New system for CAD ?

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ilek

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Jul 22, 2013
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So I am starting to university this fall, and my program (mechanical engineering) requires CAD. I currently have a laptop. ( Acer Aspire 5750 with i5 2.4 GHz processor, 6 gb DDR3 ram, and a shitty graphic card) Should I get a new desktop or would the laptop I have right now be enough to run CAD with an acceptable smoothness? If I should get a desktop, what system do you suggest that is under $600 and can run new games as well?
 
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First, if you are able to run games and CAD well on the same machine you will be the first I've heard of. The GPU drivers are diametrically opposed. I strongly recommend you build your own machine. Everybody here will gladly help. Portables are for apps that require portability. BTW, I use Solidworks daily.
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ram1009

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Jun 28, 2007
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First, if you are able to run games and CAD well on the same machine you will be the first I've heard of. The GPU drivers are diametrically opposed. I strongly recommend you build your own machine. Everybody here will gladly help. Portables are for apps that require portability. BTW, I use Solidworks daily.
 
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drtoast

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May 10, 2013
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ram... you do know that high end (eg nvidia kepler gen+) gaming parts pack enough power to overcome the driver advantage?

Although for less than $600 your scraping the barrel, the best bet would be to go for an AMD based system, to have threading power for low price.
 
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ram1009

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Obviously I don't know that. I have a Kepler board in my home system and haven't noticed improved performance. Also, I recommend Quadro over AMD. I've tried many (too many) AMD/ATI boards over the years and always found the drivers to be buggy.
 
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ram1009

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Sorry, I thought you were still talking about GPUs. I have no problem with an AMD CPU for a CAD station but that will add to the inferiority of the system for gaming.

What I would do is to see if the laptop would run the CAD software and build a desktop using the most recent Tom"s System Builders' guidelines for a $650 system.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/budget-mini-itx-gaming-pc,3513.html
 
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