Legit Reviews

I've got a friend on my foosball forums that needs to get a rig capable of running AutoCad and Solid Edge 3D programs while at the same time

"running Word, Microsoft Picture Manager (or w.e. it's called), maybe 4 I.E. tabs, calculator, and possibly something else not too memory hoggish".

As soon as he said he was looking at HP computers, I yelled NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! I am URGING him to build his own since he is educated and smart enough to build a rig from scratch since he has taken apart both towers and laptops and they worked upon reassembly...

He tells me he is in the $800-1000 price range ($1200 absolute max but this needs to include dual monitors at least 20", preferably up to 24") so he can go either AMD or Intel. Obviously going AMD he can build a hexacore-based rig for the multitasking capabilities, but I don't want to push him in that direction unless it is what is best for him. Considering the above budget has to include monitors I assume that going AMD will give him more bang for the buck. He said he doesn't need a gamer, looks to me from his needs for AutoCad and 3D apps on a dual-monitor setup that this will be a working rig. Those apps suggest using a specialty card for crunching CAD and 3D but with todays onboard graphics I was wondering if that was necessary. Any thoughts you can share on this subject will be greatly appreciated and passed on to him with preference.

Thanks!

a grand is going to be snug including the monitors. What versions is he wanting to run? AutoCAD 2009 with Inventor is on 4 DVDs and has lots of little crap that runs in the background.

biggest video card he can swing, if it will be dedicated cad box look at the fireGL or Quadro cards for in the future, but can easily get by with a GTX460, wouldnt run lower than a GTX260, I make mine scream on a regular basis and not doing any massive assemblies. The workstation class cards are stupid $$$

dual core at minimum, quad would be the best. Dont think Autodesk has updated to take advantage of hex cores yet. but the most of the horsepower needs to be in the video card for crunching 3D views and such on the fly. The CPU comes in on still rendering and simulation runs.

RAM, RAM, RAM, more the better.

decent amount of drive space and someplace to store periodic backups, files can get corrupted with an error in the program, nothing like loosing a ~100 part assembly due to it. It happened to me, it sucks.


and if he is going to do lots of 3D he needs to look at one of these as well. Will make life in the long run easier and quicker.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6826154007

I just went over and invited him to join this forum to continue talking to you directly since you are both CAD/3D proficient and I am not. Hopefully he will chime in on this thread in due time. Thanks for the quick reply Bubba!

PS he said he will join tomorrow morning so will probably reply to this thread and answer your queries further tomorrow sometime.

bubba wrote:a grand is going to be snug including the monitors. What versions is he wanting to run? AutoCAD 2009 with Inventor is on 4 DVDs and has lots of little crap that runs in the background.

i would be running

Siemens Solid Edge ST3 System Requirements:
Quote:

Hardware System Requirements
Solid Edge is not supported on processors prior to the Intel Pentium 4 or the AMD Athlon 64 (SSE2 instruction set is required), nor is it supported on Intel Itanium processors. Recommended system configuration

32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

Windows 7 operating system for optimal performance and user experience

At least 2 GB RAM

True Color (32-bit) or 16 million colors (24-bit)

Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 or higher, widescreen format

2.4 GB disk space required for installation Minimum system configuration

32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor

Any of the above operating systems

At least 1GB RAM

65K colors

Screen Resolution: 1280 x 1024 or higher

2.4 GB disk space required for installation

Display System Requirements and Information

Solid Edge will run on graphics drivers that support Windows XP or Windows Vista or Windows 7. For optimal performance, it is recommended to use a professional graphics card that is designed for CAD applications. For information about cards used in testing Solid Edge and results, refer to http://support.ugs.com/online_library/certification/. A 256MB graphic card or higher is recommended when working with large assemblies or complex parts.


AutoCAD System Requirements:

Quote:
AutoCAD 2011
•Microsoft Windows 7, Vista SP1 or XP SP 2
•Processor

◦32-bit XP: Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 1.6 GHz or greater with SSE2 technology
◦32-bit Vista or 7: Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Dual Core, 3.0 GHz or greater with SSE2 technology
◦64-bit: Athlon 64 or Opteron with SSE2 technology or Xeon or Pentium 4 with EM64T support and SSE2 technology
•2 GB RAM
•Disk space

◦32-bit: 1.8 GB
◦64-bit: 2.0 GB
•1024 x 768 display resolution with true color

Sorry, my last reply got cut apart by accident. I appreciate any advice, i'm guessing kaos kid posted my question....

Well, from my own use anything above AutoCAD 2004 runs like crap on Pentium4's, and I mean crap.

Since I'm in IT now I don't do a whole lot at work anymore, I do sometimes when the guys in Engineering need help or want bounce ideas off me (was a tool designer/mechanical engr for 10yr prior to moving to IT). The PC I'm using here at work is a E7500 with 3GB RAM, Win7 32Bit, and an ATI HD4600. Its ok for looking at simple assemblies in Inventor BUT getting over ~20 or so large complex parts in an assembly the card lags/stutters and the motion is not smooth rotating the assembly. complex motion simulations are annoying. Take them home most of the time, my home PC is much better.

My home rig that I still do stuff on is a i7-930 with 8GBRAM, win7 64Bit, and a GTX480... smooth as glass. I did have it on my old home rig that was a i7-860, 8GB RAM, Win7 64Bit, and a GTX260. It did fine, not as smooth as the GTX480, but as long as I didn't rotate large assemblies (100+ parts) to fast it was fine. Rotate to fast it would lag a little.

I have built 3 Auto Cad machines in the last few months.

The aforementioned $1200 max is quite short of the amount it would take for hardware that I'd want to build it with.
NOT including monitors.

Minimum CPU = i7 920
Intel board
12 Gb RAM
Intel 160 Gb SSD for OS & programs
2 Velociraptors in RAID 0 for files / Not needed if files are stored on a server.
750+ watt PS
ATI 5770+ video

I haven't discussed it further with him, but I think Gogh's boss decided to go with a workstation from Dell at a much higher budget than originally listed here . Bosses, eh? They don't know what they want ;) .

Good thread though so if you want to keep it going by all means continue to list your dream CAD box builds here. It can be a useful tool for anyone considering building their own CAD box. Thanks for the help!