I hate computers (kinda)

[WZ7U]

OK, it's true. I hate computers the same way I hate anything else I can't immediately understand. To not be able to readily understand what I am looking at is one of my base frustrations. Especially under any kind of gun.

So here I am typing this to you when I should be pulling whats left of my thinning locks out trying desperately to comb through a bunch of sales hooey, all the while having this feeling that none of this is what I really need. Now on to the specifics.

I need a CAD capable computer and the ole win XP girl just isn't up to the task and probably never has been for quite a while. While the memory is great (hundreds of GB), the ram is sorely lacking, the pentium is out of date and the video card is too anemic as well. "Professional" help says it's not worth it to upgrade. So, my 'problem' comes from the yl's insistence that I use Costco as my source for a new machine. Reading through their online sales shit is straight forward enough, but the answers I need just aren't there. OK, so unit xyz has the requisite GB of ram and hard drive space, cool. But what graphics card does it have? Is it 64 bit? Exactly which software is installed and why? Answers I can't seem to get (or understand) in a reasonable fashion.

I am not an IT guy. I've been "IT" plenty of times, but that is neither here or there. She insists Costco has the best warranty and I don't dispute that. But if what they have won't work, well, you get it. The local computer store in town has something they swear will work on their used table and while I trust their assessment of my needs and their product, it is still at the end of the day a used, refurbished laptop that may only get me through school. Why can't the specifics of a computer be as easy to look up as say one might do when considering a new car? Am I just being obtuse again?

My problem is I only get one shot to get the thing right from the $$$ standpoint. I need a workstation, not a porn getter. And my window is rapidly closing. In none of my wildest dreams did I figure this was going to be so difficult. Not to mention the fight that has erupted around here over it. Almost makes me want to quit the whole idea and sell pencils on a street corner somewhere.

Any tips how to weed through the sales fluff? Any suggestions from folks that know what they are looking at vs what does what? Am I spinning my wheels? I wish the specs on the Autodesk and Dassalt web pages could be put into some filter and a reasonable response come out the other side. I know, wish in one hand.......

As usual, thanks ahead of time to the smarterer of us islanders for any input you may have. It is appreciated.


<it kills me to do this to you all this way. sorry>

[koØm]

OK, it's true. I hate computers the same way I hate anything else I can't immediately understand. To not be able to readily understand what I am looking at is one of my base frustrations. Especially under any kind of gun.

So here I am typing this to you when I should be pulling whats left of my thinning locks out trying desperately to comb through a bunch of sales hooey, all the while having this feeling that none of this is what I really need. Now on to the specifics.

I need a CAD capable computer and the ole win XP girl just isn't up to the task and probably never has been for quite a while. While the memory is great (hundreds of GB), the ram is sorely lacking, the pentium is out of date and the video card is too anemic as well. "Professional" help says it's not worth it to upgrade. So, my 'problem' comes from the yl's insistence that I use Costco as my source for a new machine. Reading through their online sales shit is straight forward enough, but the answers I need just aren't there. OK, so unit xyz has the requisite GB of ram and hard drive space, cool. But what graphics card does it have? Is it 64 bit? Exactly which software is installed and why? Answers I can't seem to get (or understand) in a reasonable fashion.

I am not an IT guy. I've been "IT" plenty of times, but that is neither here or there. She insists Costco has the best warranty and I don't dispute that. But if what they have won't work, well, you get it. The local computer store in town has something they swear will work on their used table and while I trust their assessment of my needs and their product, it is still at the end of the day a used, refurbished laptop that may only get me through school. Why can't the specifics of a computer be as easy to look up as say one might do when considering a new car? Am I just being obtuse again?

My problem is I only get one shot to get the thing right from the $$$ standpoint. I need a workstation, not a porn getter. And my window is rapidly closing. In none of my wildest dreams did I figure this was going to be so difficult. Not to mention the fight that has erupted around here over it. Almost makes me want to quit the whole idea and sell pencils on a street corner somewhere.

Any tips how to weed through the sales fluff? Any suggestions from folks that know what they are looking at vs what does what? Am I spinning my wheels? I wish the specs on the Autodesk and Dassalt web pages could be put into some filter and a reasonable response come out the other side. I know, wish in one hand.......

As usual, thanks ahead of time to the smarterer of us islanders for any input you may have. It is appreciated.


<it kills me to do this to you all this way. sorry>

The informed buyer (except Apple-boyz) gets what he pays for; 6th or 7th generation Intel processors, a couple of Gigs of storage (SSD if you want to get sexy but, remember all digital devices have a definite life span; flash drives weren't intended to last for ever), 8 to 16 Gigabytes of RAM and, a video card with at least 1 gigabyte of RAM on-board. 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port, HDMI or Thunderbolt (Mini Display port). Decent audio output system. DVD or Blue-Ray is up to you. Wi-Fi , all modes, Ethernet port and Telephone modem.

Dell is a good name, stay away from PowerSpec and HP.

Just my opinion, YMMV.

.

[koØm]

Oh, and a Camera so you can go "Live" on FaceBook and Twitter.

.

[WZ7U]

No. No camera. A face for radio, remember?

I was told by an instructor bigger, faster, better which makes sense. Oddly enough Dell was the page I'm looking at right now. Precision 3420 to be precise. Seems to fit the bill but I'm always suspicious. On the Costco page I see Dell XPS 8900. Again bigger faster better, but does it really have what I need in it? Someone told me a laptop is the way to go for portability, but laptops have always kinda freaked me out on the whole battery thing plus I have been known to drop expensive electronics from height before. Prolly go desk top for those reasons alone.

All good opinion, thank you. As far as mileage, I try to get as much as possible considering the markup gasoline gets around here. (Did manage $2.19 on the Safeway discount today in Longview, WA)

[WØTKX]

Well, I am a "CAD" guy from way back, and I have some suggestions.

But first, the questions...

What AutoCAD program(s)?
What is preferred, desktop or laptop?
What else do you want to do besides CAD?
What is your max budget, and what do you really want to spend?

What is the maximum velocity of a Bushtit in free fall after attending a Trump rally?

;)

P.S. Surface modelling will take a bit of horsepower in the graphics card.

FWIW, I don't use AutoCAD at home, SketchUp is cool but odd for AutoCAD users.

I do all my modeling in Blender which is complex as hell, but it is 3D and FREE!

[WZ7U]

Well, I am a "CAD" guy from way back, and I have some suggestions.

But first, the questions...

What AutoCAD program(s)?
What is preferred, desktop or laptop?
What else do you want to do besides CAD?
What is your max budget, and what do you really want to spend?

What is the maximum velocity of a Bushtit in free fall after attending a Trump rally?

;)

P.S. Surface modelling will take a bit of horsepower in the graphics card.

FWIW, I don't use AutoCAD at home, SketchUp is cool but odd for AutoCAD users.

I do all my modeling in Blender which is complex as hell, but it is 3D and FREE!

OK big D. I knew you would chime in if I cried out. So, here's the skinny as far as I can tell (in order of asking)

*Solidworks 2016, Autocad 2017 as per the instructors email.
*Preferences.....hard pack, soft pack or bulk? Take bulk. Oh, uh, wrong thing. I suppose desktop although like I said earlier on, a guy said a laptop is more practical as far as going back and forth to an "office". Thoughts on that? Kinda wanted to work from home eventually.
*Other things.....the plan is for it to be strictly a school/work machine. I have tired granny here for this forum stuff, officey tasks, pictures and eventually some radio programs beyond N1MM like Olivia, JT65/9, PSK31 and so on.
*Budget....it always comes down to the Benjies, don't it? Well, I have plenty once the student financial aid gets here in the second week of Sept, but the problem is I need to be going in the 3rd week of Aug. Story of my life. I can get ahold of $700 so far, but like I said, lots more in the wings. I would like to be able to get into something right away that could carry me into a work environment but I may have to settle for a "student" grade setup for now.

*Approximately 54m/sec if I'm not mistaken

So, armed with that, whadda ya think young man?

[N2CHX]

I buy all my [non-Raspberry Pi/embedded] computer shit from M&T reuse. I am right now typing this on a commercial grade HP laptop-- an EliteBook 8460P with an i5 2.5 gHz processor, 320 GB HD and 8 GB of RAM, to be exact, which I picked up from them for $100. It's one of two very similar machines I bought from them last year, along with host of desktop stuff on the cheap. It was only 4 years old when I bought it and has a brushed aluminum case and a battery that lasts forever. Not only do I code on both of these machines, but I also use them for editing/producing youtube videos and to do 3D modeling for building studios and designing tiny houses. They render 3D models quite nicely. Video encoding is slower than I'd like, but works just fine.

http://www.mtreuse.com/

The Buffalo location is literally 10 minutes from me, but they will ship.

[WZ7U]

I buy all my [non-Raspberry Pi/embedded] computer shit from M&T reuse. I am right now typing this on a commercial grade HP laptop-- an EliteBook 8460P with an i5 2.5 gHz processor, 320 GB HD and 8 GB of RAM, to be exact, which I picked up from them for $100. It's one of two very similar machines I bought from them last year, along with host of desktop stuff on the cheap. It was only 4 years old when I bought it and has a brushed aluminum case and a battery that lasts forever. Not only do I code on both of these machines, but I also use them for editing/producing youtube videos and to do 3D modeling for building studios and designing tiny houses. They render 3D models quite nicely. Video encoding is slower than I'd like, but works just fine.

http://www.mtreuse.com/

The Buffalo location is literally 10 minutes from me, but they will ship.

Now, see, that's kinda what I like. Used doesn't usually scare me but since computers are all voodoo to me anyway and the yl has me thinking warranty, I'm in a state of flux. The local computer store has a laptop for $600 used that has an SSD with all the requisite capacities, speeds and necessities but my guess is they bought it from an authorized reseller and ramped it up, with the accompanying markup. I know they gotta eat too, but steak? Figuring this all out is something I KNOW I could do if I only had the brain (thanks straw man, you bastid) for it. Which I WILL get to someday, just not today. Me & computers; appliance operator at best.

I am going to look at M&T right.....................NOW!

[WØTKX]

Solidworks is not just surface modelling. Moar POWER! So, the deal is, multicore doesn't mean as much in this environment, processor speed, graphics, SSD, and RAM does. Solidworks is not going to use multi-threading like some apps do. So don't waste your money on that.

FWIW, Dell Precision M6800 is a hot laptop choice, new is almost 8K, used is 2.5K, budget busted. :(

From Reddit (good resource)...

"Many of Solidworks' operations are single threaded, not multi-threaded, so when you are looking for a CPU focus more on clock speed than the number of cores. Four cores with a higher clock speed is probably more useful than eight cores with a lower clock speed.


I have a 3.6ghz dual core intel i3 box with 16gb of ram at home that is much snappier than the 2.6ghz eight core Xeon box with 12gb of ram that I am stuck with at work (Both systems are running solidworks 2011 though)."

My current PC is a Quad core AMD with a lot of RAM and a medium speed clock. It does well with what I do, but I am not doing solids.

Doubt if you will hit the budget with a laptop, but prolly a tower/desktop. I would recomend used with a local supplier that will back it up.
Or build one, if you want the challenge and annoyances. And yea, an i5 Intel with a faster clock and more $$ in the graphics and RAM.

Or a Quad core AMD, especially if you use an AMD graphics card as well, like I do. For my interests, running the Flex 3000 and video/CAD/Rendering?
It does pretty good for a used PC. I spent under $500 for it and upgraded the power supply, RAM, and graphics in that order. Then an SSD drive.
Maybe $1000 invested, in stages. $140 of that was for the high end TI Firewire card to run the Flex rig, you don't need that.
It is a used Gateway multimedia PC, of all things, from Microcenter. I've had it for 4.5 years.

Give this basic info to your local box builder, and tell 'em to shaddup about gaming PC's, it's not relevant.

Don't ignore a used PC/Laptop that meets these specs. I hope this gives you a good start, eh?

WTF, you calling this Olde Pharte young? :roll:

[WZ7U]

OK, good advice indeed. I will check with the guy in town again and see how far he is willing to back it up. Also going to look over in Portland, up to Seattle and places distant on the used side of things and see whats going on out there some more. A big part of my problem is the clock....gotta be operational in about two weeks. I thought this was going to be a lot easier than it has proved to be so far, but anything worth doing is going to be a pita sometimes.

Like antennas...my compromise antenna is compromised since apparently the south pacific and mid europe can hear me on ssb but the rbn cant hear me on cw. WTF?