New computer Hardware choices

[dsage]

I'm in the market for a new computer and since Alibre is one of my main uses for the computer I'd appreciate some advice on what hardware I should be looking for i.e. - video card, processor(s), memory etc. I know the sky is the limit for desktops but perhaps there are some things to recommend and others to avoid. Minimums perhaps? I use Alibre Professional.

To be honest my preference would be a replacement for my current laptop since I like to sit in my easy chair which has a swing out arm for a laptop. Even though my old Acer 2300 has served me well and (a testament to ALibre I guess) it works pretty well with Alibre. I'm stuck now since the USB ports all blew so I can't use the mouse or export data anywhere except over a network to another computer.
I understand on-board video cards are not recommended but maybe there is a particular laptop that works well despite that.

Is there a way to have a desktop computer alongside the chair with a monitor, keyboard combination (like a laptop) on the chair table? I don't really need a big honking display. I could easily build some combination mount.

Thanks

Sage

 

[DM8761]

i have my old computer hooked up to my 72" LCD tv screen, then i sit in my lazy boy with a wireless mouse and keyboard. Its my old retired alibre/gaming computer. now it runs neftlix and i check my email/facebook with it. Its also pretty good for watching youtube when guests are over.

you can pretty much do anything you want... you just have to decide "what" you want to do, i do find that trying to do any actual work in a lazy boy is a great way to put urself to sleep...

 

[Hop]

Visit this Alibre website for minimum system requirements.

If you believe the mass media, desktop computers are on their way out. Laptops too. The “In” place to be is with a Tablet computer, preferably one that responds to gestures and finger-painting strokes on a touch-sensitive screen. No mouse or keyboard necessary. Too bad Alibre performs poorly (if at all) in that environment. Currently, Alibre needs a mouse, or a trackball, and a keyboard for user input, wireless preferred.

Alibre is a single-threaded program, meaning it knows nothing about multi-core processors. It is hard to find a new computer that does not have at least two cores, but Alibre will only use one of them. If you launch two or more programs to run simultaneously, say Alibre and a ray-trace rendering program, it is possible that the operating system will allocate a core (or two or more) to each task, but nothing is guaranteed. You may or may not see a performance improvement with multiple cores. You will see a performance improvement with a faster processor, no matter how many cores it has. So, get the fastest CPU you can find regardless of how many cores it has (or doesn’t have). Two gigahertz CPUs are cheap. Start there. Doesn’t really matter if the computer sits on the floor or you lap.

Next load up whatever computer you can find with as much fast random access memory (RAM) as you can afford. With Windows 7 more memory is always better. Four gigabytes should be the minimum installed RAM and 32 gigabytes is what you should be striving for, although I think it’s still a little pricey.

It’s nice to have large hard drives for data and program storage, but make sure you also have a way to back up their contents. A second, removable, drive you can image your system drive onto is advantageous. You might want to have two of these removables so you can rotate them in and out with the latest full-image backup on the one not in use. A solid state drive is nice, but still a little pricey for no huge advantage in speed. You will spend most of your time staring at the screen, not reading or writing to your hard drive. Ultra-performance here is an expensive luxury you probably don’t need.

Next decide what physical display size you need. I like a 24” widescreen LCD for viewing distances of about 18” or so. The display resolution will probably be better than your video card, but try for at least 1920 x 1080 pixels, and make sure the video card will support that resolution. A plain vanilla video card works just fine with Alibre as long as it supports DirectX 9.0c or later. Many computers have an adequate display controller built into the motherboard. You can also connect your video output to your large-screen HDTV in the living room with an HDMI cable, or a wireless video adapter. I prefer the HDMI cable, but my wife uses a Mac with a Mac Air to display on the big-screen TV. It is possible to run Alibre on a Mac using software that emulates a PC with a Windows OS, but forget about Alibre support; you are own your own if you want to go there.

I really like (as in, I am jealous of!) DM8761’s system. Three huge screens, a kick-butt processor, two high-end video cards, and beau coup memory and drives… what’s not to like? You could even load up with some artsy fartsy software and make pretty pictures with that rig. Just add talent.

Good luck finding your ideal Alibre Design system. Remember, though, it will be obsolete in six months or less. I wouldn’t spend more than about two thousand bucks on it.

Hop

 

[jimbees]

I have a 15" Gateway i5 2.4 GHz laptop with 6GB of RAM, dual graphics, 500 GB hard disk and USB3 for home use. It runs 64 bit AD OK with a second monitor and the Nvidia graphics turned on for AD. For $AU850 it is good value. The wireless mouse and second display are extra.

I would make the following comments;
The standard 760 line laptop monitor is pretty horrible to work with, not enough real estate, needs a 1080 line monitor so is a power line tethered laptop, needs a desk with a power point.
The i5 CPU is good value for AD, the i7 CPUs give more cores which are no use for AD but good for rendering programs.
Dual graphics are important, not all i5 CPUs have them but the extra graphics use a lot of power.
6GB of RAM is good enough for not too big assemblies, buy more if you can afford it.
USB3 is not universal yet, good for backing up to a USB HDD.
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit is OK for home, simple networking. You need Professional for attaching to a domain.
Do not even think of running AD with a touch pad instead of a mouse or controller.

I am not a big fan of Acer and have recently bought a similar spec 15.6" Lenovo E530 series thinkpad for somebody else at a similar price. This is the E for economy model but is available with a bit better display. Again if this was for AD, I would be having a second monitor.

If I was doing high end complicated assemblies and Keyshot rendering and Rhino and FEA, then I would spend $2000 and have solid state drives and all manner of stuff which would not fit in less than a tower case floor top PC. Horses for courses.


Jim