My current mobile unit is an i7 Macbook Pro, currently with only 4 gigs of RAM, running Windows 7 圆4 of course.
In Inventor 2012, there was a minor issue with the graphics driver though on this machine.
Again, Autodesk Inventor worked just fine, even with full robot assemblies. My previous mobile unit was a Fujitsu LH531 Core i5 2510m with 8 gigs of RAM. Autodesk Inventor runs great, even while watching HD video on a second monitor through the onboard graphics. Running onboard graphics on the motherboard - no graphics card. Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB 32mb cache hard drive Intel Core i5 2500K Overclocked to 4.0 GHz My home setup built in July of 2011 - I had less than $800 into it at the time. Autodesk Inventor is certified on Intel HD3000 graphics and often performs rather nicely on the second-gen Core i_ chips with the on-die Intel HD3000 graphics, even with full robot assemblies. $600 to $800 is plenty these days, so long as you aren’t modeling every screw thread and always working with a rendered model with material and lighting styles.ĭon’t feel like you have to rush right out and buy a super expensive graphics card.
I would stick to purchasing more up to date parts though so I wouldn’t need to upgrade or worry for a long while. Nick’s suggestion is correct that you want a good graphics card if you are going bare minimum on the other components. Your sponsors most likely just buy from a retailer instead of building their own. These are computers you want to last you a while and your team will probably do other things on them as well. I personally would still build with an i5, 8gigs of RAM, and a good graphics card. This is the other reason why building your own PC is fun - no useless junk software. Most likely, other programs and such were eating up your friends’ resources.
With a formatted drive and a fresh install of Windows, you should be able to run SW on low settings. I just don’t want to by something, then have it not work. Isn’t CAD the main reason you spend so much? I know I tried installing both solidworks and creo on my teammates i3 computer, and it couldn’t handle even simple solids… I will take a look at what nickE said. I know our sponsors say they pay over a $1000 dollars for theirs, so I thought my price range of $500 to $800 would be borderline at best. $800 is definitely quite a lot for 1 machine if it is solely running CAD software.
I guess it just depends what settings you want to run your software at. I have a Pentium 4 sitting around that I can still run Solidworks on pretty well. Hmm this is true, I did not consider that it would be used for just CAD :rolleyes: You can likely get a couple decent machines for sub $300 each. Listings change frequently so if you don’t see what you want, look back soon. Searching “workstation quadro”]( ) would probably be a good start. We have at least one of these in our lab and it’s great. You can get a great machine for a great price. Search around on eBay for old workstations. A nice Quadro card can make an okay machine scream for CAD. A nice graphics card, however, can make all the difference. Our team’s CAD models are likely larger than average and plenty of the computers at our lab with older processors and less than 2GB of RAM handle them fine. You probably don’t need a crazy computer for FRC CAD. How many computers are you looking to build and is $800 the total budget or the budget for 1 machine? I do this as a side business so I’d be happy to help out with the sourcing of parts (as would many others, I’m sure).ĭon’t forget - Black Friday and Cyber Monday will get you some good deals. If you plan on overclocking - you can get a 2nd gen i5 -na-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID= I would definitely bump up the processor to the 3rd gen i5 at least, instead of that i3. 8 gigs of RAM is good for now, this is something you can upgrade later if needed since RAM always gets cheaper quickly.
You may find yourself purchasing a new one within a few weeks/months. Ultra brand power supplies are also sub-par from what I’ve read and experienced. It would be a bottleneck for your system. Also- don’t hesitate to shop around on ebay for good deals on many of these items. Tigerdirect has not been great to me in terms of returning rebates in a timely fashion. I usually source parts from Newegg, Fry’s, and sometimes Tigerdirect. I would highly suggest building your own machine from your own sourced parts, not a barebones kit.