Just found out my son needs a workstation for his SolidWorks courses and I am trying to figure out the best way to go and still be able to afford to pay for college! Though it's been a while, I could probably cobble together a workstation if someone could steer me towards an appropriate parts list.  Or are there cost-effective turnkey machines out there that would do the trick? He has a MacBookPro we were considering adding Parallels to but not sure that is going to have the needed performance.

Any help appreciated!