What CPU Mark should I be shooting for?

[Wattz]

TL;DR: What is the CPU Mark threshold of a "fast enough" processor? (5000+, 6000+?)

I'm running an i3-330m (CPU Mark ~1800.) It's fine for surfing the web, playing old (mid 00's) games, and doing homework. The laptop only has 4GB of ram. Using things like Android Studio, Visual Studio, and Solidworks is borderline painful. I know the ram is a big part of that (especially for Solidworks), but the processing power of the old i3 mobile processor is probably a bigger factor.

So, I'm trying to build a budget PC that will get me running fast enough to do some freelance CAD and programming work without a lot of hassle or wasted time.

So, what CPU Mark should I be aiming for? I'm tempted to purchase last-generation components to save a few bucks. It seems like the 3rd and 4th gen intel chips made a huge leap forward. But, do I need all that power? Furthermore, I could go super cheap and use some inefficient AMD chips that are much cheaper, but struggle to meet Intel's level of processing power. I don't need to go blazing fast. I just need to not have to wait 5 minutes for Visual Studio to load, or 2 seconds for Solidworks to highlight an edge or surface that I want to select. (That 2 seconds multiplies quickly when you're making a complex part.)

Thanks in advance for any input!

[David (PassMark)]

I don't do much CAD, but we do a lot of programming work.

For a new machine I would suggest (as of Feb 2015),

Intel CPU with CPU mark 6000+. But 9000+ is really better. I'd get Intel because the single threading is much better. Plus the power usage, and thus noise, is less. Our most recent machine was a Intel Core i7-5820K (CPU Mark 12,980).

A good SSD. This is even more important than the CPU. (Samsung, Intel, etc..)

At least 8GB of DDR3 or DDR4 RAM. 16GB is better as you can run a couple of VMs for testing.

Dual or Tri Monitors.

GPU doesn't matter much unless you are coding 3D software.

[Aligwashington]

you will need Xeon class CPU also either NVIDIAŽ Quadro or AMD FirePro for CAD work do raid 0 SSD for fast read and write and you will be all set. i have seen some refurb workstation class systems on the market for around $400ish "8000+ cpu mark class" so add $200-300 more on top all together will be about $600-700 to make them fly like wind and will last you few years.

[David (PassMark)]

You don't really need a Xeon. The only reason to get a Xeon would be if you wanted to do a dual CPU configuration or use ECC RAM. But you already said you are building a budget PC, which rules our dual CPUs, ECC and Xeons.

RAID 0 more than doubles your chance of loosing data due to a hardware failure & doesn't add much to SSD performance. If you really want performance get a Samsung XP941 SSD and forget RAID (or 951 if you can wait a couple of months).

As for the Quadro and Firepro, it can make sense, but it depends on the software you are using.