Sam, I've got an old Motion 1200 that runs SolidWorks "okay". The 1200 was an 866Mhz, I had a gig of ram on it. Small assemblies, prismatic parts
- nothing heavy duty. The biggest issue is the pen input, using the "pop-up" keyboard is very slow for placing numbers in dialog boxes (dims, mate values, etc). Once you've used it for a while, you get better at it, but I would NEVER try to complete a drawing for example.
There are some good things about the tablet though. The pen is great for view manipulation (pan, zoom, etc), and for copy/dragging parts from the tree - you can set up the button as a ctrl key. And eDrawings is pen-enabled - that's my favorite use for the tablet.
For personal use the tablets are great, especially programs like "journal". The portability is a great feature, and battery life is getting much better on some of the new models. If you get one, people will want to try it out. They'll take the tablet from you and "hover" their hand over the screen, trying hard not to touch it because they are afraid of breaking it. Take it back from them and bang the glass hard a couple of times - then hand it back and tell them that it's just like a piece of paper. The look on their face is always good for a laugh or two.
There's a good discussion group for Tablet PC's at -
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- even some SolidWorks users there.
Richard