I have looked on Solidworks's Website to spec out a computer to use strictly for Simulation. I can not find anything. All I see is Specs for Solidworks and PDMWorks Enterprise.
Can someone either direct me somewhere to find this, or give me some expert advise?
Thanks,
Rodney
As an example, with my two quad Xeons, I can run one instance of SW calculating a motion analysis and utilising 25 per cent of total CPU resource, then start another instance calculating a similar motion analysis and total CPU utilisation rises to 50 per cent.
We are doing simulation on small parts and small assemblies.
I support Charles here.
In my opinion, i7 is the way to go. 920 + overclock for the cheap way and Extreme edition for the more expensive way (and maybe not the clever way), i7 overclock easily and beyond the max stock speed of the extreme edition. The difference of price is quickly resorbed.
What you will need is speed... and only speed. Currently not all type of simulation takes advantages of the multi core... so one speedy core will perform usually better than a low clocked multi core. When you run a simulation and it says 25% ultilization on a quad core, it means that it is mono threaded and only cap one core out of 4. However, you can run multi instance of SW to better utilize the ressources... In my opinion, I prefer a speedy cpu to do the job.
With the i7series, you have 4 cores, so chose the quickest or make it the quickest possible (with overclocking).
For the hard drive, I also support SSD and especially X-25M from intel, they offer the highest ratio IO operations for the bucks right now. So, one is enough, maybe two... If you can wait, wait for the new generation to be available (somewhere in september I think). If you are afraid of the lifespan, get the X25E, but it cost a load more expensive.
How I see it is to have 12GB of RAM (or more) + a SSD, and create a ramdrive if there is any memory left and use it for Page File (can disable it but in my past experience, I keep a PF in case SW reaches the limit of the physical RAM) and all intensive IO files.
For the graphic cards, we gave a try for a V5700... it was cheap ~475 USD so we went for it, better bang than nvidia solution at the same range of price. So far, performance are good, no issues.
In our work:
Automation workstation (design and multi parts assemblies) are stock dell solutions.
Part design workstation (design of small assemblies with complex geometries) will be updated with homebuilt overclocked computers for better budget control. Speedy stock dell or brand solutions are far more expensive for the value.
Get as many cores as you can. If you want a computer for simulation, I assume you have a bigger budget than most, so I suggest a Core i7, or Nehalem based Xeon. That means your processor should be:
Core i7 940, 950, 960, or 975. The more speed the better, but the 960 and 975 are each considerably more expensive.
or the Xeon W3520, W3540, or W3570
I suggest 12 GB of ram if you do large simulations. 6GB if you only do small stuff.
Vista 64 (and most people have had great success with Win7)
10,000 rpm velociraptor harddrive, or maybe two. Or maybe one solid state drive, plus a raptor.
Video cards:
nVidia Quadro FX1800 or 3800. FX1800 is typically enough
ATI FireGL V5700 is also a good choice, or you could go for one of their faster cards, too.