Help me build a CAD computer

I really need to build up a computer to do CAD and also run programs like MathCAD, Racing by the Numbers and try out X Motor Racing and some of the ProRacingSim suite of programs. I am trying to figure out what I need as far as a motherboard, CPU and video card. I was thinking about a Solid State Drive as a boot drive and a terabyte drive as the second drive. What is the least I can spend to build up a decent machine?

IIRC, you are doing SolidWorks, correct?

Go to their site and duplicate the recommendations as much as you can. Especially on video card.

DILYSI Dave wrote: IIRC, you are doing SolidWorks, correct? Go to their site and duplicate the recommendations as much as you can. Especially on video card.

I am using SolidWorks at work but I will be using an old version of SolidEdge (an old student edition I have laying around) and probably one of those free CAD programs. I would like a little extra punch then the minimum. I am just not sure what to focus my money.

IMO, Priority 1 = video card. Priority 2 = RAM. Prority 3 = the latest greatest processor. I'd much rather have double the RAM and a year old processor.

In reply to DILYSI Dave:

Really I would have figured RAM and processor would have been more important then the video card.

I just built this:

MB:
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3-iSSD

Processor:
Unlocked i5

GPU:
Gigabyte GV-R685D5-1GD (AMD Radeon HD6850)

16GB of Vengence RAM (matching MB specs)
Antec 750w PS
2TB 6g/s Seagate Barracuda drive
CoolerMaster case

Total outlay was just around $800 and it screams. It runs iRacing with everything on max at 200 frames per sec. It compiles a million lines of C++ in 8 minutes flat (used to take 20 on my P4)

It runs OS-X, Mint Linux and Win7 with all the hardware in full working order (except win7 can't see my USB3 ports for some reason, and OS-X won't wake up from deep sleep).

Unless you are doing heavy rendering and 3d modeling, I would agree that RAM is more important. But you likely do want a video card.

My old computer at work just got replaced, for what I used it for it was working fine, but it was out of HD space. 4 gigs ram, only 70 gig HD, can't remember the video card. Mostly just drafting plats with the occasional topo processing, generating surface models for engineering/surveying related work.

I'll see if I can view the specs of my new comp tomorrow.

Hell my home pc is nothing special, processor quicker than my old work computer, same RAM, no 3d card yet, bigger HD, can run autocad land development desktop just fine. I paid $400 for it, you could probably build a better one for less these days, especially of you have all your peripherals.

I built a computer last year specifically for 3D solid modeling.

I picked up the best mother board within my budget.

I ran as much RAM as the MB could read (16G in this case).

I ran Win7 64 bit so it could read the ram (Can't get the software to run under Linux)

I ran the biggest Workstation 3D graphics card (not gaming card) within my budget (I ran an AMD Firepro - http://www.amd.com/us/products/workstation/graphics/ati-firepro-3d/Pages/ati-firepro-3d.aspx - there are others)

Nothing else really matters. Machine still works great.

Our computer guy at work put two together. One for a co-worker, one for the shop. He spent around $800 . We use Solid Works and Auto Cad. I will find out specs.

Dave is right... video card is crucial. You'd be astounded at the difference between a CAD/3d workstation card and a gaming video card 3x the size and price. In a 3D modeling environment a Quadro 600 will squash a Geforce Mega314GT250HzTurboOCEdition or whatever.

So, A) get a decent video card. A Quadro 600 can be found for ~$150. It is a great card and won't hold you back until you start to get into serious surfacing or assemblies >500 parts

B) 8 gigs of ram minimum. Its cheap, so just get a E36 M3 ton. Try and get a mobo/ram/processor combo that runs a reasonable speed.

C) Get dual monitors. This matters more than a hot-E36 M3 processor. Much more.

D) Get a processor. Something decent, but it doesn't need to be the latest hot E36 M3. An i5 will do just fine. FWIW I benchmarked my ~4 year old Core2 e8500 in Solid Edge and it was still relatively on-par with newer processors. One core will be fully loaded quite often, but the new processors just don't offer a ton of performance advantage until you get into FEA, CFD, etc.

D) Get other E36 M3. Its mostly meaningless. If you have room in the budget, get a high resolution mouse. SSDs are nice, but the bang for the buck from a CAD standpoint isn't that great. I benchmarked my machine with a WD650 7200rpm drive and also with a Fusion IO $$$$ TEXAS PCIe SSD (roommate is a sales engineer) setup, and the difference wasn't very noticeable with SE. I simply don't load/unload files enough for it to matter.

I spec'd out machines for the office (although the company decided to go with Dell units instead for ~3X the price), and including peripherals and monitors with a kickass processor (IIRC i7-960 at the time), the total was about $1100. I'd say you could easily knock that down to $850.

ProDarwin wrote: So, A) get a decent video card. A Quadro 600 can be found for ~$150. It is a great card and won't hold you back until you start to get into serious surfacing or assemblies >500 parts B) 8 gigs of ram minimum. Its cheap, so just get a E36 M3 ton. Try and get a mobo/ram/processor combo that runs a reasonable speed. C) Get dual monitors. This matters more than a hot-E36 M3 processor. D) Get a processor. Something decent, but it doesn't need to be the latest hot E36 M3. An i5 will do just fine. FWIW I benchmarked my ~4 year old Core2 e8500 in Solid Edge and it was still relatively on-par with newer processors. One core will be fully loaded quite often, but the new processors just don't offer a ton of performance advantage until you get into FEA, CFD, etc. D) Get other E36 M3. Its mostly meaningless. If you have room in the budget, get a high resolution mouse. SSDs are nice, but the bang for the buck from a CAD standpoint isn't that great. I benchmarked my machine with a WD650 7200rpm drive and also with a Fusion IO $$$$ TEXAS PCIe SSD (roommate is a sales rep) setup, and the difference wasn't very noticeable with SE. I simply don't load/unload files enough for it to matter.

Thanks for the suggestion on the video card. I will get a dual monitor setup eventually (I am running one at work with dual 24" monitors). I may be doing some FEA but not a lot so I will probably get a dual core. I was thinking about doing dual drives. A small SSD (as a boot drive) and a larger 7200rpm drive.

Oh and of course make sure you are running a 64 bit OS so you can make use of all the ram.

If you have any Solid Edge specific questions, feel free to ask me. FWIW if you are still a student, the student edition is free.

In reply to ProDarwin:

It will be running Windows 7 Pro. I have an old license of SolidEdge V20 Student laying around I was going to probably use for hobby stuff. And get one of the free CAD programs to do some not hobby stuff.

+1 on dual monitors. I have my workspace taking up an entire screen, command window and a few menus taking up half the other screen, other half available to view other files when necessary. like emails, PDF's etc...

My new work PC.... ATI FirePro V4800 video card, 8GB Ram, Windows 7 Pro 64 bit, Intel Xeon CPU E3-1245 3.3GHZ, 500gb HD