[jonKranked]

Ok so I'm looking to get a new desktop PC. The main thing I'm going to be doing with it will be running Solidworks, and a few other engineering type apps. My question, is there a particular processor that would be ideally suited for this application? AMD? Intel? Dual Core? Quadcore? 32 bit? 64 bit? I know large amounts of memory are going to be necessary as well. Just looking for some input.

 

[binary visions]

Intel currently has the best suite of processors right now. The 45nm cores are very nice.

You don't have a real choice about 64 vs. 32 - all the decent processors out right now are 64 bit.

I'd probably pick up an Intel dual core Wolfdale chip - either the E8400 or the Xeon equivalent, the E3110. I have the latter and it's pretty sweet.

Solidworks will put the hurt on your GPU a lot more than your CPU, won't it?

 

[jonKranked]

Yea Intel has definitely stepped it up.

I was leaning towards a 64 bit processor - do these hardware setups require a 64bit specific OS? I'm assuming they do based on the differences in architecture.

GPU and CPU both need to be high performance. Solidworks recommends some pretty powerful video cards.

FWIW my work machine is running a nVidia Quadro FX 4600 video card, 3 gigs of ram, and dual Xeon 5160 CPU's each clocked to 3GHz.

 

[Arkayne]

Yoinks, 6 jigglebytes o'ram for large models. whatever that means

 

[jonKranked]

I should ask Dave Weagle. I've heard his PC for design/FEA is a monster (performance wise).

 

[Sandwich]

4 gb of ram can be had for next to nothing nowadays...60 bucks, 40 for the cheap stuff.

I'd get at least an intel dual core. You can get the q6600 for pretty cheap, which might be pretty good for that kind of application. It's near the same price as the 8400, but it doesn't have the same 45nm technology...which isn't that big of a deal, provided the rest of your system is adequate.

 

[jonKranked]

word thanks for the heads up!


Out of boredom last night I spec'd what my work machine would cost to purchase as a consumer from Dell.... just the tower would be $6 grand.

 

[Sandwich]

yikes...I just built up a pc for a little over a grand and it's pretty powerful. I don't know how well it would run solidworks, but check out my "hey nerds" thread.

what are your "ideal" specs?

 

[jonKranked]

I'm trying to balance the budget with the min system specs recommended. I'm not going to be doing huge or extremely complex models, so I should be ok with lower specs.

 

[donttouchthis]

Go with 4 gigs of ram