Hello All,

I am new to these forums so please bare with me (feel free to redirect my discussion if this is in the wrong topic/thread!).

The company I work for is currently looking to upgrade their computers and/or hardware on the computers we currently have. I am personally using a Lenovo G50 laptop with 6g of RAM. I believe this is the model I am using, as far as specs go. I can't be sure, though, it was here before I started working for the company: http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-G50-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Core/dp/B00K6ZIFAQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459956902&sr=8-1&keywords=l…  . I know this laptop is not really adequate for running Solidworks, let alone rendering animations. So, my question is, what would be the best hardware recommendations for rendering animations, with out going totally overboard on cost. Should I tell boss we need to completely upgrade our computers in order to do animated renders?

I will be animating the movements of filter presses involving chain links, hydraulic presses and cylinders, pumps, slide heads, filter plates, etc. As I am new to animating in Solidworks I am not sure what to be expecting as far as RAM, CPU usage, graphics card, etc. goes. My coworker has tried to render the motion of chain links but our computers weren't really able to calculate the physics of it all within a reasonable time frame. Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks!