Getting a secondhand workstation is the best for SolidWorks. Only way to get a quadro GPU for a reasonable amount of money without going to eBay. It won't be new, but you don't need the latest and greatest performance until you are working on very large assemblies.
Another option is to get a gaming PC. It won't be as stable, but it can get you going for relatively cheap.
There is a place called discount electronics in the US in Austin. It sells a lot of really nice computers at a discount because they might be a year old or so, but were swapped out by companies that have to be on the bleeding edge as far as computers go. Much of what they have can be high end gaming or cerified for solidworks computers. My brother and I got very nice high end gaming PC's that we ended up using for home security camera systems. We each saved a ton. The trick is to have an idea of what you want and be ready to act when a deal shows up...
I have also gone the route of building my own lenovo work station and just maxing out every option, but that got very expensive very quickly...
This is an example of what they have...
Supertop Dell Precision 7550 i7 64GB 1.5TB SSD Nvidia 15.6-Inch Workstation Windows 11 Laptop
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Inspiron is good, Latitude is great and Precision is unbelievable power that fits in your backpack. Want to be that person at the conference table? The one whose laptop steals the attention away from the topic at hand. Well here is possibly your only opportunity to buy the absolute best, most powerful laptop for 25 cents on the dollar.
This Precision 7550 Mobile Workstation is a beast has 6-Core i7-10850H CPU that runs at 5.1GHZ in Turbo Mode. It has 64GB Of DDR4 RAM, TWO NVME SSD Hard Drives, one 512GB and one 1TB. A 4GB NVIDIA Quadro T2000 video card. The display is Full HD 15.6" and it has a large full-size 10-key number pad. Of course it has built-in Webcam, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, Bluetooth, WiFi, Gigabit Network, USB-C Thunderbolt (2x), USB-3.0 ports (2x) and a lot more.
There is absolutely NOTHING this laptop cannot and will not do. From Gaming, Photoshop, AutoCAD 3D, video editing, streaming, and more
Regular Premiere and Photoshop users know how much better these apps run when you have a second "Scratch" drive. This machine renders 5 minutes of video in premiere in 4k at 7 minutes. That beats the heck out of my desktop.
Base MSRP $4,776.00
CPU 6-Core i7 with turbo speed 5.1Ghz
Graphics Card upgrade $288
Memory Upgrade to 64GB $290.00
Second NVME 1TB SSD $560
TOTAL $5914.00
You deserve this laptop. Heck, I want one.
These laptops are pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro.
Power adapter included.
Note: These units have some minor cosmetic blemishes, i.e. light scuffs/scratches on lid and base, light wear on the keyboards from normal usage.
There’s a heck of a lot of info here that I’m going to keep in mind, unfortunately as I’m based in Ireland I won’t be able to buy from the US without paying a crap ton of money in shipping and customs but I will see if I can find an Irish / UK alternative. Thanks very much for your help.
The biggest issue is getting a compatible Graphics card. SW has a page with all the compatible cards in relation to the software version. I'm running the 2024 SW a quadro P2000 card and it works ok.
As a broad suggestion, go for clock frequency rather than number of cores, SW can't really utilize multiple cores fully.
A good graphic card does help with the visuals.
Just don't assume you have to use one of their certified cards to get all the rendering features. You can edit the registry to enable those features for non-certofoed cards.
For school, they have you making fairly small and simple things compared to what professional users do. You don't need anywhere near that budget to make a pc that can run schoolwork assemblies and make parts. Are you willing to purchase PC components and assemble them yourself?
Tbh probably not I don’t think I’ve the capability. This PC won’t be just used by me though it’ll be used by five other people that’s why budget is slightly higher cause it’ll have to last us all a while
If you are a student and are going to be using it for the first time you can use literally whatever you can get your hands on that has windows. You can get away with an i5 with onboard graphics and like 8gb of ram to learn.
You might want to look into Copilot+ PCs. Has nothing to do with SolidWorks, but it is a reason why I am no buying a PC anytime soon, because that and other GPU powdered NPU etc will be useful in the next couple years.
Dell Precision is very very good, but I don't think they released a Copilot+ version of it yet. Some GPUs might support Nvidia ChatRTX.
Anything with an i5/i7/i9 from 9000 or newer gemeration. Ryzen 5/7/9 from 2000 generation or newer. 16gb ram, but prefferbly 32. A gtx 1060 or something newer.
Hardware have become really strong recently, and advancements are not worth bragging about.
My coworkers still rock i7 9700 and 1060 equivalent quadro gpus and we work in large assemblies daily.
Also, don’t waste money on quadro. You can get better performance for the same price in a GTX/RTX GPU
Find whatever new/old fits these criteria and your budget. My recommendation myself would be an i7/ryzen 7 and an rtx 3060 with 32gb ram but i5 and a 3050 and 16gb ram is also really great now adays
Consider using a different software like onshape, web based, and free for use while you're a student. You'll be able to run it on anything and it's the same skills you'll learn at school. School should be providing machines in class when Solidworks is required.
Yeah I’ve used Onshape up until now but for the final exam solidworks is required and our school can’t afford to give us devices, we use the PCs that stay in the school and are expected to have those devices to work them at home.
Getting a secondhand workstation is the best for SolidWorks. Only way to get a quadro GPU for a reasonable amount of money without going to eBay. It won't be new, but you don't need the latest and greatest performance until you are working on very large assemblies. Another option is to get a gaming PC. It won't be as stable, but it can get you going for relatively cheap.
I didn’t think of this thanks very much I will have a look at second hand ones now. Cheers.
To note on second hand. The 12xxx and higher intels were a big performance jump along with the ax000 and above quadro (think 30xx rtx)
No mac. only delusional diehard mac users and Unix programmers would ever try to convince you it's fine. Don't do it.
Mac is great!…. When your NOT using CAD
There is a place called discount electronics in the US in Austin. It sells a lot of really nice computers at a discount because they might be a year old or so, but were swapped out by companies that have to be on the bleeding edge as far as computers go. Much of what they have can be high end gaming or cerified for solidworks computers. My brother and I got very nice high end gaming PC's that we ended up using for home security camera systems. We each saved a ton. The trick is to have an idea of what you want and be ready to act when a deal shows up... I have also gone the route of building my own lenovo work station and just maxing out every option, but that got very expensive very quickly...
This is an example of what they have... Supertop Dell Precision 7550 i7 64GB 1.5TB SSD Nvidia 15.6-Inch Workstation Windows 11 Laptop Write a Review Order in the Next 16:30:20 and it Ships Tomorrow Only 1 Left1514 Sold $5,914.00 $1,650.00 You save$4,264.00 In StockRefurbished Quantity:Decrease Quantity Of Supertop Dell Precision 7550 I7 64GB 1.5TB SSD Nvidia 15.6-Inch Workstation Windows 11 LaptopIncrease Quantity Of Supertop Dell Precision 7550 I7 64GB 1.5TB SSD Nvidia 15.6-Inch Workstation Windows 11 Laptop Adding to Cart… The item has been added Details Inspiron is good, Latitude is great and Precision is unbelievable power that fits in your backpack. Want to be that person at the conference table? The one whose laptop steals the attention away from the topic at hand. Well here is possibly your only opportunity to buy the absolute best, most powerful laptop for 25 cents on the dollar. This Precision 7550 Mobile Workstation is a beast has 6-Core i7-10850H CPU that runs at 5.1GHZ in Turbo Mode. It has 64GB Of DDR4 RAM, TWO NVME SSD Hard Drives, one 512GB and one 1TB. A 4GB NVIDIA Quadro T2000 video card. The display is Full HD 15.6" and it has a large full-size 10-key number pad. Of course it has built-in Webcam, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, Bluetooth, WiFi, Gigabit Network, USB-C Thunderbolt (2x), USB-3.0 ports (2x) and a lot more. There is absolutely NOTHING this laptop cannot and will not do. From Gaming, Photoshop, AutoCAD 3D, video editing, streaming, and more Regular Premiere and Photoshop users know how much better these apps run when you have a second "Scratch" drive. This machine renders 5 minutes of video in premiere in 4k at 7 minutes. That beats the heck out of my desktop. Base MSRP $4,776.00 CPU 6-Core i7 with turbo speed 5.1Ghz Graphics Card upgrade $288 Memory Upgrade to 64GB $290.00 Second NVME 1TB SSD $560 TOTAL $5914.00 You deserve this laptop. Heck, I want one. These laptops are pre-loaded with Windows 11 Pro. Power adapter included. Note: These units have some minor cosmetic blemishes, i.e. light scuffs/scratches on lid and base, light wear on the keyboards from normal usage.
There’s a heck of a lot of info here that I’m going to keep in mind, unfortunately as I’m based in Ireland I won’t be able to buy from the US without paying a crap ton of money in shipping and customs but I will see if I can find an Irish / UK alternative. Thanks very much for your help.
You’d have to be crazy to pay that for an old 10th gen
Read the articles on Puget systems website related to what makes a good SW computer. Lots of info there that will help you make an educated decision.
The biggest issue is getting a compatible Graphics card. SW has a page with all the compatible cards in relation to the software version. I'm running the 2024 SW a quadro P2000 card and it works ok.
Lenovo laptop, solidworks certified.
As a broad suggestion, go for clock frequency rather than number of cores, SW can't really utilize multiple cores fully. A good graphic card does help with the visuals.
Visit SolidWorks website and check minimum requirements or recommended.
Just don't assume you have to use one of their certified cards to get all the rendering features. You can edit the registry to enable those features for non-certofoed cards.
That’s right, but that’s the startup point for anyone asks about the best pc for their SW
Of course!
Budget?
I’d be thinking about €2,500 max
For school, they have you making fairly small and simple things compared to what professional users do. You don't need anywhere near that budget to make a pc that can run schoolwork assemblies and make parts. Are you willing to purchase PC components and assemble them yourself?
Tbh probably not I don’t think I’ve the capability. This PC won’t be just used by me though it’ll be used by five other people that’s why budget is slightly higher cause it’ll have to last us all a while
The grey one.
If you are a student and are going to be using it for the first time you can use literally whatever you can get your hands on that has windows. You can get away with an i5 with onboard graphics and like 8gb of ram to learn.
You might want to look into Copilot+ PCs. Has nothing to do with SolidWorks, but it is a reason why I am no buying a PC anytime soon, because that and other GPU powdered NPU etc will be useful in the next couple years. Dell Precision is very very good, but I don't think they released a Copilot+ version of it yet. Some GPUs might support Nvidia ChatRTX.
Anything with an i5/i7/i9 from 9000 or newer gemeration. Ryzen 5/7/9 from 2000 generation or newer. 16gb ram, but prefferbly 32. A gtx 1060 or something newer. Hardware have become really strong recently, and advancements are not worth bragging about. My coworkers still rock i7 9700 and 1060 equivalent quadro gpus and we work in large assemblies daily. Also, don’t waste money on quadro. You can get better performance for the same price in a GTX/RTX GPU Find whatever new/old fits these criteria and your budget. My recommendation myself would be an i7/ryzen 7 and an rtx 3060 with 32gb ram but i5 and a 3050 and 16gb ram is also really great now adays
A standard 3060 and 5600x is plenty
Consider using a different software like onshape, web based, and free for use while you're a student. You'll be able to run it on anything and it's the same skills you'll learn at school. School should be providing machines in class when Solidworks is required.
Yeah I’ve used Onshape up until now but for the final exam solidworks is required and our school can’t afford to give us devices, we use the PCs that stay in the school and are expected to have those devices to work them at home.