That's not a lot of $$$ in your budget. Just one of our SolidWorks stations ( Dell T3500 )costs more than that.
However, working with the $$$ you do have, this would be my MINIMUM pick for a qualified machine. The key element is a qualified Videocard. You can get away with a slower CPU. You can pump up the ram at some later date, as 2GB will prob not cut it for a "Render Farm" app. Also, these *DON'T* include MS Office in the price, which your school *MAY* already have Open License for.
You can buy 550VA APC UPS at Staples when they go on sale for around $50.
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Recalculating Price
Dell Precsion T1500 Workstation
Starting Price $1,194.00
Instant Savings $241.00
Subtotal $953.00
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Preliminary Ship Date: 11/15/2010
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Dell Precsion T1500 Workstation
Date 11/5/2010 2:54:00 PM Central Standard Time
Catalog Number 4 Retail 04
Catalog Number / Description Product Code Qty SKU Id
Dell Precision T1500:
Dell Precision T1500 Base for Intel H57 Chipset T1500H 1 [224-9972] 1
Processor:
Dual Core Processor Core i3-540, 3.06GHz I3540 1 [317-5667] 2
Operating System:
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, English W7PN6E 1 [330-6228][421-1486] 11
Productivity Software:
No Productivity Software NOPSW 1 [421-3872] 22
Memory:
2GB,DDR3,Non-ECC SDRAM Memory,1333MHz,1x2GB 2G3N31 1 [317-2387] 3
Hardware Support Services :
3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service U3YOS 1 [905-0212][905-1687][905-3428][905-7740] 29
Graphics:
512MB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 580, DUAL MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI FX580 1 [320-1197][330-9266] 6
1394 Controller:
No 1394 MT 1 [311-7463] 15
Hard Drive Configuration:
C1 All SATA Hard Drives ,Non- RAID for 1 Hard Drive SATA1 1 [341-1256] 9
Boot Hard Drive:
250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst Cache 250G72K 1 [331-0571][341-8664] 8
DVD and Read-Write Devices:
16X DVD-ROM with Cyberlink Power DVD No Media DVD16N 1 [313-9193][330-6758][421-0537] 16
Monitor:
Dell Professional P2210 22in HAS Wide Monitor, VGA/ DVI/ DP P2210T 1 [320-8099] 5
Media Card Reader:
No Media Card Reader NOMCR 1 [330-5783] 10
Resource DVD:
No Resource Media NDVD 1 [330-2440] 27
System Recovery:
Recovery Media for Genuine Windows® 7 Professional,64bit,Multiple Language M7P64M 1 [421-2992] 47
System Recovery:
Resource DVD, H57 RDVD57 1 [330-8084] 47
Shipping Packaging Options:
Shipping Material for System SHIP 1 [330-6760] 40
Quick Reference Guide:
Quick Reference Guide, English REFE 1 [330-5528] 39
Sound Card:
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio INAUDIO 1 [313-8764] 17
Speakers:
Dell AX510 Sound Bar for all UltraSharp Flat Panel Displays AX510 1 [313-6414] 18
Keyboard:
Dell QuietKey Keyboard QUSB 1 [330-5522] 4
Mouse:
Dell MS111 USB Optical Mouse USBOP 1 [330-9458] 12
Network Adapter:
Intergrated PCIE 10/100/1000 INT 1 [430-3246] 13
Documentation:
Documentation, English, with 125V Power Cord DOCENG 1 [330-3156][330-3157] 21
Installation Services:
No Onsite System Setup NOINSTL 1 [900-9987]