solidworks Mid rig for Engineering and light gaming

[NaGoldfarb]

I am looking to build my first computer and I am looking for some advice. I want to build a mid machine ($1000ish) that I can use running engineering software such as Solidworks

and Matlab. I am not too heavy of a user but I definitely have Assemblies with 100-200 parts.  I also want to be able to run some games. I have 1080P monitors that are not the greatest but I am not looking to upgrade. 

 

One big feature that I need to have is 2 boot drives for dual booting Linux and windows with a hard drive for additional data. I want something more powerful than my current laptop I currently using. Which runs SW as well as SW likes to run. 

 

Levenvo P50 with a

Xenon E3-1505M v5 @ 2.80GHz × 8 

Quadro M2000M

16GB of RAM

2x 256GB M.2 drives

500GB harddive.  

 

I know that SW is only "certified" on Quadro card. But I am confused if I really need one or I can use a gaming card or if I can run games on a Quadro. 

Can anyone please point me in the right direction? 

[Avve1000]

SolidWorks is really GPU heavy, the better graphics card the better you can run these kinds of programs. If you also want to play games a good CPU is extremely important.
Do you want a laptop or a stationary pc? 

[NaGoldfarb]

I want to build a stationary pc. I am very happy with my current laptop.

 

 

[NaGoldfarb]

I am also not looking to run the newest AAA titles at the highest frame rate. I just want to do some light gaming. 

[Lord Mirdalan]

Solidworks will run on a "gaming" card. The "certification" is not worth your money, especially with your budget. I would recommend A GTX1080ti or 2070, 16GB of RAM, and any 6-core CPU above 3.6GHz.

 

[brob]

One can game with a Quadro, but performance is not terribly good. Sadly, while Solidworks can use a gaming gpu, its performance is not terribly good. 

 

 

At the mark has an excellent graph of relative performance in Solidworks. Based on the graph it looks like a Vega 56 gpu would be optimal for the budget.

 

PCPartPicker Part List

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 7 2700X 3.7 GHz 8-Core Processor  ($279.99 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: Gigabyte - B450 AORUS PRO WIFI (rev. 1.0) ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($119.99 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Corsair - Vengeance LPX 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($82.99 @ Amazon) 
Storage: Samsung - 860 QVO 1 TB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($107.99 @ Amazon) 
Video Card: Sapphire - Radeon RX VEGA 56 8 GB PULSE Video Card  ($299.99 @ Amazon) 
Case: Corsair - Carbide Series 275R (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($53.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Semi-modular ATX Power Supply  ($74.99 @ Amazon) 
Total: $1019.93
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-05-11 15:07 EDT-0400

 

[Gmoneyinthebank]

-Change CPU... Get the highest clock speed you can afford with over 4 cores.  

-You only need a "Certified" GPU for Solidworks if you're going to use the rendering tools.

-M2000M is a laptop card... Get a Quadro P1000 instead.

[NaGoldfarb]

Thankyou for all the help everyone! 

 

[Bearmann]

https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-SOLIDWORKS-150/Hardware-Recommendations