Solidworks

[mrbios]

We're looking at getting 60-80 licenses for this which means getting 60-80 PCs up to spec to cope with it sufficiently.

 

Obviously workstation graphics cards are advised in this instance but are there any onboard offerings that might be up to the task? What are you using and how well does it perform?

 

EDIT: Looks like ATI FirePro V3700s might be the way to go, what CPUs are people using/would advise?

Edited March 27, 2012 by mrbios

[3s-gtech]

We did it on a budget, our PCs cope okay with student level stuff, not tried any massive drawings or multi-part constructions to give feedback on that though.

 

We bought second-hand ICT Direct HP DC7900s with 4GB RAM and AMD 5570 graphics cards. Obviously not certified, but they can throw pixels around in OpenGL well enough. Total cost including 3 year warranty was around £270 per machine, that's dropped now.

 

The FirePro would be much better, budget permitting. Onboard graphics wise, an AMD Llano powered machine (ed a 3870K or similar for maximum CPU grunt) should cope okay, but again not certified etc. We've had the discussion on here recently, but I still wouldn't recommend any current Intel onboard graphics solutions for this job, HD3000 or not. The HD4000 should be better, but that means waiting for Ivy Bridge (and paying the costs).

[synaesthesia]

Our DT machines are fairly poor, but the onboard graphics seems to cope OK. I.e. they work. Athlon x2s with 2gb of ram.

They will be being replaced though, likely with I3 2100/2120 as the onboard HD3000 is more than capable of running Solidworks extremely (and surprisingly) well. We tend to budget just under £300 per station for machines of that spec (i3 2100, 4gb ram, 160gb+ HDD). The only pain with Solidworks is the god-awful licensing system.

[mrbios]

Thanks Guys,

 

That sounds good overall, the machines i've been speccing are:

i3 2100s

4GB ram

60GB OCZ Agility 3 SSDs (how big is solidworks? Does it work ok operating off network storage? SSDs are our norm now and i try to avoid HDDs wherever possible)

 

And then with the possibility of FirePro V3700s if the HD2000s struggle, will no doubt get a test system in prior to buying all 43 machines we're looking at though as i don't want any **** ups!

[tekins]

Thanks Guys,

 

That sounds good overall, the machines i've been speccing are:

i3 2100s

4GB ram

60GB OCZ Agility 3 SSDs (how big is solidworks? Does it work ok operating off network storage? SSDs are our norm now and i try to avoid HDDs wherever possible)

 

And then with the possibility of FirePro V3700s if the HD2000s struggle, will no doubt get a test system in prior to buying all 43 machines we're looking at though as i don't want any **** ups!

 

Solidworks is around 4GB with all the gubbins it needs, hope it will be fine on 60GB as that's what we'll be using next year!

[localzuk]

We have it running on Core 2 Duo E6550s with 2GB RAM and Intel Q35 Express graphics (onboard).

 

Never had any complaints!

[mrbios]

We have it running on Core 2 Duo E6550s with 2GB RAM and Intel Q35 Express graphics (onboard).

 

Never had any complaints!

 

Ah this is good news then, which version of solidworks are you using?

[localzuk]

Ah this is good news then, which version of solidworks are you using?

 

Currently running 2010, moving to 2011 or whatever the latest is when we migrate to Windows 7 (As it has a requirement of Office 2010 IIRC).

[mrbios]

Currently running 2010, moving to 2011 or whatever the latest is when we migrate to Windows 7 (As it has a requirement of Office 2010 IIRC).

 

From the looks of things 2012 is the latest, but they've already put up the future requirements and supported software list for 2013, no idea when that's released though.

 

It'll be interesting to see if 2012 runs on your hardware as well as it does on 2010, though this thread has already given me enough evidence that workstation graphics cards are by no means a nessecity which is good and should reduce cost a fair whack Ideally i'd want to avoid graphics cards altogether and stick with onboard.

[localzuk]

The graphics card stuff is only really of use if you start getting into mechanics within the software I think, or complex models. I've not seen anyone using our installs for that sorta thing though! Most advanced thing I've seen is creating a dice in it.

[Sylv3r]

Can't remember the exact spec of our PC's running solidworks but they are certainly not overspeced.

 

We also run it on a couple of Atom PC's purchased through stone which are only 2gig and i've not had any complaints regarding the speed etc.