Need advice on Athlon system

[Eli]

Okay, I'm trying to get the head honcho here at work to get an Athlon system as his new office machine. He does a lot of CAD work on it.

He was never interested before, but he noticed on an AutoCAD site that the Athlon was ranked ontop(shocking, I know).

I've kinda fallen out of the hardware loop though, and I have no idea what motherboards and stuff are the best now.

Please give advise... lol

Do Matrox cards still give the best 2D, as in crispness? Matrox G550? Hmmm... Wonder if he'd be interested in a dual monitor setup... lol

I'd probably be using an AthlonXP 2200+. What's considered the most stable, robust board nowdays? This system MUST be ROCK solid. No BS allowed. That's why he's weary about AMD.. he's afraid the system will be somehow sub par to something Intel offers.

Help me proove him wrong!

 

[RSMemphis]

For CAD, you want more than a Matrox, you want a card with line anti-aliasing...

Look e.g. into the ATI FireGL type cards. Elsa used to make specific GeForces with line AA as well - not sure if anyone took over for them after their demise.
There are also even more dedicated cards in the professional corner, but they cost even more.

Yes, it costs, but it's worth it.

Edit: Oh, whoops, there is the real question. Hmm, stability and Athlons... Well, HP builds systems on AMD, so maybe that could convince him. (Although I had more problems with an HP Vectra here at work than with computers that I have put together myself the el-cheapo route)

 

[Markfw]

ASUS is generally the most accepted board for stability. I am sure there will be many opinions here. For CAD, you might eve consider a dual Athlon system if your software supports that. If you don't need that much speed you can save a cpu ($182 locally for me) and about $50 on the motherboard. Make sure you use a good quality case (Antec seems popular) with a good power supply, and at least 300 watt. A 430 watt Antec true power is popular here. For the video card, the Matrox is good for 2D and dual head. The ATI cards are pretty good nowadays also. You need to have a dollar figure in mind, and some more specifics if you want better directed answers. You can go for anywhere from a G550 ($100???) up to a Fire GL cards that I think are in the $800-$1000 range. Also, I would probably recommend as much ram as you can afford.(1.5-2 gb) Also, use Windows 2000, as it is the most stable for a business platform IMHO.