up som process that gobbles up CPU time, like compressing files or whatever, and the process stalls.... then you still can continue on SW as if nothing was going on. Might be far fetched, but I have a feling it would help stability.

This I have not veryfied, but here goes another scenario: I have spent some time converting foregin 3Dmodel files to solidworks parts, and it is extremely timeconsuming, as well as CPU intensive. I have used to start two SW sessions at the same time, letting one do the conversion, and work on the other. I have a single core system, but it allows me to keep on working.... if it automatically wil run on the second core is not tested. Alot of mights an maybees here.. :)

Other than that, You are right on the money, faster single core will give the best performance in pure SW work.

Very interesting to get your view on the matter ! Thanks !

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Mindnumb and Solidmechman,

I have a dual core (AMD X2 4800+). I do a bit of photorendering using PhotoWorks and the dual core definitely decreases render time greatly. I have been able to learn much more lately in photorendering b/c the results to my fussing are given so much quicker. It makes learning PhotoWorks much more enjoyable. It really depends on what you are using your computer for as to whether it makes sense to go dual core or dual CPU. It will be interesting to see how MCAD programs continue over the next few years. I would think there will bit great pressure to structure their code to take advantage of multi-core. Intel and AMD are announcing plans for up to 4 and even 8 cores on a single die by 2008 (I think). Quad core machines may even be here by early 2007. Multi-core cpus are definitely in the future, its just a question of how fast software MCAD companies can re-structure their code to take advantage. Once one announces capabilities in this arena and takes advantage of the extra hrosepower, I would think all MCAD vendors would be forced to compete. As to how soon, its anyone's guess. I'm sure its very complicated as it probably deals with changes to the kernel (parasolid in SolidWork's case, which is owned and developed by UGS). The nature of how geometry is solved in most MCAD programs is history dependent (hence a feature tree), so making that multi-threaded maybe quite a chore, if really possible at all right now. If you can justify the dual core cost, it may not be a bad idea to somewhat future proof your machine. Again, it really depends on what you are doing with your computer.

Pete
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Check out recent reviews at cadalyst.com. With that much money, you can easily build a hulk of a system.

I run an AMD 64-bit chip and love the efficiency of bang for buck processing that comes with it. Check out Xi Computer for great workstation packages, since they always fare well in the Cadalyst reviews--usually they take first place.

Others have mentioned important things above--take them into consideration and whatever you do, don't screw up the graphics card choice.


Jeff Mowry
Reality is no respecter of good intentions.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
you are probably best to stick with nVidia Quadro cards from all that I have read, if you can afford it, go for the Quadro FX 4000 or 4500, doesn't seem like you can get better than those for workstation graphics..
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Barry,

How many parts are your assemblies, how complicated do your parts tend to be, how big are your drawings, where are the files stored? Answers to these questions also help you on where to decide to spend your money - RAM, Processor, Hard Drive, Video Card, etc...

Pete
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Some of the previous posts on this may be a little out of date with the way PC advancements are going. Recently I Purchased 4 workstations for our drawing office from Dell. This is what I would suggest and then followed by what I bought...

Processor - min 3Ghz (go as high as possible for your money and dual processor if money allows)
Hard Drive - Depends on whether you save to network or locally, get a fast 15,000 rpm one if you save locally.
RAM - Min 1GB - Get 2GB if you can
Graphics - This is probably most important. Make sure you get a workstation card (i.e. ATI Quaddro, Nvidia FireGL). Get Min 128MB or ideal 256MB (or 512MB if you want to spoil yourself)
Monitor - Min 19" Flat Panel.

My system is as follows...

Pentium IV 3.2Ghz
Ram - 2GB
Hard Drive - 178GB (15,000rpm)
Graphics - Quaddro Fx 4400 (256MB)
Monitor - 19" Flat Panel

We do large sheet metal assemblies with 1000's of part with no issue. We bought from Dell. Contact there business unit and haggle them down on price. BTW - Don't give your boss any change, spend it all - you might not get an opportunity again!!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
neilc78:

Ghz is no longer the be all end all... not since the introduction of amd socket A cpu, and that is quite some time a go. here is a rough comparision ...
Also, if you consider the price of a top of the line cpu ralative to the performance gain of a mid range, you will find that spending double the amount of money will gain you maybe 20 % performance... If you are lucky... And a 300 dollar AMD cpu will beat a 300 dollar intel specimen senseless... :)


I have a dell workstation ( quadro fx1000, 3200mhz cpu, 2 GB ram) my self, but it generates a lot of noize, due to the cooling needs of the extremely powerhungry pentium cpu.

A dell workstation would of course be the easy way out, and it gives exellent return for your money, considering the support system, but if you are slightly in to hardware and actually enjoy building your own computer, you will be better off doing it yor self.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
how do you like the quadro fx 1000? mine should be here in a couple of days.. how many components can you work with in an assembly? and can you keep your image quality settings turned all the way up?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I would also suggest a very good, 21" wide screen monitor. You will never go back to anything else after you use it with SW.

Chris
Systems Analyst
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 05
AutoCAD 05
ctopher's home site (updated 06-21-05)
FAQ559-1100
FAQ559-716
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Geforce aren't supported as they are for gaming. You'll find they will work in many cases but will give trouble and you'll get no help of they do. Possibly get one for home use but don't buy one for your office. Quaddro or FireGL are the way to go.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

CAD2015
  • Locked
  • Question
Solid Works - Product presentation 3
Replies
8
Views
54
CAD2015
CAD2015
Channo
  • Locked
  • Question
Need help with increasing poly count of 3D model
Replies
9
Views
25
3DDave
3DDave
CAD2015
  • Locked
  • Question
3D Modeling 'Save View"..............
Replies
9
Views
18
CAD2015
CAD2015
CAD2015
  • Locked
  • Question
Solid Works -Electrical design 3
Replies
8
Views
17
SBaugh
SBaugh
samuelm
  • Locked
  • Question
Installing PDMWorks Standard on standalone computer
Replies
1
Views
15
Gupta65
Gupta65
Back
Top