mlts22 wrote:
If you are doing CAD, you will need at least 16 gigs of RAM and a SSD, which throws out 90% of what is out there out the window.
I don't think a Surface Pro 3 would have the CPU/GPU to handle SolidWorks. The minimum I'd go for would be a dual core i5, 16GB RAM, and a decent GPU. The ideal would be a quad core i7, 32 gigs of RAM, and the OS, CAD application, files, and swap/temp space all on SSD... making sure to have a hard drive for backups.
you can do CAD on an XP machine
it just takes longer to render the final output
Solid works is 3D modeling
not the same as C.A.D. computer aided Drafting
there is a world of difference between CAD ..drafting where you to the drawing
and Modeling where you create a solid object and let the computer create a picture of the final Product