quick critiques for Autocad build please

[jd254]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
Autocad

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
$500ish

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
Microcenter, Paterson, NJ

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
ha funny question

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
no, completely new build

6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads.
I don't need to. I know my stuff, but I would like someone to go over my build before purchase

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
no OC

8. What resolution YOU plan on gaming with.
no gaming

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
in 4 hours

10. Don't ask for a build configuration critique or rating if you are thin skinned.

CPU: AMD Phenom II X6 1055T $150 (SKU 658625)
MOBO: Biostar A780L3G FREE (SKU 140442)
RAM: Microcenter's 8GB DDR3 2x4gb $40 (SKU 404129)
PSU: Cooler Master eXtreme Power Plus 460W $30 (SKU063891)
CASE: Antec Three Hundred $50 (SKU 473454)
SSD: OCZ Technology Vertex Plus 60GB $75 (SKU 635953)
GFX: Nvidia Quadro 400 $130 (SKU 486902)

please comment on the SSD and the GFX card. If you have comments about the other parts, please make them. If you suggest a different CPU, try to recommend a CPU and MOBO combo within the same price range.

 

[Ken g6]

Seeing this, I'm not sure 6 cores will be all that useful. Will you be using those particular parts a whole lot? If not, I'd go with an i3 2100 (2120 if you can find it) and a cheap H61 board for that price.

Edit: If you get that i3, be sure to get 1.5v RAM. The RAM you listed doesn't say its voltage.

You could surely get a better PSU, too, though good brands are hard to find that cheap. With the lower power of the i3 the Cooler Master would probably be OK.

That SSD has lots of bad reviews. A Crucial M4 64GB is much better if you can afford it. Most SSDs aren't very reliable; you should keep a backup on your HDD. (Where is that, by the way?)

 

[jd254]

Seeing this, I'm not sure 6 cores will be all that useful. Will you be using those particular parts a whole lot? If not, I'd go with an i3 2100 (2120 if you can find it) and a cheap H61 board for that price.

You could surely get a better PSU, too, though good brands are hard to find that cheap. With the lower power of the i3 the Cooler Master would probably be OK.

That SSD has lots of bad reviews. A Crucial M4 64GB is much better if you can afford it. Most SSDs aren't very reliable; you should keep a backup on your HDD. (Where is that, by the way?)

the i3 2100 is roughly $100 plus a $50 mobo, equating to $150... my x6 1055T plus mobo are also $150. Let's no forget about the fact that I will be using other programs like a web browser and reading/making large PDF's. I assume 6 cores will help me multitask more efficiently... correct? Are you still recommending the switch?

How bad is this PSU? I used it for 3 of my builds already and it seems fine. Reviews aren't too bad neither. I know brand name matters but... reviews seems to be good. I'll see if I can find an Antec of Corsair at that price. I assume the wattage won't matter as long as it's >300watts.

thanks for letting me know about all those bad reviews for the OCZ SSD, but the Crucial costs so much more. I will look into finding an alternative.

EDIT: I will be getting that drive. It seems a firmware update will be required. The amd x2 560 BE is 3.3GHz and $90 only. Would this be preferred?

 

[lehtv]

So you don't have a HDD in this build at all? +1 on Crucial M4 64GB if so. If you do have a HDD, I would definitely skip the SSD on your budget. You can get i5-2500K + Gigabyte Z68AP for $220 from microcenter.

I'd recommend against microcenter RAM, only 1 year warranty. Mushkin 8GB $38 + Cooler Master Elite 370 $32 (Free shipping on orders >$50). Saves you $20.

Corsair CX430 V2 $47 ($27 AR) shipped.

Can't comment on the GPU, sorry.

 

[jd254]

So you don't have a HDD in this build at all? +1 on Crucial M4 64GB if so. If you do have a HDD, I would definitely skip the SSD on your budget. You can get i5-2500K + Gigabyte Z68AP for $220 from microcenter.

I'd recommend against microcenter RAM, only 1 year warranty. Mushkin 8GB $38 + Cooler Master Elite 370 $32 (Free shipping on orders >$50). Saves you $20.

Corsair CX430 V2 $47 ($27 AR) shipped.

Can't comment on the GPU, sorry.

I knew I forgot to answer a question. What do I need a HDD? storage? the PC will be connected to a NAS for main storage.

is there any other purpose than that?

true... I only buy lifetime warranty RAM. I'll pay a few dollar extra for it. my boss wants this done today. If you can pick a better case at microcenter, that would be great, but dont worry too much about that. I'm more concern with the performance.

 

[Ken g6]

I assume 6 cores will help me multitask more efficiently... correct?

The i3 has 2 cores, plus two "hyper-threaded" cores. Multitasking with it will not be a problem. There are some Pentiums just a bit slower than the i3, without hyper-threading, for less money, if you really need to save somewhere. Current Intel processors are much faster on single-threaded apps than AMD processors at the same clock speed.

So you don't have a HDD in this build at all?

This. Given the choice, I'd look for a cheap HDD now and forget the SSD. They're [thread=2198560]not easy to find[/thread], so I'd choose the processor based on the HDD's price and your budget.

Edit: Now I see the NAS. Can you fit AutoCad on the SSD? If not, get a HDD.

 

[Modelworks]

Forget the quadro card and get the best non pro nvidia card you can afford. Autodesk has greatly relaxed their stance on video cards from the days of 'must be xxx card' . They even do quality testing now for non pro cards. Anything with a 2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu will work fine. I used to spend thousands on cards back when things like the wildcat cards were the thing to have. Now I use a GTX275 card and everything from Autocad, to Maya works fine. The reason I specify nvidia and not ati is because nvidia has cuda support and a lot of autodesk software can utilize that for rendering .

 

[jd254]

Forget the quadro card and get the best non pro nvidia card you can afford. Autodesk has greatly relaxed their stance on video cards from the days of 'must be xxx card' . They even do quality testing now for non pro cards. Anything with a 2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu will work fine. I used to spend thousands on cards back when things like the wildcat cards were the thing to have. Now I use a GTX275 card and everything from Autocad, to Maya works fine.

the budget for the vid card is $100ish, so I went with $130 Quadro 400. If you say anything "2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu" will work fine, I'm not going to deny that. I just want to ask, will "2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu" in the $100 price range perform better? If not, I'm just wasting money on a "better" card for gaming that performs less in autocad... even though both "will work fine"

remember... this is a work computer... 100% zero gaming. If I was buying something for at home, this is obvious a no brainer.

 

[Modelworks]

the budget for the vid card is $100ish, so I went with $130 Quadro 400. If you say anything "2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu" will work fine, I'm not going to deny that. I just want to ask, will "2xx/4xx/+ nvidia gpu" in the $100 price range perform better? If not, I'm just wasting money on a "better" card for gaming that performs less in autocad... even though both "will work fine"

remember... this is a work computer... 100% zero gaming. If I was buying something for at home, this is obvious a no brainer.

Any quadro card you get for $100 isn't going to be as fast as the slowest of the gaming cards. The Quadro 400 only has a 64 bit memory bus and 48 cores. That is going to lag hard when you start doing complex work. It also isn't going to be good for the new renderers in the latest releases.

The difference between gaming cards and pro cards is so small right now that I wouldn't be surprised if Nvidia doesn't kill the whole division in the coming year. There really isn't any software out there that requires it anymore except some of the higher end solidworks stuff.


This card will absolutely put to shame the Quadro 400.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814125391


here is the autodesk autocad page for the GTX260.
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servle...id=16391880&suite=1022011200&os=8192&card=120

 

[SpatiallyAware]

Seeing this, I'm not sure 6 cores will be all that useful. Will you be using those particular parts a whole lot? If not, I'd go with an i3 2100 (2120 if you can find it) and a cheap H61 board for that price.

Edit: If you get that i3, be sure to get 1.5v RAM. The RAM you listed doesn't say its voltage.

You could surely get a better PSU, too, though good brands are hard to find that cheap. With the lower power of the i3 the Cooler Master would probably be OK.

That SSD has lots of bad reviews. A Crucial M4 64GB is much better if you can afford it. Most SSDs aren't very reliable; you should keep a backup on your HDD. (Where is that, by the way?)

This.. CAD by default uses the first core heavily compared to the rest, so you may be better off getting a faster clock cycle dual core over a quad or 6 core.

Quadro cards are, in my experience, highly overrated with CAD. We've gone to 460 and 560Ti's even for Revit without any problems.

AMD... good luck with that. For a CAD/Revit box I would stick with very very common hardware.




In my opinion you'd be FAR better off picking out a Precision T3500 from the dell outlet site. $650 will get you a screaming machine, and you'll wish you'd spent the extra couple hundred over building your own the first time you have an oddball problem, or when autodesk releases some patch that breaks everything.

 

[Ken g6]

If you still intend to get the system in 1/2 hour, here are two good GPUs:

- Cheap: http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0365384
- Fast: http://www.microcenter.com/single_pr...uct_id=0373191

I'd worry about using a full 460 or higher on that PSU.

 

[lehtv]

If you end up paying less for the GPU, you have a real possibility of getting the 2500K+Z68 I mentioned earlier . Much better than AMD X6, IMO worth the extra $70.

I would buy both the case and RAM from us.ncix, otherwise you won't get free shipping. Any decent RAM in microcenter costs $10 more than the Mushkin kit I linked. Alternatively, this case from microcenter and this PSU from us.ncix.

 

[dbcooper1]

An Intel i5 1155 series CPU will turbo up when using only one core so should give you better performance for this application if you can find out a way to make it fit within your budget for your build. Probably be worth doing this instead of the SSD for now if you're after performance while using the program rather than while loading initially.

 

[Aurora_Boreas]

To expand on Modelwork's post, when you used Autocad in the past, it was a prerequisite to use a professional graphics setup (Quadro, FireGL, Wildcat, ect) because the engine was based on OpenGL, and Autodesk had to do their own certifications. Now they have switched the rendering engine to Direct3D, and instead relies on the WHQL certification and allows you to use a more affordable and common graphics card with no loss in quality or performance (actually its a gain )

There is a PDF that explains the technical side of it all:
http://www.dereksdontrun.com/cad/inventor_dx_evolution.zip

And here is a discussion thread that explains it all as well as the source of the PDF link:
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Hardware/Inventor-2012-Card-certification/m-p/3049644