Mechanical 3D Design Computer Built - Help!

[180SXTCY]

Thought I would post up on here as there is a fair few drafters and mechanical designers on this forum.

I do ALOT of 3D mechanical designs at work, currently using Solid works.

The models get fairly large, for example the one I'm working on now has probably 500+ parts in it and my machine just struggles with it and its driving me up the wall.

Current machine specs are:

Windows 7 professional 64 bit
Intel i7 CPU &2.93 GHz
12 GIG DDR3 Ram
Intel 520 solid state - solidwork only
NVidia quarto K6000
2 x 27" screens.


Someone through me together a list of parts for mechanical design work pls!!!

[Wrexter]

Probably the wrong place to ask, go to the solidworks forums.

Your specs look fine though, then again I don't normall deal with 500+ part models.

What are you modelling with so many parts?

[dmanvan]

^^ specs of CPU,HDD good although prof64bit can handle up to 192 GB RAM so you could upspec ram as a first port. If you haven't built the system yourself you will probably find RAM is often the way a kit builder/ company will make up some margin on as most people will look at the number not the quality.

You could go for some Corsair Dominator Platinum available in a few different speeds start with a 16GB (more than your current spec and should make a big difference straight away)..

hope that helps.

edit: (and your graphics card is killer so that shouldn't be a bottleneck at all)......

[Evman]

Open up the performance monitor and see what's limiting it first

[Alt_F4]

Its the CPU without doubt (lack of cores and raw speed).
RAM could do with a bump but likely isn't the limiting factor yet.
Storage is decent.
GPU is strong.

It looks like you might be running an i7 920 (x58 platform), if so you can likely upgrade to a 6 core xeon that runs significantly better for $100-200
CPU/Mobo specs will help.

This is my Game/CAD rig setup at home... although I'm only focused on 2D or basic 3D (civil)

[180SXTCY]

Thanks for the input so far guys.

Wrexer I work in oil and gas so things like BOP Skids, BOP tree's etc has hundreds of hydraulic fittings, valves etc.

Computer was given to me here at work no idea who built it.

I've been doing some research and it appears solid works doesn't utilise multithread cpus very good.

I've also looked at the performance monitor during operation and it says ecu is only at 33% and ram usage is around 3-4 gigs.

[Alt_F4]

Check task manager, see if solidworks exe has a *32 next to it.
If so your running the 32bit version and are essentially knee capped in performance.

[Lump]

correct, i use up to 8gig of memory with navisworks models & thats 64bit

[evo5aurus]

solidworks is all about the CPU, the higher the frequency the better. might even be worth looking at overclocking

[mod]

upgrade the CPU to the latest i7 6700K with a aio cooler then over clock it

with ram 32 gig is a must if not more the merrier for workstations

mobo get one that looks pretty to suit the correct cpu socket 1151

[adrenalin]

There is no 64 bit version of solidworks.

Mine runs stuff pretty well and havnt had many issues.

I run a Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30 GHZ

32 GB Ram

[Alt_F4]

There is no 64 bit version of solidworks.
Solidworks 2015 & 2016 are available in 64bit only, 2014 was available in either.

[180SXTCY]

Correct. I checked my version today its definitely 64 bit.

I'm going to throw a heap more ram in it and see what happens. Inglt a feeling it's running outnas today I was getting low "physical" memory warnings.

[adrenalin]

Yea shit I didn't even realise

My bad.

[Niva]

more ram. bigger gpu?

[180SXTCY]

Yeah got onto the IT department today asking for another 12 gig.

Will start there.

[eaglesfandavid]

Perhaps already sorted but if going a new computer check these guys out:
http://ic3d.com.au/products/hardware/ic3d-workstations/