The Work-Station

Work Station Specifications

In this post I will post my current computer specifications and current related software I have installed.

 

The Hardware

Intel® Core™ i5-750 (8M Cache, 4 x 2.66 GHz, 3.2 GHz with Turbo) + Intel® DP55WB.

I chose this processor because it's a quad core, and it has a lot of cache, and it was within the budget, very very important for renderings and simulation modeling applications, like Simulation Premium. The motherboard is one thing that should be strong and should have lots of expansion options, this was the best available within my budget so I went for it, it has 4 RAM slots (4GB/slot) and PCI-e slot (for graphics card), both very important for CAD and rendering applications.

Kingston® 10 GB (1 x KVR1333D3N9/2G + 2 x KVR1333D3N9/4G).

Now when I bought it, I had 2 GB of RAM installed, then gradually up graded to 10 GB, plans are in motion for 4 GB more. RAM is important for FEA, specially for generating matrices, for renderings for iterations and for gaming too.

MSI® AMD® Radeon™ HD6770 (MD1GD5)

The original build had NVidia® GeForce™ GT 240 installed, it got burned. So this current card was the replacement. and I have to say it is very smooth in performance.

Seagate® Barracuda™ 7200 rpm 500 GB

Hard disk is not so much important in CAD work, as designs of single parts may never exceed 500 MB in size, usually stay below 50 MB, so I saved some money and went for 500 GB instead of more.

Intel® 2.1 Channel

The audio is of absolutely no use in CAD and related fields, so I prefer not to waste money on 3rd party sound cards, and go for built-in solution by Intel.

Dell® E1910H

High resolution monitors are icing on the cake, really, in CAD related applications, but are costly, so I chose this one from Dell, it has a maximum resolution of 1366*768 which is fairly good for work and gaming too on a budget.

A4Tech® X6-10D

Mouse is of extreme importance as its your primary input device, machine design and CAD are tough fields and require a lot of concentration, long hours and hard work, so have a nice mouse so that it works smoothly and dose not divert you attention, choose a mouse with high DPI for CAD applications, such as AutoCAD, 1000+ DPI recommended.

Dell® RT7D60

Keyboard must have soft keys, if you plan on using keyboard shortcuts for CAD and long hours of work. This is one thing I will change soon.

Cooler Master® Extreme Power Plus 460W

Good power supply keeps your graphic card and processor at full power and prevent overall system temperature from rising. So spend some money on 3rd party power supply must.

APC 1.5 KVA UPS (as backup power)

You know! Electric power cuts in Pakistan :)

The Software

Windows® 7™ Ultimate SP1 64 bit

Windows 8 has lots of distractions, mainly the Metro® interface! So do not switch! And always install the latest updates.

SolidWorks® 2013 SP0 64-bit, CAMWorks® 2012 64 Bit, AutoCAD® 2013 64 bit

Always buy latest CAD software, manage the budget accordingly!

 

Thank you for your time. I will see in the next post, where I shall upload renderings of the architecture plans, and ways for you to purchase them.