Best Computer System for 3d Engineering Progams and 3d Graphic Programs

[jfw4u2]

I Originally had a
Compaq 5700t Pesario 500 mhz Pentium 3
Diamond Monster Sound MMX300 Audio card
S3 Savage 4 Video card 16 MB
DiamondMax 17 GB ATA66 Internal Hard Drive (Fried it) (Which Fried my other Maxtor 160 GB :heartrive)
128 mb Ram
Compaq CV915 19" monitor
Zip Drive
DVD Player 8x
keyboard and mouse
56 K Modem
Amplified JBL Speakers

Anyway, I now still have the Original:
Motherboard
Compaq CV915 19" monitor (never a problem)
Zip Drive (never a problem)
DVD Player (only problem was when I changed the Graphics card to Hercules Nvidia GTS Prophet 64mb with Bios
Logitech Keyboard and mouse (never a problem)

I have added to and now have:
768 mb Ram (max) unless I hear different
TDK VeloCD ReWriter
2 DVR-S806 Pioneer 16 x 16 DVD writeing, R/RW USB 2
Maxtor DiamondMax 200GB Internal Hard Drive
2 External Hard Drives, One is Buslink USB 20 GB - The second Iomega USB 2 200 GB
ATI Radeon 9200 Series Diamond Stealth Video Card
Audigy 2 zs Sound Blaster
Logitech Z-5300 Speaker Sys. 5.1 THX
Sony TFT LCD Color Flat Monitor SDM-HS75P/SDM-HS95P
Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse (Mouse Pain in The ....) (ecspecially if you keep accidentely keep hitting the arrow button on the side of the mouse and loose 2 hours of work)
500 WATT ATX Power Supply ULTRA XConnect
A Full Tower ATX Case (lots of fans)

Why all the Info? Just want you to know what I am dealing with here. I would like to get the new Asus motherboard I don't know the exact number. The cost is $230..something like that. The problem with that is I have to buy all new stuff to go on it. If anyone knows what I can keep from my system now to switch to the ASUS and what I will need along with the cost of everthing....it would be appreciated. Don't worry about the money end of it.....Hit me....something nice, excellent or in the totally awsome dude catagory with be just fine...I use Engineering type programs (Solid Works, Auto Cad) and 3d grphic type Programs.. (3d studio Max, Lightwave) (Photoshop, Illustrator) The Asus comes with a built in sound card.....is there a better sound card out there that will give me a good reson to change that.

I am looking for an Update for my Bios. Does anyone Know where I can get an Update for my Motherboard Bios ? My stuff isn't running as well as it should.

The Bios info is
Vendor String -Compaq
Version String - 686s1
Release Date 10-13-1999
Rom Size - 256 KB

Motherboard Info
Manufacturer - Compaq
Product String 0568h
Version String - None

 

[Devrin]

I use my rig for a lot of cad apps same as you, as well as lightwave, photoshop ect. Pretty much the same so I'll just share the info with you that I've learned. First off since you said don't worry about the price, I say go for a dual-core cpu. Usually it's a bit overkill but cad & 3d progs are one of the few reasons to justify a dual core IMO. They can actually take advantage of it, mainly when it comes to rendering but also when you want to play with textures in photoshop while keeping lightwave or 3DS open. Either AMD or Intel will be fine really. Personally I'm on my first AMD system (Non dual core though) after 20 years of computing and I'd go with an AMD X2.
The next would be ram, go with 2x1gb. While its true the timings on the ram aren't as good as the 512mb sticks, that'll be far outweighed by the extra memory for the programs your using. Theres the option of 4x512mb but that usually leads to more problems than just grabbing 2x1gb it seems.
Thats all that would be really necessary. Honestly your vid card is fine unless your getting into some extremely complex high point/poly models. I'll list my computer below for a reference, and although I built it on a budget, I'm happy with it for doing cad/3d work. The above is what I would do though had I the money.

Amd64 3200+ Winchester
2x512mb Gskill ram
Gigabyte K8NS-939 Ultra motherboard
Nvidia fx5200U