Hey all I need some advice. I'll be starting school this fall and an going to need a new laptop. Want to be able to run solidworks smoothly on it. My current setup is an old dell latitude d630 with a core duo in it. It works but renderings take forever and if I get more that 5 parts open or am working on an assembly my movement gets jerky and skips a lot. I know this is due to lack of processor power, graphics processing and memory. I want as large a screen as possible and as much CPU and graphics as I can get. Any recommendations on specific models or specific components ( graphics cards ). Either plan to buy a premade system or was thinking of doing dells build your own service as to make sure i get the features I want. Currently my laptop doesn't support realview graphics so I'd really like the graphics card to support realview. Thanks everybody for your input.
I do a lot of work in CAD, CAM, and CAE fields. Most modeling programs are not CPU intensive but GPU intense so look for a computer with good graphics and atleast 1gb of dedicated memory. I would suggest looking for a computer with atleast 6 gb of ram, this is a pretty common number and should be ok for running ANSYS or any other numerical simulation software of basic components. You said you have a duo I would definitely go with a quad the i7 is a very good processor and I like mine. I just purchased 15 to create a network solver. Overall solidworks is pretty nice to a computer for typical modeling in university settings. I have had many HP and Toshiba laptops and have always had great luck with them. I most definitely suggest staying away from windows 8 for engineering work at this point until service pack 1 comes out to fix many of the problems.
Thank you for your reply. Yes I'll Definetly be getting something with an i7. My core duo has been a pretty good machine for many years and want my next to last just as long. I'm just not sure which nvidia cards support real view graphics. Thank you for your input.
Have you checked solidworks website? I believe at one time a awhile back they listed a bunch that supported real view graphics.
I've recently bought an HP Elitebook 8760W from Complete Computer Solutions (www.cc-solutions.com) ... a model that HP no loner sells. The prices are very hard to beat for the quality of the machine. This one runs SolidWorks extremely fast and well (stable) and also has a 17" screen with high resolution (1920 x 1080). The service and responsiveness was also first rate. I have no relationship with these people at all ... just have had a good experience with them.
I agree with CPPMable that SolidWorks is a graphically intense program. However, I would also add a few things: 1.) While Solidworks needs a good graphics card for renderings (see below), in order to work with even semi-large models you will need as much RAM as you can afford, with a bare minimum of 12GB, and perferably in the 16GB+ range. 2.) The CPU is very very important. SolidWorks is a multi-threaded application, so it benefits greatly from getting the best processor you can afford. Core i7 is a minimum, the Sandy Bridge (i7-3xxx model numbers) are the latest, fastest, and considering that your workstation is a long-time investment, absolutely worth the extra cash up-front. 3.) Your graphics card should be a workstation-level card, either the nVidia Quadro series or the AMD FirePro series. This card will have the a reasonable effect on your rendering times, but honestly the mid-level cards are more than enough muscle for SolidWorks renderings. Dassault Systems (owner of SolidWorks) certifies drivers and graphics chipsets as stable, so have a look at this website for more details. More details can be found here, along with a ton of other useful information. Hope this post helps, have a great day!
I do think that it should be noted that Solidworks itself still does not take advantage of Multi-cores when rebuilding. So its going to be faster when your making a design in solidworks. It will be faster if you Render or do simulation. If you read through the site listed above you will see that Greg Jankowski makes that comment I am not trying to discourage you from buying Multi-cores. I just wanted to make sure you were aware that they will not increase your design time. I think the bigger question for you is how much are you willing to spend to get a decent Laptop to run SW on? We buy combination of Laptop PC's here for Solidworks. Most Engineers get the Dell M4700 for around $2000 and some Engineers get the Lenovo W530 for around $1800 (we do get a discount from both Lenovo and Dell, so your price will be some what higher than what I list). So far the Dell's are still out performing the Lenovo's, but they are both Workstation class PC's and if you want a smooth running Solidworks, I would recommend one. However that does come at a cost. I recommend that you get a Solid State Drive (SSD) they have made a huge difference. Do make sure if you go with a SSD to read up on what you want to turn off (Disk Defrag) and turn on (TRIM Tool). From what I have read so far these 2 items will increase the life span of your SSD. http://helpdeskgeek.com/featured-posts/should-you-defrag-an-ssd/ Best Regards, Scott
