Help wanted. ( Please no threadcrapping!)

[M2005]

I'm starting school in Jan at a comunity college to major in commercial Architecture. I will be given or buy the programs needed but i need guidance on what hardware to use. Im going to be using some Cad software, and also if there is any 3D software outhere better than Cad 3D maxx, tell me plz. I need to know for example, what kind of mother board, memory stick(how much), video card, sound card, processor, power supply. I need some help fast. I will be puchasing these items one by one since i only have a part time job at UPS. Thnx guys i appreciate it!


Mizael

 

[screw3d]

You probably want to know which platform are they going to use it on first?

 

[M2005]

By that you mean amd or intel? Intel is what they are using.

 

[screw3d]

Originally posted by: M2005
By that you mean amd or intel? Intel is what they are using.

I meant Windows, Mac or *nix

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: screw3d

Originally posted by: M2005
By that you mean amd or intel? Intel is what they are using.

I meant Windows, Mac or *nix

From what I understand CAD = Windows.

That's not to say you can't find great cad programs for Linux.. mostly commercial/propriatory stuff and a few good free stuff (curcuit design and some 2d stuff)

To the OP this is in the wrong forum. Try hardware, unless you want to get into a OS debate.

 

[ashishmishra]

For the hardware part, you should have posted it on the hardware part of the forums, but anyways here goes:

This is what I would recommend,

CPU: AMD X2 3800+ Manchester $322 @ ZipZoomFly (Using RTPE) (Dual Core)

RAM: Corsair PC-3200 2x1024MB Value $166 @ ZipZoomFly (Using RTPE)

MOBO: DFI nForce4 Ultra (939) LanParty UT Ultra-D $121 @ ZipZoomFly (Using RTPE) (This is a very stable board, overclockers dream, but great value even if u don't want to overclock)
(Also I'm recommending NForce4 Ultra over SLI because ur use is not gaming so the ultra fits the bill perfectly)

HDD: Western Digital 3.0Gbps 250GB 7200RPM 16MB Caviar SE16 $118.49 @ Newegg (Using RTPE)

Video Card: eVGA GeForce 6800GS 256MB @ $204.99 @ ZipZoomFly (Using RTPE) (This is the best performance/dollar out there, it should do all your 3D rendering and ocassional gaming perfectly well, and do a good job of it, though the Quadro chip from nvidia is the best workstation graphics solution out there it is too damn expensive and is mainly aimed for the corporates, so that rules it out)

Though I strongly, and very strongly at that, would recommend the AMD solution, here is an Intel option for you

CPU: Intel Pentium D (775) 830 800FSB 2x1MB @ $323.00 @ ZipZoomFly (Using RTPE) (Dual Core)

MOBO: Gigabyte 945P GA-8I945P-G @ $104.50 @ Newegg (Using RTPE)

RAM: Mushkin PC-5300 2x1024MB Heatsink @ $156.98 @ Monarch Computers (Using RTPE)

Rest is the same, but seriously do yourself a favour and get the AMD system, apples to apples AMD is way over Intel right now in performance per watt per dollar, trust me

AMD system: $932.48 + Display + Case + Keyboard + Mouse

Intel system: $907.96 + Display + Case + Keyboard + Mouse

 

[M2005]

Thnx! guyz! i look foward to more help. If ne one out there has a system they are using for these programs. tell me what u got.


p.s-Thanx! ashishmishra

 

[gsellis]

What ashishmishra gave you is in spec with what Autodesk says:

System Requirements

Hardware

Intel® Pentium® III or AMD® processor, 500 MHz or higher (dual Intel)
Xeon® or dual AMD Athlon®or Opteron® 32-bit system recommended)
512 MB RAM (1 GB recommended)
500 MB swap space (2 GB recommended)
Graphics card supporting 1024x768x16-bit color with 64 MB RAM
(OpenGL® and Direct3D® hardware acceleration supported; 3D graphics accelerator 1280x1024x32-bit color with 256 MB RAM recommended)
Microsoft® Windows®?compliant pointing device (optimized for Microsoft IntelliMouse®)
Wacom? Intuos® or similar pressure-sensitive tablet recommended for vertex paint
DVD-ROM drive
Optional: sound card and speakers, cabling for TCP/IP-compliant network, 3D hardware graphics acceleration, video input and output devices, joystick, MIDI instruments, three-button mouse
Software

Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2 (recommended), Windows XP Home Edition SP2, or Windows 2000 SP4.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
DirectX® 9.0c (required), OpenGL (optional)

Note that they point to DirectX9.0c required with OpenGL optional. ATI is a bit better in DX9 performance, but some of the top of the line nVidia cards are still faster. My NLE recommends ATI over nVidia, but it is the only one that relies heavily on DX9. But the card ashishmishra recommends is great bang for the buck.

Don't gloss over the Wacom. The pen device is great.

Don't know if 3D Max does dual core well, but a AMD X2 3800-4400 processor is great (as listed above by already noted poster.) I know with Animation:Master (not multi-thread), if I am doing an animation, I just kick of 3 copies of A:M and set each to render a range (using dual Xeons).

 

[ashishmishra]

Originally posted by: M2005

p.s-Thanx! ashishmishra

No sweat man! :thumbsup: