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"Edit: here's the SolidWorks Hardware FAQ which states:
How much RAM is needed to run SolidWorks? Based on Javelin’s benchmark testing and our experience with typical customer usage, we recommend starting with at least 4GB of RAM. Depending on the size and complexity of your assemblies increased RAM may be the best investment for performance improvement. For assemblies with more than 1000 components and parts with more than 300 features 8GB of RAM or more is recommended. What type of video card do you recommend? Although SolidWorks is designed to work with any generic graphics card that supports Windows (MINIMUM resolution would be 1024x768 or higher with 32K colors or more), a graphics card with hardware OpenGL acceleration will provide improved performance, especially in 3D model viewing (repaints, spins, zooms and pans). Detailed info on video card support and testing is available at: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html Video cards designed for “gaming” or multi-media applications do NOT offer maximum performance for SolidWorks and other 3D CAD applications. Game/multi-media cards are optimized for a low number of polygons displayed on the screen, and a high frame rate. CAD applications have essentially the opposite requirement, polygon count is high (all the details in your design model) and the image does not change rapidly, so high frame rates are not as critical. Does SolidWorks make use of multiple and/or dual core processors? SolidWorks is multi-threaded. Many of the user interface activities such as redraw and dialog box interaction, etc., take advantage of this technology. However, the solving process used for parametric modeling is by nature very linear and cannot take full advantage of multiple or dual core processors. Opening documents in SolidWorks 2010 is now multi-threaded. When you retrieve a large part, drawing, or assembly document, the document immediately displays in a view-only state while the actual document and all its components are retrieved in the background. During the view-only state, you can use all functions supported in the SolidWorks Viewer (Zoom, Rotate, and so on), but you cannot switch to another document or start to open another document. After the retrieval is complete, SolidWorks changes to the normal edit state.
If she doesn't connect a secondary screen with a high resolution, I actually don't expect the GPU (even in a laptop) to have any trouble with running SolidWorks. The resolution of the main screen simply isn't high enough to stress the system that much.
With Windows 7 you have to take Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise and I would recommend the 64 bit version, so she can use more RAM (only if available).
Any gaming laptop's GPU (dedicated, not integrated) should be powerfull enough to drive SolidWorks, do note that a notebook will never give you the same performance/dollar as a desktop.
Given that on the desktop you can get a kickass GPU for 150$, which simply isn't available for a GPU due to it's size and heat production. So any gaming desktop would probably do.
Note: all the above depends on your budget, but personally I wouldn't use a laptop for heavy duty work"
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