3. Storage (Hard Drives)

Storage is where things have become interesting lately. In the early days when computers weren't that fast, transferring data to and from the hard disk drive (HDD) was not much of a problem as the computer could rarely process data any faster then it could read/write to the hard drive. However with the increase of processor speeds, read/write speeds of hard drives have become the limiting factor for real world performance. Standard SATA hard drives spin at 5,600 - 7,200 RPM, with some drives hitting the 10 and 15,000 mark. Moving from a 5,600 or 7,200 drive to a 10,000 rpm drive will give you a noticeable speed difference to computer boot up times, program start times and read/write times (ie: opening and saving files). Also fairly new on the scene are Solid State Drives (SSD). These puppies are fast, quiet and run cool... but they ain't cheap. A 120GB SSD drive will cost around 2-5 times that of a conventional 500GB HDD, however if you want fast secure performance, these things are worth their weight in gold. SSD are useful in laptops and mobile devices where they are more likely to experience shock as they're mobile devices. At their current price they aren't great value for desktop workstations unless you're worried about earthquakes corrupting your hard drive.

Video example of the effect of SSD on program boot up speeds! I know its a Mac but you get the idea.

Considering everything you create with Solidworks needs to be saved somewhere, storage is one area you don't want to skimp on. Hard drives have improved considerably over the last few years however they are not bullet proof so you must remember to back up your data. If your paranoid about hard drive failure you have a few options. SSD drives are safer then conventioned HDD but their still in they infancy and pretty expensive. Another option is to run two HDD's side by side in a mirror configuration (know as RAID 1). You will only get the storage size of one drive (as they are mirrored) but if one drive dies, your data will be safe on the second drive. Simple replace the fault drive and the data will be mirrored accross to it so you again have some redundancy.

Another way to improve preformance if your running Vista or Windows 7 is ReadyBoost. This will only increase the speed of Windows and your Programs when they start up, you will not get any increase in opening or saving files or using Solidworks.

What about graphics cards?

In my experience high end big dollar graphics cards do not contribute that much to the performance of Solidworks... as long as your using a workstation CAD card that has been certified by Solidworks then you shouldn't have any problems. Most entry/mid level CAD graphics cards will do the job for the average user. High end graphics cards will give you better performance on-screen performance for things like realview and rotating very complex geometry but they wont increase the speed of normal Solidworks use or when rendering with Photoview of Photoworks.

Solidworks have a long list of certified cards but what is comes down to is Quadro FX, and ATI FirePro. Other manufacturers produce graphics cards with these chipset and in most cases they are as good as the original.

Nearly all graphics card these days support dual monitors which I highly recommend as it enables you to be viewing a PDF or DXF on one screen while modelling in Solidworks on the other. So instead of spending $1,500 dollars on a high eng graphics card why not put the money towards a good set of 24" monitors and watch your productivity increase. But! what ever graphics card you get, make sure it has the right outputs to suit your monitor/s. VGA connectors are now a thing of the past and DVI is slowly being replaced by DisplayPort. HDMI has been used quiet a bit on gaming monitors but its limited to a resolution of 2560×1600 (HDMI 1.3) so DisplayPort was introduced to support bigger resolutions (max 3840 x 2160) for larger monitors...

Brand name or custom built?

Brand name computers like Dell, HP and Lenovo have some pretty good workstation offerings but they can be limited in component selection. Some manufacturers use cheap parts for power supplies, memory etc and others may only use one brand of video card, which is annoying if you want a particular brand.

The advantage with Brand name workstation is they offer good after sales support and warranties but all this is factored into the price so you'll pay more for the equivalent custom built system. Going for a custom built system could save you a few hundred dollars but if your buying multiple machines that can start to add up.

On the other hand building a custom workstation allows you to specify exactly what components you want to use and in most cases provides you with a much more powerful machine at a lower costs. You don't get the aftersales support and warranty that the brand name PC companies offer but every component is usually covered by the manufacturers warranty and if you have a good IT guy on hand you shouldn't have any problems that can't be fixed.

Conclusion

Specifing and researching each and every component to fit within your budget can be a time consuming and painful process but if done well you'll end up with a much better system allowing you to get the most out of your investment in Solidworks.

Whether you go Brand name or custom built its a matter of personal preference and price but either way having a workstation that is tuned for Solidworks can make a massive difference to performance which is at the end of the day is what counts.

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