Laptop specs for SolidWorks

buffalobill

buffalobill

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I have a daughter studying engineering at UCT who now needs a laptop to run SolidWorks. She fried her previous laptop, which wouldn't have done the job anyway, so I'm looking for a replacement that will run the CAD software. Budget's an issue, so I need to keep it under R10000. I can get a good price for an Inspiron 5548 i5. Do you think it will cut the mustard for the next three and a half years, or should I bite the bullet with an i7? Help and advice is needed.
 
buffalobill said:
I have a daughter studying engineering at UCT who now needs a laptop to run SolidWorks. She fried her previous laptop, which wouldn't have done the job anyway, so I'm looking for a replacement that will run the CAD software. Budget's an issue, so I need to keep it under R10000. I can get a good price for an Inspiron 5548 i5. Do you think it will cut the mustard for the next three and a half years, or should I bite the bullet with an i7? Help and advice is needed.
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I doubt your daughter will be able to tell the difference in speed between a i5 and i7 processor. Generally speaking, a laptop in that price range will have a decent enough processor and enough RAM. But it might not come with discrete graphics. I'm not quite sure how much SolidWorks would benefit from having that in a machine. The single biggest bottleneck will probably be the HDD, so if at all possible, try to get a hold of a laptop with a SSD or some kind of hybrid drive. This might be somewhat hard to do with 10k though.
 
Try the Lenovo Y5070, but max the ram to 16gb and for better overall performance you could get a dedicated SSD drive of decent size. That is a good budget conscious alternative that won't break the bank.

We use them with Autocad in the field.
 
Aquadyne said:
Try the Lenovo Y5070, but max the ram to 16gb and for better overall performance you could get a dedicated SSD drive of decent size. That is a good budget conscious alternative that won't break the bank.

We use them with Autocad in the field.
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+1
 
I've run Solidworks on a really crummy i3 laptop (this was 3 years ago). Wasn't exactly pleasant, but it got the job done. Todays i5 should be plenty
 
Solidworks prefers discrete graphics and lots of RAM. CPU is less of an issue. At my previous job, the CAD guys used i7's with 32GB RAM and Nvidia Quadro GPU's. Solidworks loves Quadro!

That being said, although I wasn't a CAD guy, I did run Solidworks 2015 on my Dell Vostro (some 15" model, i5, 8GB RAM and HD4580 mobile discrete graphics). In October 2014 this laptop cost about R12 000. You might find something similar now for less.

We use them with Autocad in the field.
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Solidworks is not Autocad. It is more resource intensive. I've seen it kill PC's that ran Autodesk Inventor and Autocad.
 
i7 only provides more threads and is thus only useful for simulation in Solidworks. Having an i7 reduces simulation time but doesn't provide any benefit to the real time performance. In University your simulations are not intense enough to worry about a monster CPU. i5 is usually the best value for money which finds a sweet spot between speed and value (for gaming and work).
RAM is useful and many will recommend 16GB but for normal use such as university you can get away with 8GB quite easily (I wouldn't drop down to 4GB though). A SSD and discrete graphics card give the most benefit. A workstation graphics card is idea for life span but they are costly and limit the PC in terms of gaming (not sure if your daughter would like to play the odd game).
For discrete graphics I personally prefer nvidia as I find AMD tend to have driver issues but that is preference. If you get a laptop with discrete graphics bear in mind the battery life will not be as good.
 
Aquadyne said:
Try the Lenovo Y5070, but max the ram to 16gb and for better overall performance you could get a dedicated SSD drive of decent size. That is a good budget conscious alternative that won't break the bank.

We use them with Autocad in the field.
Click to expand...

The only problem is the only Y5070 on Nivo is an i7 at just more than R15k. Any other supply sources?
 
Vaughan said:
i7 only provides more threads and is thus only useful for simulation in Solidworks. Having an i7 reduces simulation time but doesn't provide any benefit to the real time performance. In University your simulations are not intense enough to worry about a monster CPU. i5 is usually the best value for money which finds a sweet spot between speed and value (for gaming and work).
RAM is useful and many will recommend 16GB but for normal use such as university you can get away with 8GB quite easily (I wouldn't drop down to 4GB though). A SSD and discrete graphics card give the most benefit. A workstation graphics card is idea for life span but they are costly and limit the PC in terms of gaming (not sure if your daughter would like to play the odd game).
For discrete graphics I personally prefer nvidia as I find AMD tend to have driver issues but that is preference. If you get a laptop with discrete graphics bear in mind the battery life will not be as good.
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What do you mean discrete graphics? This one's got an AMD something or other listed separately. I've had few problems with AMD in the past, in fact prefer them in my PC for perverse reasons.
She's also looking at prices in the US where everything is significantly cheaper. I have in the past imported kites (my personal passion) from Seattle via UPS and it took three-and-a-half days, bypassed customs and was delivered to my doorstep. I know this is beyond the original question but are there any downsides these days to this approach - apart from it being grey market?
 
Solidworks is heavy on the graphics card... and most laptops don't do too well in this regard.
 
buffalobill said:
I understand that but how I tell what the laptop has?
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A lot of people are telling you that Solidworks is graphically and RAM intensive. This is true, but 6GB of RAM and Intels integrated graphics will do the job just fine. Maybe a bit of lag here and there, but will be just fine.

When you are working with assemblies with hundreds of parts, then you will need better specs and if you want dedicated graphics there are options. check your inbox

Source: I am a ME who does my own modelling, I also recently completed a masters part time and had to do a module dedicated to modeling and analysis with Pro E (Creo) and flew through with a few year old i5 based notebook
 
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buffalobill said:
What do you mean discrete graphics? This one's got an AMD something or other listed separately. I've had few problems with AMD in the past, in fact prefer them in my PC for perverse reasons.
She's also looking at prices in the US where everything is significantly cheaper. I have in the past imported kites (my personal passion) from Seattle via UPS and it took three-and-a-half days, bypassed customs and was delivered to my doorstep. I know this is beyond the original question but are there any downsides these days to this approach - apart from it being grey market?
Click to expand...

US use a different voltage and frequency, so that could be an issue, or at the least require a new plug or adaptor. The other issue is lack of warranty in some cases or inability to return a DOA. The other issue is customs can be a crap shoot.
 
R10000 you'll be hard pressed to find a good laptop for CAD software.
You should aim for the R15000 range to be happier.

But imo, a desktop is a better bet.
 
Do you want a portable machine to do facebook, some gaming, and watch movies? Get a laptop.

Do you want a CAD machine? get a desktop.
 
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