This paper presents an elastic deformation model of a spindle unit (S/U), which takes into account the non-linear properties of high-speed ball bearings (particularly the effect of high rotational speed). For this, a software for the estimation of the S/U elastic deformation properties was developed and intended for use by S/U designers. A computer aided analysis of the model using the developed software was carried out and experiments showed the significant effect of rotational speed, cutting load and bearing axial preload, and showed some new phenomena, from which the criteria for the choice of bearing axial preload is given.