Best setup for AUTOCAD user

[DannyLove]

Greetings. I did a search on autocad, found some topics and have an idea of where I want to go in building a rig for a AutoCAD driven user. From what I'm gathering, autocad isn't cpu intensive and my best bet would be to go the route of, cheap CPU (single, possibly dual core?), a lot of ram, and a fast hd.

Should I go into DDR2? If anyone has had any experience in building a rig for a Autocad only client, I'd like to know the specs. No gaming, just purely design, and the normal day to day tasks like music and internet browsing.

Thanks.

 

[sgrinavi]

What kind of AutoCAD work? Is it 2d floor plans? solid models for manufacture? 3d BIM models? some of mine are 50 MB and very machine intensive.

 

[ther00kie16]

If you are just building one, there's really no reason to go less than dual core as the performance difference while multitasking is huge compared to the minimal price difference compared to single core CPUs. DDR and DDR2 performance are similar so it's best to just go with whichever is cheaper and more readily available, which means DDR2 since platforms supporting DDR are difficult to find these days.
Choosing a video card can be tricky. If dual display rendering is required, you'll want a professional card or one that can be soft modded into one. Otherwise, most modern cards will be fine for Autocad.
I helped my friend build a computer for gaming & CAD a few months ago with a X2 5000 black edition (easy bump in cpu speed to 3ghz) and a 8800gt (good balance between gaming and work). He really likes it and the best part is that it only cost $800, including a 22" lcd.
But sgrinavi is right, you may very well want to choose a $200 CPU (e8400 or q6600) depending on the complexity of the work.

 

[Gillbot]

LOADS of ram, in my experience with cad, it loves RAM!

 

[civilgeek]

It really depends upon what your client will be doing with CAD. If they are 3D modeling then a video card, ram, processor, and hard drive speed will all become a significant factor as rendering is involved.

For general 2D AutoCAD I would agree that almost any currently available dual core processor will do right now and that any extra money would be better spent on fast memory (3 gig minimum and 4 gig recommended) and a very fast (raptor) hard drive as most operations with this type of cad are transaction intensive. The video card with 2D is also not very important here, however, don't get the very bottom of the line card. If you stick with a low\mid range gaming card you will be fine.

Another item to consider is if your client will be using 64 bit as AutoCAD is now out in a 64 bit version. None of the vertical products will run with 64 bit support yet (Civil 3D, etc.) but if your client is using only AutoCAD then they may want to consider going with Vista 64 and 4 gigs or more of ram to take advantage of the better memory management.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

 

[DannyLove]

Thank you so much for your feedback. I'm not sure whether it be 2D or 3D (i believe it may be 2D only) in which case I'll go the route of what civilgeek described. Thanks again

 

[DannyLove]

well, i discovered its only 2D modeling, nothing hardcore, or 3d based rendering of any kind. I'm gonna go with a dual core, not sure which. I'll probably stick with Intel, even though I know AMD duals are dirt cheap. I at least want some room for expansion and upgrades.
What's a good mid-range Core 2 Duo?
Looking at the 65nm's vs. 45 nm, it doesn't seem like such a huge jump when you compare, E6750 vs. E8400.... also, low power consumption would be ideal

 

[Modelworks]

Dual core should work well.
Video card - you can use a gaming card, but if you have problems with the display in any way, Autodesk will NOT provide support.
I did use mostly gaming cards but the latest Autodesk policy on the use of gaming cards has caused me to switch.

If your not worried about support for display issues then gaming cards are fine.

 

[sgrinavi]

Originally posted by: DannyLove
well, i discovered its only 2D modeling, nothing hardcore, or 3d based rendering of any kind. I'm gonna go with a dual core, not sure which. I'll probably stick with Intel, even though I know AMD duals are dirt cheap. I at least want some room for expansion and upgrades.
What's a good mid-range Core 2 Duo?
Looking at the 65nm's vs. 45 nm, it doesn't seem like such a huge jump when you compare, E6750 vs. E8400.... also, low power consumption would be ideal

Tankguys has E3110's for $190 or e8400's for $199.... a low end Gigabyte, Asus or Abit P35 board with 4 GB of DDR2/800 ram and you should be good to go.

For a video card the ATIs work better in cad apps, for me, you can find HD3870's around for under $150.