Desktop versus desktop for CAD

PMBC

CAD I'm learning is Draftsight. I was going to change laptop from a 6 year old Toshiba to maybe a second hand Mac Pro cost of E900. From sources I heard that Macs and CAD dont work very well.
Thinking now of desktop as my use of CAD while mobile would be, initially at v least, minimal to zero.
Disadvantage of desktop? Size, lack of portability, wi-fi/internet connectivity. Adv - Price, screen size/usability/legibility, ?longer usable life.
For either desktop or laptop, what are min and optimum specs for machine? Any and all recommendations for makes/models greatly appreciated.

Metric Tensor

It's all about screen real estate with CAD. Like getting a bigger drawing table!

I use a few different CAD packages (almost daily but not full time) and not one of them is as good on a laptop as on a desktop. Not to mention the sore neck you'll get from long term laptop use.

So my advice would be a desktop with a big screen.

Most CAD packages are windows only - that doesn't rule out a Mac but you'd either have to turn it into a Windows machine with bootcamp or run a virtual version of Windows with something like parallels. I've never used the package you mentioned so I don't know if it has a native Mac version.

In terms of spec - I'd prioritise lots of ram and an SSD followed by as many cores as you can justify in the processor. Graphics card is not that important unless you start getting into 3d rendering and fancy stuff like that.

Demosthenes

Metric Tensor wrote: »

It's all about screen real estate with CAD. Like getting a bigger drawing table!

I use a few different CAD packages (almost daily but not full time) and not one of them is as good on a laptop as on a desktop. Not to mention the sore neck you'll get from long term laptop use.

So my advice would be a desktop with a big screen.

Most CAD packages are windows only - that doesn't rule out a Mac but you'd either have to turn it into a Windows machine with bootcamp or run a virtual version of Windows with something like parallels. I've never used the package you mentioned so I don't know if it has a native Mac version.

In terms of spec - I'd prioritise lots of ram and an SSD followed by as many cores as you can justify in the processor. Graphics card is not that important unless you start getting into 3d rendering and fancy stuff like that.

This covers most of it. Major +1 on screen real estate. Multiple monitors can speed up your work a lot. Also I'd recommend investing in a good mouse. Something comfortable, responsive and with good functionality can go a long way.

8-16GB of RAM will be enough. SSD should be at very least 250GB, cheaper HDD will do for noisy storage but SSDs are the way to go.

AMD CPUs are all about their cores - check the Ryzen range.

GPUs are becoming more and more important for things like hardware acceleration. They are also increasingly expensive thanks to crypto miners. Something with min of 2GB VRAM will be sufficient.

Cooling is also important for protecting your hardware. Long hours of CAD usage can produce a lot of heat, so you want a sufficient system of fans/liquid cooling to keep things from overheating.

I would avoid Apple products and get better power and value elsewhere. Self-building is the way to go with desktops and can be a very enjoyable experience if you are that way inclined. I'd recommend https://pcpartpicker.com/ as an excellent resource. Have a look through some of the completed builds there for ideas if you need.

KAGY

Draft sight works on Linux, so I'm sure it'll work on a Mac. You never said how heavy your drawings are, with single house plans etc, any mid range laptop should handle it, multistory office blocks with a hundred layers you'd be better off with a desktop even of it's just for cooling. That being said it's been over 10 years since I've used cad in a production env so I could be out of date
A compromise would be to get a laptop, a decent screen and a separate mouse and keyboard. Hook them all up when you're in the office, but you still have the portability to bring your machine to clients

PMBC

Thanks for the three replies above.
Just the sort of information I need.