Ok need some help Intel buffs please gime a hand.

[Finnkc]

I have to spec a good rendering and AutoCAD PC for my work.

I am an AMD man myself so I am not up to date with the good mid-high end intel mobos and CPUs.

Don't want the latest and greatest but I do want something with some "graphics power".

-GPU will be an ATI 9600 or 9700 - 128mb
-RAM around 512mb or 1012mb (looking at prices)

any suggestions?

 

[Matthias99]

Shouldn't you be looking at an ATI FireGL card (or an NVIDIA QuadroFX) for Autocad/rendering? Unless you want to play games on it when you're slacking off at the office, of course.

I'd also suggest going with 1024MB of RAM, even if you have to get slower chips. Assuming you're dealing with fairly sizable AutoCAD models, this will make things much faster.

I think you'd want to be looking for an 865P/875P motherboard (dual channel, 800MhzFSB support), and a high-end P4 with Hyper-Threading and the 800MhzFSB (ie, the P4 2.4C-3.2C). I haven't owned one of those (went over to AMD a while ago myself), but I'm sure many many *many* people will weigh in with their motherboard opinions.

 

[Slogun]

Check my sig.

The top mobos use the 875 Canterwood or 865 Springdale chipset.
These run at 800MHz FSB and allow you to run the hyperthreading Intel CPUs that aslo take advantage of 800MHz FSB. THese are the Intel Pentium 4C such as 2.4GHz, 2.6GHz, 2.8GHz, 3.0GHz and I think now 3.2GHz.

EDIT: ARG Matthias99 got his post in while I was typing...

 

[Finnkc]

'Shouldn't you be looking at an ATI FireGL card (or an NVIDIA QuadroFX) for Autocad/rendering? Unless you want to play games on it when you're slacking off at the office, of course. '


lol I don't want to make the acounting people fall over when they see a video card worth more then the entire PC.

Anyway looks like an 800mhz CPU and mobo?

 

[adams828]

keep accounting happy.. p4 2.6c (800MHz and HT) ~$175 and abit ic7 (i875 chipset - no onboard lan) ~$120 or ic7-g (lan, extra sata and raid features) ~$170

 

[Camofrog]

yes the P4 2.6ghz is the most reasonably priced right now(~$180), i would reccoment a ASUS P4P800 or P4C800, both have some sub models with different features, but are both reasonable priced mobo 's too (about ~$120 to ~$170). you could probably go with a ATI 9800pro they are ~$200 to ~$250. Also i would deffinitely reccomend at least 1024mb of memmory, also those asus boards have dual channel RAM which makes a difference too.

 

[beatle]

AutoCAD? AMD all the way. The fact that the CPU is cheaper and that it can use PC2700 ram (if you don't buy the 3200+) will also cut costs. Maybe enough to get that FireGL.

 

[Finnkc]

ok well I got a price from my PC guy ....

PIV 2.8 800mhz FSB
DFI PS83BL 865PE Mobo
1 gb DDRRAM
Maxtor 60gb UDMA 7200rpm
LG 52x 24x 52x CDRW
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 128mb AGP
plus case, mouse, Windows 2000 Pro OEM CD ... etc.

$1750.00 (Canadian) with 2 years unlimited on-site parts and labour.

 

[Slogun]

I can't comment on Canadian prices.

What are the specs on the RAM.

Also, I haven't see any people making reference (posts) about using DFI mobos and AT does not have a sticky for that brand.

Apparently, it is not very popular and you may want to research that further.

 

[Finnkc]

Well all my Intel's have run on DFI mobos ... not one has crapped out on me yet and we are talking 6 PCs oldest one being 6 years old. Maybe not the best performance in the market but they make great work horses. Plus they are not over priced like the big name brands.

 

[OverVolt]

Originally posted by: beatle
AutoCAD? AMD all the way. The fact that the CPU is cheaper and that it can use PC2700 ram (if you don't buy the 3200+) will also cut costs. Maybe enough to get that FireGL.

pretty sure thats the 533FSB P4

 

[Zzzt]

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: OverVolt

Originally posted by: beatle
AutoCAD? AMD all the way. The fact that the CPU is cheaper and that it can use PC2700 ram (if you don't buy the 3200+) will also cut costs. Maybe enough to get that FireGL.

pretty sure thats the 533FSB P4

True, however the 800FSB only provides a 5-10% performance boost based off of benchmarks I have seen.