Solid Edge by Siemens is a computer-aided design (CAD) software offering comprehensive solutions for product development. To run an application like Solid Edge efficiently, you need a Workstation with dedicated and highly optimised hardware. Keep reading to discover how to configure your next Workstation for Solid Edge perfectly.
At Workstations Specialists, we work with clients to understand their needs and build computing solutions to improve productivity in applications such as Solid Edge. Contact our consultancy sales team today for a free, no-obligation Workstation quotation.
High-Frequency Processors Are Ideal For Solid Edge Modelling
When choosing a processor for your next Solid Edge Workstation, there are two main aspects: clock speed and the number of cores a processor has.
Like most 3D modelling applications, Solid Edge benefits most from a processor core’s clock speed or frequency. The clock speed of a processor indicates how fast a given core can perform tasks.
Solid Edge modelling is a lightly threaded task that does not use many cores and threads. Therefore, selecting a processor with high clock speeds is essential to maximise performance.
Next, you must decide how many cores and threads You need. More cores give your Workstation the potential to complete more tasks simultaneously.
We advise our customers to choose a Workstation based on a processor with a clock speed of around 5GHz. Our Intel® Core™ Workstation and AMD Ryzen™ Workstations range fit this requirement perfectly. The high clock speeds of these processors will ensure excellent modelling performance in Solid Edge.
If you also plan to do rendering or simulations on this Workstation, then a processor with more cores and threads will benefit you. Check out our AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ Pro and Intel® Xeon® W Workstations for solutions offering high clock speeds and core counts.
Professional Graphics Cards
The Graphics Card in your system is the component that drives your modelling viewport within Solid Edge. We highly suggest the professional NVIDIA RTX (formerly Quadro) or AMD Radeon Pro graphics card ranges for this task.
Professional graphics cards are highly optimised for modelling applications and have advanced drivers to improve performance and stability. They also have an excellent reliability record and impressive ECC graphical memory (VRAM) levels.
If you work on small projects, then a graphics card with 5GB VRAM would be enough. Larger projects will benefit from cards with 12GB+ VRAM.
How Much Memory Does A Solid Edge Workstation Need?
Your applications and projects need enough system memory (RAM) to run smoothly. If you don’t have enough, your Workstation will have to utilise slower hard drives, significantly decreasing performance.
We recommend that 16-32GB of RAM is enough for most 3D modelling Solid Edge Workstations. More demanding tasks like simulations and rendering will require more memory.
If you also use other applications on this system, you may need more in this case.
A good way to determine how much RAM you need is to check Windows Task Manager while working on your current system and Solid Edge projects.
Storage Drives
Solid State Drives (SSD) are the fastest type of drive currently available. This makes them a great choice for your primary storage drive. We suggest installing your Operating System, applications like Solid Edge and storing your current project files on this drive.
There are currently two types of SSDs commonly used in Workstations. SATA based SSD’s and NVMe SSD’s. Both offer adequate performance for Solid Edge, and budget should determine which is right for you. NVMe drives have better performance than SATA drives at a slightly higher cost.
We also recommend a secondary traditional Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Network Attached Storage (NAS) for long-term storage. Although slower than an SSD, they have much larger storage capacities at a significantly lower price per GB.
