Build for CAD and Solidworks

3lackMamba · 19 Sep 2020 at 16:51

Hi guys

I have a work colleague, she is in Uni and told me today that she needs to buy laptop for her uni course, she is completely clueless and her tutor has basically told her she needs a gaming laptop so she went to a a shop and the guy has recommended one which is roughly £850-900. I laughed and asked to see the specs:

Ryzen 3550H
8GB ram
256gb ssd
AMD RX 560
15”

I instantly got excited and told her I could build her one for much cheaper or the same price but much more powerful. I don’t even know what kind of specs is needed for CAD and Solidworks as I only build PC’s for gaming but I knew what she was shown is a rip off.

She already owns a monitor (small 1080p TV) so I just need to spec up a decent PC for her and I can build it no problem.

What kind of CPU’s and GPU’s do these kind of programs need? Her budget is £800 but she is a student and is wanting to save as much as she can obviously.

Thanks

D3K · 19 Sep 2020 at 16:56

Depends what parts of solidworks she's gonna use.

If it's just mechanical design -> fastest single core you can afford
If rendering -> beefiest gpu you can afford (can get away with just cpu but takes longer)
If simulation -> fastest multicore you can afford. research how many cores solidworks sims can do. it's usually 2^n

If it's just the first, mech design, then gpu is less important. But can help in the display of assemblies containing many parts.

Can't really offer any specific hardware choice as I'm blinkered towards the best components. But basically a potato can run solidworks, you're just increasing the Quality of Life by using better bits.

3lackMamba · 19 Sep 2020 at 17:21

I asked her I’m pretty sure it’s just rendering, her course is Product Design so I can’t imagine there being much else than rendering.

I actually have an EVGA 1080 FTW, 2 year old really good condition that I was going to sell once I receive my 3080, would that be a beefy gpu for rendering? I mean in comparison to what those laptop specs were and considering her budget

D3K · 19 Sep 2020 at 18:38

3lackMamba said:
I asked her I’m pretty sure it’s just rendering, her course is Product Design so I can’t imagine there being much else than rendering.

I actually have an EVGA 1080 FTW, 2 year old really good condition that I was going to sell once I receive my 3080, would that be a beefy gpu for rendering? I mean in comparison to what those laptop specs were and considering her budget

Yeah the 1080 will be better. The 560 is closer to a 1050.
If she's raytracing it will still take a bit of time as 10 series obviously has no RT support. But then I doubt Solidworks has implemented RTX support anyway.

orbitalwalsh · 19 Sep 2020 at 20:08

Different software, different requirements. Simulation, rendering. Mechanical . Single core, multicore , GPU etc .
Then you get plugins on top etc etc

Way out of the budget but new RTX cards as v-ray are a beast !

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...g---NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-Performance-1874/

Octane.. damn

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...0---NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-Performance-1880/

Solid works.. slightly old as not including the 10th gen which can work out cheaper then older 9th. And 6 cores now come with hyperthreading etc

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...9-SP3-AMD-Ryzen-3-vs-Intel-9th-Gen-Core-1555/

Naturally with Ryzen, faster then ram, the better

Again most likely out of budget but easily enough to find consumer counterpart

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SOLIDWORKS-2019-Quadro-GPU-Performance-1342/

Wait sorry

Found 10th gen Intel !

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...SP1-Intel-Core-10th-Gen-CPU-Performance-1816/

Journey · 19 Sep 2020 at 20:12

3lackMamba said:
I have a work colleague, she is in Uni and told me today that she needs to buy laptop for her uni course

3lackMamba said:
I instantly got excited and told her I could build her one for much cheaper or the same price but much more powerful.

So you are going to build her a laptop? If this is going to be carried around and go too and from Uni with her then she's not going to want a 3Kg lump.

orbitalwalsh · 19 Sep 2020 at 20:17

^^^ itx but then the screen .

And thought uni was meant to be via online now or limited in sizing ?

D3K · 19 Sep 2020 at 23:26

orbitalwalsh said:
Different software, different requirements. Simulation, rendering. Mechanical . Single core, multicore , GPU etc .
Then you get plugins on top etc etc

Way out of the budget but new RTX cards as v-ray are a beast !

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...g---NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-Performance-1874/

Octane.. damn

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...0---NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-3080-Performance-1880/

Solid works.. slightly old as not including the 10th gen which can work out cheaper then older 9th. And 6 cores now come with hyperthreading etc

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...9-SP3-AMD-Ryzen-3-vs-Intel-9th-Gen-Core-1555/

Naturally with Ryzen, faster then ram, the better

Again most likely out of budget but easily enough to find consumer counterpart

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/SOLIDWORKS-2019-Quadro-GPU-Performance-1342/

Wait sorry

Found 10th gen Intel !

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/a...SP1-Intel-Core-10th-Gen-CPU-Performance-1816/

I don't see any mechanical tests in there. Make a 10k rotational thread that coils 10k times like a spring, and you have a very good single threaded cpu test.

The charts basically reinforce my earlier point - can run on a potato. You're just making life easier by improving the components.

3lackMamba · 19 Sep 2020 at 23:59

Journey said:
So you are going to build her a laptop? If this is going to be carried around and go too and from Uni with her then she's not going to want a 3Kg lump.

Maybe I should have explained more. She said she needed a laptop because her tutor told her she needed a gaming laptop to run the software. I told her if she doesn’t care about portability I could build her a PC with much better specs for the same price.

This colleague has literally just started her course and she hasn’t the first clue about CAD or computer hardware, honestly you should have seen her trying to explain what her tutor was saying about what she needed in the laptop.. “he said I need something like.. Niv-aaa-da?”

I was like yes love I just spent £750 on Niv-aaa-da a few days ago lol

So I’m just trying to help her out and build her something that will help her get started, and stop her from getting ripped off from a store.

Journey · 20 Sep 2020 at 00:14

3lackMamba said:
So I’m just trying to help her out and build her something that will help her get started, and stop her from getting ripped off from a store.

I totally get that, but what if she actually needs something portable? Perhaps you could speak with the person running the course to determine if the students are required to use their own equipment if/when on campus.

It would be terrible if she ended up with a great desktop stuck at home, while she was sat in a class using nothing.

There are plenty of good sub £1000 laptops that are very portable, and powerful, and I assume the course is going to last longer then one year.

3lackMamba · 20 Sep 2020 at 00:31

@Journey yeah I asked her today and she seemed adamant that she didn’t need a laptop, but yeah that’s not a bad idea I will say to her to ask her tutor if she would ever need her own equipment on campus as I believe @orbitalwalsh is right about most classes being online now, but obviously that won’t last forever.

orbitalwalsh · 20 Sep 2020 at 08:01

Def fine out what the course will be covering over the years .

Did HND with mechanical engineering a few years ago and just used computers provide but this was evening classes.

2005 and doing games design had to run 3 of my own with dual gtx 8800 just to render a few mins worth of animation

brendy · 20 Sep 2020 at 10:30

Buy a second hand Dell Precision, 5520 model or similar with a decent quadro gpu. Last thing she'll need is random warranty returns should a part break, battery life is decent and should last a few years.