Minimum system requirement for CATIA,SOLIDWORKS,PRO-E,FLUENT

Well looking at the specs of your existing computers, I would say you COULD run solidworks and catia on the desktop. The laptop on the other hand probably wouldn't run well at all. I've found that with CAD and design software you need to have some serious hardware pushing them, depending on the size and complexity of the design. Fluent on the other hand I have little knowledge of, but I am going to assume the same as it is a simulation software is probably going to require some serious number crunching to turn out results, again depending on the complexity and variables involved. While I can't give you specifics on the exact hardware, as much would be dependent on your budget, I can give you an idea of what to look at when examining hardware.

First thing that come to mind for hardware is the HD. I would recommend a SSD as they are able to move data quite a bit faster than a standard HD. Biggest problem with them is the cost to GB ratio is a higher than a standard HD atm, but that is getting better all the time. For your particular application I would recommend 2x (or more, depending on if your motherboard can support this) SSD in RAID 0 mode for maximum data transfer speeds. The drawback to this is if one of the drives goes, all data is lost. So a separate large capacity HD is also recommended for storing your files between working on them.

RAM. Lots of it. Minimum stated by some of these programs states it only needs 512MB, however, these programs need as much RAM as you can throw at them generally, especially if the files and complexity are on a larger scale. The thing to look at with RAM is the timings, lower is better, generally, and I would probably suggest going for quad channel (make sure the motherboard supports this!)

CPU. This is probably going to be the most difficult part of the selection as everyone has an opinion on what is better for these programs between AMD and Intel. Best I can tell you is some of the more obvious stuff. Quad core minimum, and as fast as possible. The newer the generation the better (usually, but don't use that as a rule). At this point I would probably have to go with Intel on the overall processing power and speed, but you will pay a premium for it. AMD has some decent solutions at a better price point, but performance in some areas is lacking. Remember that AMD does things very well, and Intel does some things very well, but neither of them do EVERYTHING great.

Graphics cards. Again this is a matter of opinion. But generally, lots of RAM on the card and look at the clock frequencies. The latest cards are generally the greatest, but you pay through the nose for that. If you have the budget and are serious about getting the best rig for this kind of work (and only this kind of work) look into the Quadro lineup from Nvidia. They are specifically designed for workstation work like this, but can cost quite a bit.

While this doesn't exactly answer your question, I hope it does give you, at the very least, an idea of what to look to build or buy a system. The short of it is, if you want performance you are going to have to pay for it but you can build something that will run all three pieces of software well for a decent price (for a desktop). The laptop is going to cost you, there is no getting around that one.

Hope this helps

I'm in Engineering so I've handled those programs and one thing i can say is check the requirements of the programs.

I'm running fairly powerful stuff except for my gpu which is an outdated fireGL but I was looking around to see what people were saying about cards and engineering software and came across this. You have to make sure everything is supported by what you're running this is the most important. I now run a 3rd gen i5 and 8gb of ram. Graphics card has 256mb and runs fine. Note, solidworks(i.e. "solidworks" just means all of those programs) also ran fine on my old dual core 3gb of ram and the same card but i had a 256mb HD ATI card and SW wouldn't have it. I shelled out 145$ for the cheapest fireGL i could find and solidworks worked. The difference between old and new computers was that I could not handle large assemblies and rendering took a bit longer while i turned the model around to look at it. When I did a new build it was like night and day so GPU wasn't the problem. Basically if the picture of the models shows up, you're fine, because from what I've read from other forums, solidworks doesn't use your video card to assist in anything but graphics processing i.e. looking pretty. Maybe you're in need of an update, maybe you should move to 64-bit and start saving up for some powerful RAM because as long as the gpu is supported, you're fine.

If you're bent on gpu replacement, here's a list i already had of the gpu's supported by solidworks, as taken from their site, they also support select nvidia and intel cards:

FireGL: v3600,5600,7600,77010,8600,8650
FirePro:a300,rg220,v3700,3750,3800,3900,4800,4900,5700,5800,5900,7750,7800,7900,8700,8750,8800,9800,w5000,7000,8000,9000

Just by the way, if you're seeking the least bit of satisfaction while doing any gaming, don't go for the cheapest thing, granted it's 5 years after buying my fireGL that it's finally beginning to encounter heavy resistance. In canada I've found a number of super high end cards that are surprisingly cheap.