Specifications when buying your own computer

When choosing your own CAD / design / visualisation machine consider the following broad pointers for specifications.

  • Laptop will have the portability and convenience but a desktop workstation is likely to be more powerful for the same price.
  • Get as much RAM as possible; 8Gb an absolute minimum but 16gb / 32gb recommended
  • “Discreet” Nvidia RTX or graphics card if you can; e.g RTX 4060/4070, A400/500 – a budget laptop will have the graphic capability built into the processor but a separate GPU will work much better for Photoshop / CAD / rendering etc.
  • Intel i7/i9 class (Intel Core 7 Ultra is a good one) or AMD Ryzen
  • SSD – solid state hard drive; it doesn’t necessarily need to be huge if you store data on an external drive.
  • Warranty – check this is not just a basic return to supplier option which would mean you are without a machine for weeks.
  • Screen: 1080p minimum resolution; for a desktop setup a 24 inch plus is ideal for CAD / visualisation – and adding a cheaper smaller second screen is a great productivity booster.
  • Battery Life: very important; look for 8 hours or more – though in real life with heavy work this is likely to be a lot less

While machines without all these specs will still run the more power hungry applications it will likely be a frustrating and limited experience.

Note:

Macs won’t natively run some potentially useful software including:

  • Vray for Rhino – rendering plugin
  • 3D Studio Max – advanced 3d design / visualisation
  • ArcView – GIS Software Desktop Version (Though the new ArcPro 3.5 will run fine on a Mac through a browser)
  • Autodesk Recap – laser scanning processing software

You can get discount on Macs via the Apple Eduction / Unidays store. A MacBook Air 13 with an upgrade to 16gb Ram is a pretty solid choice for graphic design students.

A desktop machine will likely be cheaper and easier to upgrade than a laptop – also you can have larger and dual monitor setups which is extremely useful for CAD / design work. Pcspecialist.co.uk have a great online machine configurator for getting a custom specification. A basic configuration could be easily improved later by swapping out for a better graphics card or adding extra RAM.

A refurbished or older machine with good specs is likely to be better than a new basic one – these two suppliers currently have refurbished laptops – with warranty – available for delivery:

https://www.tier1online.com/

https://www.europc.co.uk/

Apple also sell refurbished and warranties models on the Apple Refurbished Site

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