Hardware for Wildfire 5

[lancingguy81]

Hi guys

I have recently graduated from University and am looking to increase my skills in Pro Engineer, I am looking to buy Wildfire 5 student addition for personal use.

Could anyone please recommend a laptop that I should buy or the setup I should look for to enable me to run it with minimum slowdown.

Thanks in advance

Simon

 

[AaronMejia]

If you are looking for a Laptop you want to go for a machine with an i7 processor, at least 4 gb RAM and a Quadro video card with dedicated memory. An ATI Fire would do. Either way, you want at least 512 MBof dedicated video RAM. A 64-bit OS is a must.


For the "minimum slowdown" you want a killer machine, top of the line. You want an i7 processor with 8GB of RAM and a HD that spins at 10k. A Quadro or Fire card with at least 1 GB of video memory is absolutely necessary. Personally I prefer Quadros, but that's up to you. You also want to go for a HD screen, although a resolution of 1920 x 1080 may not be necessary if you plan to use it with external monitors.


If your budget is not that big you can do with a Core2 processor, Quad core if you can, but at least 2.2 Ghz. 2 GB Ram would do if you're not working with medium-large assemblies, but memory is cheap so try to get at least 4 GB. Any gaming card with at least 512 MB would suffice for light work, but if you are working with medium or large assemblies or complex geometries then you should expect a noticeable decrease in performance.


One last recommendation: Stick to a regular wheel mouse. Intellimouse and some wireless mice have drivers that may cause conflict with your video drivers. Tha applies to all of those nice Logitech devices with fancy programmable buttons.

 

[hasan_t_almasri]

Aron,
Dose the specifications you mentioned are suitable for
FEA? i am working on large designs, Core 2 due 2.93, 3 GB
of RAM, 32 Windows XP. ATI Radeon HD 1GB, and all taking
so much time and fails mostly.

Thanks and Regards

 

[lancingguy81]

Cheers Aaron, now to look for a good deal

 

[Mindripper]

In today's world, it's worthwhile to get a mobile workstation. These devices are so powerfultoday that they can compete with a full-blown desktop system. It's not that much more money, and you can take it with you. This is quite useful for presentations and working outside the office. You didn't mention if you have a job yet: it can also be used for presenting your work in a job interview.


Here's PTC's latest list of recommended hardware:


[url]http://www.ptc.com/appserver/wcms/standards/fileothumbredire ct.jsp?&im_dbkey=77552&icg_dbkey=841 [/url]


PTC (and SW, incidentally) recommend a Dell M4500 or HP 8540w with the Quadro FX 1800M video card as a minimum for a reasonably competent user. Make this small investment in your future: don't get an entry-level system. These two systems run about $1500 USD. Much more capable machinesare the Dell M6500 or HP 8740w with the Quadro FX 3800M card: these costaround $3500 USD. The link above doesn't show Dell hardware, nor does it show the Quadro 3800M: the Quadro 2800M is much less capable, and the Quadro 5000M is hideously expensive. I'm sure the 3800M will work just fine with Pro/E (and many other CAD programs), and I am also sure that Dell systems are also great CAD hardware. The Quadro cards are generally preferred by CAD software companies: remember that PTC is not the only show in town, so you want to be prepared to go in another direction, esp. so early in your career.

 

[lancingguy81]

Sorry to be a pain but after looking at the recommended workstations and seeing that they're nearly

 

[AaronMejia]

Aron,
Dose the specifications you mentioned are suitable for
FEA? i am working on large designs, Core 2 due 2.93, 3 GB
of RAM, 32 Windows XP. ATI Radeon HD 1GB, and all taking
so much time and fails mostly.

Thanks and Regards

If you are running finite elements, you definitely want a 64-bit OS. Other than that, you look good. I recommend that you monitor your RAM usage during an analysis, you may be running out of memory.

 

[AaronMejia]

Sorry to be a pain but after looking at the recommended workstations and seeing that they're nearly

 

[brent.drysdale]

Hi Simon,
If it was me I would not go with the HP shown in your link. I agree that it will likely work for ProE with a limited number of open windows. Sure you can have higher specifications in most areas and the Graphics processor uses part of the main RAM but my big objection is the low screen resolution of 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ). This will be very limiting as your menu stuff will be relatively bigger in relation to your modelling window. If you ever see ProE being shown on a projector you are likely to see what I mean.
You could consider a second hand computer such as a couple of years old Dell M6300 17"WUXGA (1920x1200) or the 15" (not sure of the model number but probably something like M4300) or possibly an older (about four years) Dell M90 (17"WUXGA) or M70 15"WUXGA. All these have dedicated graphics cards that will still run WF5 OK for lower end use.

You may also be able to find a lower end model that still has a Full HD (1920x1080) screen.

Good luck.
Regards, Brent