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Building 2 computers for AutoCad

N

nic2deep

Junior Member
My girlfriend?s parents own a small concrete company and they just started getting into drawing their own plans with AutoCAD. They asked me to build them 2 machines that could handle AutoCAD efficiently. They said that I could spend about $1200 on each one. Unfortunately, I don't know much about AutoCAD or how it works. I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for:

-Processors?
-Video Cards?
-Motherboards?
-Memory?
-Hard Drives?
-ect?

I appreciate any advice I can get.
Thanks
Cin
 
Does the $1200 include AutoCAD licenses? Or do they already have those?

I would think something along the lines of:

P4 2.4Ghz (or AMD 2500+)
512MB-1GB of RAM
and a halfway decent (ie, GeForce FX5700 / RADEON 9600Pro or better) video card

ought to be plenty, unless their plans are REALLY large or detailed. You don't need a workstation-class video card (Quadro/FireGL) unless they're really, REALLY complex drawings, or they're using 3DSMAX/Maya on the side...

If you need recommendations on motherboards/memory/hard drives/etc., check the million other threads that ask the same questions every week.
 
Thanks a lot.

$1200 will just be for the hardware. I wasn't sure if AutoCAD rendering required any special hardware for better performance. One of my friends recommended a certain 2D video card.(can't remember which one) Why, I'm not sure?? I will have to ask him. Thanks for your help. It looks like any decent rig will work.
 
Sounds like Athlon64 time. I think that application likes the Athlon better than the P4. I will look for benchmarks, and reply if I find some.
 
I was able to find the ASUS motherboard for $127, Mushkin memory for about $300 like you said, but I can't find Athlon64 3400+ for anything less than $400. Can you tell me where you found that $270 price tag? Maybe I am looking at the wrong one?
 
what type of drawings will they be doing on autocad? matrox cards shine in autocad. my 9800pro craps out on any major 3d models when you view them in shaded modes.

JB
 
I know they draw out complete buildings then print them out on a plotter for potential clients. They use shaded mode to make the pictures look prettier when they show them off. They are fairly new to AutoCAD so I don?t think they are doing anything to serious. Right now they have a PoS 800MHz machine that takes them a good minute just to change views.
 
Originally posted by: nic2deep
I was able to find the ASUS motherboard for $127, Mushkin memory for about $300 like you said, but I can't find Athlon64 3400+ for anything less than $400. Can you tell me where you found that $270 price tag? Maybe I am looking at the wrong one?
Click to expand...

OOPS, I was looking at 3200+, sorry. Just use that if the budget won't stand more. They are fine. And the HD is the 74 gig Western Digital Raptor for $223 - $20 rebate.

And as for the video card, I am not sure of the best for 3d CAD, the 9800 pro is just fast at everything, and for 3D gaming, it's a great bargain if you need the speed. I do like Matrox for 2d, so may one of those if somebody else can come up with a good suggestion (somebody who uses Autocad)
 
mobile athlon 2500+ w/ abit nf7-s and a cheapo-graphics card (pretty much anything will do fine). processing power and memory speed are the two things that primarily influence autocad performance, and from what i know, amd dominates intel in this area.
 
You'll save around $175 going with a Matrox P650 and 80GB 7200RPM ATA drive which will allow you to go with the A64. HD speed is pretty meaningless for CAD. They'll have to be doing some ridiculous work to exceed 1GB of RAM. The money saved can go to more RAM if for some reason they do need more. From the sounds of it they probably don't even need that much horsepower. Just because they give you a budget of $1200 per, doesn't mean you have to get as close to that price as you can. I'm sure they'll be happy if you can come under budget with systems that do simply what they need and aren't overkill. A lowend A64 or midlevel P4 will be a huge upgrade over what they have and should be easily attainable for under $1000 a piece.
 
I'd say P4 or A64 (Opteron(s) perhaps), get at least 1GB of DDR, and maybe some Raptors in RAID

Almost time for next class, I'll put up my suggestion list later 🙂
 
Everyone is reccomending the P4 or the A64 which makes no sense to me. Why pay double or more for the CPU when you will only see a 15% performance increase? It's really rather silly. Nothing can touch the Athlon mobiles right now, and they are what I would reccomend to just about anyone in the market for a new computer right now who is willing to overclock. If you don't want to overclock, save yourself even more money and get a regular Athlon XP 2500+ chip or so. For memory go with 1 512mb stick of PC3200 and upgrade to 1gb once prices subside. For the residential projects I've been doing, typically Architectural Desktop 3.3 (AutoCAD 2002-based) takes up about 100mb of ram. If you want to have multiple projects open simultaneously, then you may want to spend the extra money initially and go with 1gb of memory.

As someone else noted, HD performance isn't critical, but you will notice it when you load up AutoCAD and Windows.

Noone mentionned a monitor and I would say to go with a 17" LCD (DVI preferrably) with the money you'll save by going with an Athlon XP. 🙂

The P4 is a very poor suggestion as it costs the most of the chips and performs the worst. The only time it MAY be faster is in 3D studio max which you did not mention that you would be using.

I like to think I know what I'm talking about as I have an undergrad degree in architecture and I'm doing professional work in AutoCAD right now. The Athlon XP systems paired with an Nforce2 motherboard are the fastest I've used, and anything more would be overkill unless you're doing stadium design or something of that nature. If you can find a cheap Matrox G450 or something similar I would reccomend that as they are the fastest graphics cards I've used for 2D CAD work, and that includes a Radeon 9700 Pro.
 
It sounds like they are rendering with the machines, so you will need as much horsepower as you can muster. Markfw900 had some good specs to go by, I'd use those. I use AutoCAD 2004 and it is a hog with my Athlon 2200+, NV 5950, 512 ram

I DO NOT recommend a 17" LCD for AutoCAD, it is just too small for what they want to use it for. I have a 19" CRT and it's still too small, I have to squint and get close to the monitor when I want to do precise drawing (without object snap).

Since they will be rendering drawings, I suggest An Athlon 64 (3000+, 3200+, or 3400+, NOT THE FX! it's too expensive), AT LEAST 512 ram, and an NV Geforce FX 5900 (or better, or ATI 9700 or better
 
the big thing you need to know for autocad is if they will be doing rendering of designs, with textures and such. if its just blue prints, and such, an average dieo card should do fine. if ANY kind of rendering is done, load up on the memory and get a really nice graphics card.
 
Yep, I would go with the best you could find also and 1GB ram. I've used AutoCad 2000/2002 and everthing runs flawlessly until I start rendering and using 3D. Get as much power as you can because you'll kick yourself later if you don't IMO.
 
I've worked w/ LDD 2004 a bit, and loading and redrawing could tax it for short periods of time. For just wireframe, a decent 2d card will be fine.

...but check and see what they are doing. The basic work can be done on a PIII no sweat, just a bit of waiting as it draws (10 seconds or more on a XP 3000+/NF2 with a reasonably complex drawing--annoying, but nothing major).
If they are doing some of the 3d rendering for presentation, that could eat up power and warrant an Athlon64, maybe a Quadro or GF FX (depending on how tight the budget gets.

Also maybe find some more CAD-oriented forums. For video card, a Matrox or 3Dlabs card might do very well, but most of us here haven't used too many.
 
I've ran autocad 2000 on a 200mhz machine w/128mb of memory on windows 98. I really do not think a 64 system will be necessary nor will raptors. If anything, XP2500, 1GB ddr, 80GB 8mb cache hard drives in raid 0 and an 80GB 8mb cache hard drive for storage.
 
Originally posted by: amdskip
I've ran autocad 2000 on a 200mhz machine w/128mb of memory on windows 98. I really do not think a 64 system will be necessary nor will raptors. If anything, XP2500, 1GB ddr, 80GB 8mb cache hard drives in raid 0 and an 80GB 8mb cache hard drive for storage.
Click to expand...

running acad with any serious drawings will not be productive at all on a machine that slow. i will price up a system for 1200 that i would build if it were up to me. i have been using acad for over 10 years and have lots of real world expereience.

JB
 
You guys are definitely giving me a lot of good ideas. He is designing large barns that hold up to 2000 cattle. So they are pretty big with a lot of detail. As I mentioned earlier he is telling me that with the system that he is using now (pIII 800MZ w/ ??? of RAM) can take a min or 2 to just change views. This is what he would like me to fix. I am assuming that this is because of the lack of RAM and processor speed but I am not 100% sure.

At this point I am leaning toward ASUS K8V, Athlon64 3200+, 1 gig Mushkin PC3500 level1 and a Matrox 2d video card, unless anyone has a better idea or suggestions. I will wait to hear Jonny Blaze?s ideas first though.

Again, thanks tons for your suggestions.
 
after reading thru alot of sites and newsgroups, i would go with what you posted above. a raptor drive wouldnt hurt overall system performance either. if they dont use max or viz, any geforce4 card will do. matrox would be nice too, but more money.

i use autocad daily on my p4 3.0 with a gig of ram and couldnt be happier.

JB
 
I know they draw out complete buildings then print them out on a plotter for potential clients. They use shaded mode to make the pictures look prettier when they show them off
Click to expand...

they are DEFINITELY doing renderings. You need the best possible video card you can get, do not get the Matrox 2d. A rendering, on a barn that will hold 2000 cattle, would take a day or so to render....even with the A64, the vid card couldnt keep up. at least get an ATI 9600 or NV 5900. The rest of your proposed specs sound awesome for CAD machines.
 
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