Good System for SolidWorks 2005?

[lt_wentoncha]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any recommendations for a good system to run SolidWorks 2005. Run is subjective; I don't need a high performance dual xeon workstation to model a 747, just something that will run it better (ie little lag and sort of fast rotating objects) than the P2.4 system that it was installed on to learn with.

I was asked to build a system around $600; anyone have any specs handy?

Many thanks.

 

[draksia]

Lots and lots of ram. Solidworks is a big ram hog. I would recomend at least 2gigs worth. Then some type A64 system so that when SolidWorks 64 comes around you are ready. FEA is one type of program that will really benefit from 64 bit.

 

[lt_wentoncha]

Would DDR2 memory make a difference?

Thanks.

 

[dave_graham]

Would DDR2 memory make a difference?

Thanks.

no...the A64 doesn't support DDR2

dave

 

[draksia]

Would DDR2 memory make a difference?

Thanks.

dave_graham is correct in that no A64 currently support DDR2. The biggest advantage of DDR2 is its bandwidth potential but this comes at the cost of latency. Right now the performance of DDR is typically better then DDR2.


Basically for FEA you just need lots of ram it really doesn't matter how fast the ram is. Processor speed is also important.

Also Solidworks uses OpenGL so I would recomend a nVidia based video card as they have a better OpenGL implementation then ATI.

Basically you need to buy the fastest processor you can afford after getting 2gbs of ram.

 

[bonkrowave]

Hopefully they fixed the memory leak in Solidworks 2005. I use Solidworks 2004 everyday at work, and it leaks worse then anything. I often close solidworks and open up task manger and solidworks is actively sucking something like 80 megs of ram, even after I have closed the program.

I hear Solidworks 2005 will support FireGL and Quatro cards. I would suggest buying a 9800 and modding the bios to make it a FireGL card, much cheaper then actually buying a FireGL card.