At the crux of the issue, it isn’t feasibly possible to fit a mobile workstation with desktop caliber components. There is no wiggle room here. It is just a fact. Take a look at desktop processors compared to those available for notebooks – there is a major difference in speed, cache, power draw, and number of cores. These same comparisons can be made about graphics cards. However, when it comes to the quality of the motherboard (chipset), available ports, hard drive/solid state drive, memory (RAM), and optical drives little sacrifice needs to be made, if any at all. This is important, as more and more professionals are on the move, out in the field, and take work home with them.

Mobile Processors

When it comes to speed, reliability, power consumption, and availability, Intel has a huge upper hand over AMD. So much so that I’m not going to even discuss AMD CPU’s in this article. It isn’t that they are poor quality or that I’m unfamiliar with them, it is just the fact you’d be taking a wrong turn out of the gates if you went with an AMD chip in a mobile workstation when Intel performs so much better and its ubiquity makes complimentary components less expensive.

With that said, the Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors have been available since the beginning of this year. They are a significant upgrade from the previous generation in speed, cache, advanced Turbo Boost capabilities, power consumption, and even price. The standard fare CPU in many mid-to-high end consumer notebooks and entry level mobile workstations is the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor (2 GHz Quad Core w/ 6 MB L3 Cache). This CPU is likely powerful enough for daily CAD design and basic modeling capabilities. You may find it can do much more, but with most CAD applications only taking advantage of a single processor core, there’s only so much you can squeak out of this chip (even with Turbo Boost focusing up to 2.9 GHz speeds to a single core when under heavy loads).

The Core i7 chip line rounds out with the 2720QM (2.2 GHz w/ 6 MB L3 Cache), 2820QM (2.3 GHz w/ 8 MB L3 Cache), and 2920XM (2.5 GHz w/ 8 MB L3 Cache) all sporting Turbo Boost technology allowing a single core to get around a 30-40% jump in performance on heavy calculations. At a price point of about $1k above the 2630Qm, the 2920Xm processor knocks the budget out of the park and I would be skeptical buying it at all due to the heat it will generate, power drain, and lack of return on investment from performance.

Those that keep up with gadget news will know there are also Core i3 and Core i5 versions of the Intel Sandy Bridge chips, but these tend to be quite underwhelming under anything above basic tasks on modern CAD applications.

The Verdict

From my pricing, testing, and scrutinizing, it appears the Core i7 2720QM CPU is the best of the bunch when comparing performance vs. price. Given an extra $100-150 in budget or savings in another component category, though, the 2820QM processor is desirable with the extra cache and significant jump in Turbo Boost allocation.

Special Note

Intel is rumored to release several (9) new Sandy Bridge mobile processors very soon. These are apparently going to be a little better in performance compared to the current line and have slightly higher clocked HD 3000 graphics. I would guess they’ll be similarly priced between the 26xx, 27xx, and 28xx series, so it should be a pretty easy choice on new notebooks.

Discovering what your version of Autodesk software, or a version you plan on upgrading to, requires of your workstation is a simple Google search away. I’ll make it a little easier, though. Below are the system requirement pages for Autodesk’s major 2012 products and a resource link for future reference in finding support topics on Autodesk software:

• AutoCAD
• Map 3D
• Civil 3D
• Autodesk Revit Architecture
• Autodesk Revit MEP
• Inventor
• Navisworks
• 3Ds Max
• Autodesk Support Resource Link

Processor and Operating System

Looking through these requirements and recommendations you should start to see quite a trend: High CPU speed, lots of RAM, and a certified workstation graphics card. 64-bit programs require more resources, but the extra cost is well worth it given the additional computing performance shown in review-after-review. Not that there’s much of a choice any more. Pretty much any new workstation (and most bought within the last 2-3 years) already have a 64-bit capable processor and Windows Professional 64-bit is becoming more the norm rather than the exception.

Memory (RAM)

Memory (RAM) is becoming a major commodity these days as its price has fallen dramatically and motherboards are manufactured to accept more slots with higher capacities and faster chipsets. That’s a good thing, too. Most of Autodesk’s latest offerings are very RAM-hungry with users of complex Revit models even being suggested to work with 16 GB+ of memory on their machines . At the time of this writing, there are numerous desktop motherboards which can accept more than this quantity of RAM, only 3 notebooks that I’m aware of, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit won’t even recognize more that 16 GB of memory (better than the 3 GB limit of 32-bit operating systems!).

Graphics/Video Card

Graphics cards have always been the talk of the town when it comes to CAD workstations. Autodesk (and many other CAD developers) recommend certified workstation cards which cost 2-3 times more than their gaming equivalent. Although these graphics cards may be built on the same platform, workstation cards may have more shader pipelines opened up and higher clocked processor cores, as well as proper drivers for Direct3D, OpenGL, OpenCL, and CUDA drivers.

These differences are what make workstation cards work better for CAD geometry and database calculations compared to gaming graphics cards; they are also what make them much more expensive. Are they worth the extra money? I’ll leave that up to the people with dozens of machines to test repeatedly with billions of calculations. My opinion? Decide whether you intend to purchase a business-level workstation or a consumer grade computer and get the best video card you can within your budget (best != most expensive).

Hard Drive/Storage

Although Autodesk doesn’t mention much along the lines of storage drives aside from free space, faster is better. There are 5400, 7200, and 10k RPM Hard Disk Drives and Solid State Drives with read/write speeds which vary drastically. Solid State Drives (SSD) are newer technology which is finally starting to drop in price a little, but is well beyond what most consider affordable for their computer purchasing needs. They are much faster, but they are also very misunderstood and earlier/entry level models aren’t much of a performance jump compared to a 7200 or 10k RPM Hard Disk Drive (HDD).

What matters the most when dealing with Autodesk software requirements and recommendations is that you have plenty of free space (8 GB+ at the absolute minimum) available on the storage drive you are using and it is running error free. Storage drives are one of the most common components to fail on computers and carry the most value after use – you did back all your data up to a server or external hard drive before it failed, right? Get a 7200 RPM HDD for affordable storage at a decent speed and a small (80-128 GB) SSD to install your OS and CAD software on for quick starts and fast load times without breaking the bank…so long as you have 2 storage drive bays to take advantage of.

Wrap-Up

Buying a CAD workstation to fit the needs of your software is always a bit of a mystery. You know what the requirements and recommendations are for this release of the software, but what about next year? Or the year after that? Remember you are buying this hardware to work for you with little-to-no upgrades necessary for about 3 years.

Purchasing a bottom-feeder now will leave some money in your wallet, but have you crying later when a 600MB Revit model won’t load. Going over-the-top may help you keep your sanity a few years from now working with huge CAD files, but you may still be broke from the home equity loan you took out in the process. Finding a great sale/promotion or an average workstation which has easy-to-upgrade components is the ideal way to go. We’ll explore more on this as the 2011 Indydrafter CAD Hardware series continues.

Let’s establish some ground rules

I’m going to make several assumptions along the way in writing these posts. One of these assumptions will include an approximate budget of $1,500-$1,800 for your CAD machine. From my experience in purchasing, building, and working with clients on their hardware, this seems to be the “sweet spot” most people fall into when planning their next workstation purchase. Your particular scenario may be different, swinging from as low as $1k to as high as a $3.5k beast, but you can still utilize these posts to set expectations of downgrading or upgrading particular components (or even entire machines) that I list.

How often should this be brought up?

The second thing to consider when reading this series, and something you should consider practicing, is the assumption that hardware purchases are held within about a 3 year cycle. In my personal opinion, 2-2.5 years between CAD workstation upgrades is ideal for money spent vs. yields on improved performance. I realize, though, that many people and firms can’t or won’t purchase new machines until 3, 4, or even 5 years have gone by. It is an overused phrase, but don’t be “penny wise and pound foolish” when it comes to your hardware. One third of your life (or your employees’ lives) are spent working behind these machines and you want them to be as effective and proficient running your CAD flavor of choice as possible. When I say “them,” I mean both the employee and the workstation as coming to a screeching halt in the middle of your workday due to hardware inadequacies can be a major downer in morale. Your biggest investment in CAD work of any sort is time. Wasting too much time on poor hardware can have much graver effects on your bottom line than a $1.5k investment every couple of years (there’s also an argument to be made regarding this for software training).

You have options

I know there are a lot of other posts, reviews, opinion articles, and forum threads dedicated to this topic; which brings me to my last point. Go ahead an read everything out there. Someone may have better insight on certain hardware topics than I do and vis versa. However, I’m going to attempt to put together some really comprehensive information on what you could, should, or shouldn’t spend your money on.

As a primer, you should read my post on Civil 3D 2011 workstations. What’s to come in this guide will be in much greater depth and will simplify the workstation buying process, including giving examples of configured mobile and desktop workstations.

What’s to come?

In the next post, this will include going in depth on the system requirements and recommendations for all major Autodesk software packages including applications within the Infrastructure, Building, and Product design suites. I’ll follow that up with a breakdown on what different workstation hardware components do and how they can drastically affect your performance. Then we’ll address some pre-configured workstation notebook options you should keep an eye out for. Next will come the desktop variant of manufactured desktop workstations.

As you might tell, there will be a lot of research, testing, and writing going into this series. I want to best serve you, the readers, in making your next CAD workstation purchase as simple and straightforward as possible. I’m not going to stop there, though, as I’ll go into greater details on picking hardware for building your own CAD beast as a reasonable price, assist in deciding what size and type of monitors you should be looking at, how to make cheap and effective upgrades to your existing hardware, and even go so far as discussing input devices like keyboards and mice.

Make a suggestion

This is going to be fun. I hope you feel the same way. If you have any subjects or components you’d like me to discuss in depth, please leave a comment below and I’d be happy to address it with a quick response or write up a post if there is enough to be said regarding the topic. Stay tuned for the coming deluge of CAD hardware geekery!

The site will hold the ideal that anything worth learning is worth passing on and in doing that, everyone benefits. Tips, tricks, & techniques will be discussed on at least a weekly basis. The readers are free and encouraged to comment on the lessons and to also add input on what content should be covered. News about the goings-on with Autodesk and related companies will also be passed on through Indydrafter.com. Can’t find what you are looking for here? Indydrafter.com understands that not one site can offer everything you need and has a comprehensive list of significant and useful AutoCAD related links.

One last purpose of Indydrafter.com is to provide a central source of information, communication, and planning for the drafters and designers in Central Indiana. This also serves as the announcement of the newly created Local AutoCAD Users Group – Indianapolis Civil, or LAUG-IC. In the near future, local meetings will be planned and announced for all to attend that are able. Don’t let this discourage those out of the Central Indiana region, though, because most–if not all–content will be available on Indydrafter.com for everyone.

Please join Indydrafter.com in expanding and strengthening the Autodesk product community by visiting the site and participating in the comments and discussions. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to our future endeavors!

Bryan Tanner
Owner/Contributer – Indydrafter.com