CAD Workstation Questions

[Kenazo]

I had originally posted this in OT, since my questions span CPU, video, motherboard and more. But not much response there.

Anyway, I've been asked to field a quote for a small manufacturing company's CAD system.
The systems I'm competing against are 3 different IBM Intellistation MPro's, ranging from p4 2.8 to p43.0 ghz, all with 1GB ECC ram, and either Quadro 4 580 XGL or Quadro 4 980 XGL video cards.

My questions are:
1. Can a high end Athlon XP based system compete against a p4 based solution? How about Athlon64 or Opterons?
2. anyone know of a page of comparisons between the different Quadro series cards, preferably with benchmarks.
3. Can a high end gaming card (like a 5900 ultra or 9800 pro) compete in this application w/ the cards listed above?
4. what is more important in an application like this, hard drive space, or speed? The quotes I'm up against are 36.4 SCSI drives, would SATA RAID not be a better choice?

 

[Lynx516]

What CAD program are they using and how intensive is the CAD stuff. i.e. are they CADing whole cars? A few parts e.t.c
IMHO a Quadro is OTT for CAD unless it is not cad but 3D amination. I would say you want lots of RAM 2GB if you can. Get a R9800 not even pro.
HDD Speed is usualy pretty important in CAD IMHO if they are doing large complex stuff as it will easily fill up the ram and hit a page file then seek time beomes critical.
I am guessing teh SCSI drives are 15K. I would go for a P4 or Opteron (havent seen any benchmarks for cad progs so I cannot say which would be better though I suspect the Opteron woudl be) 2GB RAM a maxtor Atlas 10K 3 (10KRPM SCSI drive) (Maybe raid if it is storing mission critical info but I doubt that) A big name mobo such as Tyan (might have an SCSI controller on board) or Asus for Opteron and for intel I would shove in an Intel board as they are amazingly reliable. If we had an idea of quotes you are up against it may help

 

[new2AMD]

I do CAD all day on a IBM NetVista 2.0ghz P4 with 640ram, integrated video, and 60gb HD. Runs fine.

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: new2AMD
I do CAD all day on a IBM NetVista 2.0ghz P4 with 640ram, integrated video, and 60gb HD. Runs fine.

NetVista's are the computers that landed me this quote. This company was having problems with the netvista mobo's blowing capacitors. The company the bought the computers from won't replace the motherboards, and rather made them upgrade the whole computers. I stepped up and solved their solution for 1/4 the price.

Anyway, the quotes I'm up against:

entry level quote:
IBM Intellistaion MPro
p4-2.8 (don't know what the fsb is on it)
1 GB ecc DDR
80 GB 7200rpm ATA HDD
48x CD-rom
Quadro4 580XGL

the high end quote:
p4 3.0
1 GB ecc
36.4 10k RPM SCSI
48x24x48 cd-r
quadro4 980XGL

 

[Lynx516]

OK after looking at the IBM systems on their webby to get an approx price. I arrived at about $1,800 for the cheaper system. This is what I think you shoudl get:

P4 3.0C
Asus P4C800
1GB PC3200 ECC
Radeon 9800
WD Raptor (it outperfroms most 10K SCSI drives (forgot about that ))
e.t.c
You should be able to undercut IBM by atleast $500

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: Lynx516
OK after looking at the IBM systems on their webby to get an approx price. I arrived at about $1,800 for the cheaper system. This is what I think you shoudl get:

P4 3.0C
Asus P4C800
1GB PC3200 ECC
Radeon 9800
WD Raptor (it outperfroms most 10K SCSI drives (forgot about that ))
e.t.c
You should be able to undercut IBM by atleast $500

That's very similar to what I came up with. Though I used a quadro4 580XGL, and an Abit IC7-G, and came with $1710cdn, which is very comptetitve, imho w/ the IBM system for speed, and way better for price.

What's the difference between ECC and ECC Registered?

 

[Kenazo]

Originally posted by: new2AMD
I do CAD all day on a IBM NetVista 2.0ghz P4 with 640ram, integrated video, and 60gb HD. Runs fine.

What program? They will be using Autodesk's Inventor (not sure if 7 or 8)

 

[sixpackdate]

I use autocad and Land development desktop, and overlay large aerial photographs (5-25M tiffs and jpgs) from time to time. I recently switched from Athlon 800 mhz based systems to a 2.4 P4 system, and at home have an amd barton 2500 based system. Cad software is no longer as power hungry as
it used to be. The programs are optimized, and are nothing in comparison to photoshop, premiere, and gaming.

I have found that stability and display quality are key. My computers are on 24-7 and all have dual dell 20" FP displays with gainward ti4600 twin DVI video cards and scsi 10k hard drives. My server is a dell 400sc with a p3-933 processor and scsi hard drives and tape backup, 10/100 network with HP printers and plotter on jetdirect cards. Spend your cash on display, seating, room lighting, and other ergonomics. Dont work too long, and go fishing.

When your system is faster than you are, speed increase is not increasing productivity. My .02 !

 

[new2AMD]

Originally posted by: Kenazo

Originally posted by: new2AMD
I do CAD all day on a IBM NetVista 2.0ghz P4 with 640ram, integrated video, and 60gb HD. Runs fine.

What program? They will be using Autodesk's Inventor (not sure if 7 or 8)

autocad 2003 and MS SQL. I draft and database assets on drawings.