Why do you need a CAD Workstation to work with Solidworks?
Table of Contents
The Advantage Of High-Speed Computing
Today you can buy a Personal Computer (PC) directly in any store (specialized) or even by making the purchase online. Even for just under € 1,000, we have a computer where CAD programs work. So why would we have to buy a CAD Workstation?
There are many reasons (and components) to answer this question, but it all comes down to one thing in the end: productivity. A professional CAD Workstation pays for itself very quickly with increased productivity because it allows you to work much faster and is significantly more reliable.
We often get questions in this regard. Here we will recall and summarize some of the concepts:
We will break down and discuss all the elements that make a station the right choice for the SOLIDWORKS user for a professional design.
Reliability
The most notable negative impact on productivity comes from low reliability. A computer that does not work well puts us in the worst situation of wasting time. It is why high-speed CAD computers are built alone and with only the highest quality components and remain designed for maximum reliability, not just full speed. The reduction or almost elimination of downtimes, or breakdowns, or problems of one kind or another, is the fundamental advantage of CAD stations over cheap PCs with low-cost components.
Modern CAD software like SOLIDWORKS is particularly computationally intensive software and take full advantage of all the more advanced features than high-end CPUs and more modern motherboards. Higher clock frequencies, multithreading, multiple cores significantly speed up calculations and thus reduce design cycles.
More complex modeling operations, realistic renderings, and simulations run much faster on a professional CAD station than on a regular PC. The benefit of having results much more quickly and performing many more variations on the design at once is obvious. Besides, CAD stations have much more memory or capacity to expand it than regular PCs. They can handle much larger models and easily handle massive amounts of data, which is usually very common.
When looking for a workstation for SOLIDWORKS, we recommend maximum clock speeds for RAM. If possible, they are ECC (with error correction) and at least 16 GB. Also, it can remain increased to 32 or 64 GB. Currently, there is RAM with speeds of 2400 MT / s.
Refrigeration
CAD workstations incorporate advanced cooling systems that allow sustained high loads on the CPU for a long time without overheating its components.
To further increase the performance of CAD stations, some use overclocking (improve the clock speed of their systems, above the standard), and at the same time use advanced liquid cooling systems to maintain their temperatures. The reliability of these systems remains guaranteed against their very high performance over long periods.
When choosing a workstation, you must ensure that there is dual circuitry. Each model/brand has its solutions. Look for a complete solution. In the case of laptops, this issue is fundamental.
Graphics Cards
The demand for CAD and graphics on PCs far exceeds what a standard PC graphics system can provide.
Large 3D models generated in SOLIDWORKS inevitably require specialized graphics cards that allow real-time interaction. Besides, they have reliable drivers optimized for CAD, and, in many cases, specific for certain CAD programs, such as SOLIDWORKS, to avoid malfunctions or even computer crashes or malfunctions. Furthermore, simulation software uses these graphics cards to run calculations more quickly, so there is an additional benefit from using the specialized computational part of these graphics cards.
For proper processing of SOLIDWORKS models, it remains advised that the station’s graphics card must be on the list of cards tested by developers.
Hard Drives And Ssds
Today’s CAD files tend to grow larger and larger, containing large amounts of data that were previously not taken into account or did not exist. On the other hand, the hard drives in standard PCs are notorious for their poor performance (slow) when loading or writing data.
Newer CAD workstations already include SSD (solid-state, no moving parts) drives that exponentially increase speed when handling data. The system’s reliability remains also increased dramatically as, with no moving parts, the failure rate remains reduced to minimal levels. And, as a bonus, these stations are much quieter.
Our advice is to put a first SSD disk of 500 GB or 1 TB. The rest to decide can be HD or SSD. In any case, look for maximum quality.
Completely Customizable
In addition to all the technological benefits mentioned, ideal for productivity, these stations allow/propose complete customization. You can request the station that best suits the work to be carried out. And also defining what components and assembly it should have in response to technical, calculation, graphic card, and budget needs.
Our experts will help you configure the station that maximizes SOLIDWORKS performance at the right price.
