List your work computer specs.

[Longchamp]

The main purpose of this is to see if anyone out there is using a worse computer at work. Or so that you can marvel at how terrible this machine is.

Specs:
AMD Duron 950mhz (this was a discount CPU back in 2001)
768MB of PC133 RAM
No name video card ($20 card from same era, my video card spec program cant even detect it, it's so old)
60GB hard drive


This thing takes literally 8 minutes just to boot up every day. Somehow they managed to get XP to run on it.

Edit: And what's with the fish?

[StykFacE]

The main purpose of this is to see if anyone out there is using a worse computer at work. Or so that you can marvel at how terrible this machine is.

Specs:
AMD Duron 950mhz (this was a discount CPU back in 2001)
768MB of PC133 RAM
No name video card ($20 card from same era, my video card spec program cant even detect it, it's so old)
60GB hard drive


This thing takes literally 8 minutes just to boot up every day. Somehow they managed to get XP to run on it.

Edit: And what's with the fish?
Wow... you need a new computer. I guess technically it's okay with the version of AutoCAD that you're running, but soon as you get an upgrade, that computer will be history.

I had the luck to let my company give me a budget to build my own - and that's what I did. They gave me $800 to work with, and that had to include a legit copy of WinXP Pro and MS Office. And man does my computer fly, especially for the money spent.

Specs:
Core2 Duo 6320 1.86GHz (Overclocked to 2.4GHz)
2GB DDR-2 800MHz
160GB SATA Hard drive
7300GT PCI-e Video Card
20X DVD Burner

I jumped on Newegg.com and definitely got my company's money's worth. Plus I'm running dual monitors which is nice. :)

And the fish from what I know was just an image placeholder when the owner was creating the site. By the time he launched the site, the fish had grown on him and He just left it. 8)

[SLW210]

As for the Trout....TROUT (http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=11519)

Pentium D CPU 3.4GHz
2G RAM
230G Hard Drive
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 285
Windows XP SP2

[rkent]

W
I had the luck to let my company give me a budget to build my own - and that's what I did. They gave me $800 to work with, and that had to include a legit copy of WinXP Pro and MS Office. And man does my computer fly, especially for the money spent.

Specs:
Core2 Duo 6320 1.86GHz (Overclocked to 2.4GHz)
2GB DDR-2 800MHz
160GB SATA Hard drive
7300GT PCI-e Video Card
20X DVD Burner



All that for $800? Office Basic is $170, and XP Pro is $200. You got all the rest and dual monitors for ~$430?

[StykFacE]

Dual monitors I already had, luckily. And the software isn't that much for an OEM disc, links below:

$140 - WinXP Pro
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400

well, no link for MS Office. it was only $160 give or take a few dollars, it was XP 2003 at the time (only 2007 out now), and it only the Basic version that came with Word, Excel, and Outlook. Plus it was the OEM version as well...

So that gave me $500 to work with, and I got a cheaper motherboard, the RAM I got for sale (half off), the video card was like $80, and the DVD burner was only $35. The rest was easy. :)

[Jomi]

Dell Optiplex GX280
Pentium 4 CPU 3.00Ghz
1 GB ram
~160 on the disk

Is that any good? (I use 2005 at work)

[James]

AMDX2 3800
3GB Ram
2x 80GB hard drives
Nvidia 7300LE GFX

[dbroada]

I recently had my RAM doubled to 1GB (for another application) but I still have the original Celeron 2.4MHz processor, onboard graphics and single 40Gb hard drive. All this to run AutoCAD 2008 - and if you know your recommended specs you will know that mine is underpowered!

Doesn't quite match the original posters but he is running older software.

[f700es]

Work:
Dell Precision 390
Intel Core2 Duo 2.13 GHz
2 GB Ram
80 GB SATA
nVidia 128 mb Quadro FX 3450 PCIe
Dell 24" LCD
Dell 20" LCD
CD-rom
DVD-R/W

Home:
Dell Dimension 4600
2.66 GHz P4
1 GB Ram
120GB SATA
nVidia 256mb GeForce 6600GT AGP
DVD-Rom
DVD-R/W
Dell 22" LCD

[craigp]

my full spec is as follows:
Dual Intel Xeon Dual Core processors @ 3.2Ghz
8GB DDR2 Ecc Full Buffered (8x 1GB)
74GB SAS (10 000rpm) Hard Drive
256MB Nvidia Quattro FX3500 PCI-e- Graphics Card
DVD+/- Re Writer.

[Rosa]

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii136/Rosa612/cbmcmptr.jpg

[ReMark]

Xi MTower PCIe Workstation

Intel Core2 Duo 2.66MHz 1066FSB 4096KB L2 cache
4GB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 Dual Rank Interleave
nVidia GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3
73GB 15,000 RPM U3SCSI-320 (main) hardrive
73GB 10,000 RPM U3SCSI-320 (backup) hardrive
DVD+RW/DL/+R-R Lightscribe Double media 4.7/5.8GB
600W GameXstream Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper
On board sound

The one minus: 21" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2040u monitor (CRT). Couldn't get the bean counters to spring for a new LCD. I keep trying to set off the overhead sprinkler accidently of course.

dbroada:

You need an upgrade!

[StykFacE]

wow Mark, I want your machine. Too bad the videocard is geared for gaming and sucks balls for AutoCAD. :)

[Rosa]

StykFacE - Two questions:

1 - Why is it good for gaming, but not CAD?
2 - Who told you to use my picture for your avy?

[ReMark]

Stykman:

Yeah, the vid card...thought I'd try something different. Yep, it's not on the AutoDesk "recommended or approved" list but it handles all the 3D I've thrown at it so far. Took a chance; will see what happens. Only had it 8 months.

[rkent]

I sometimes wonder about this whole video card division between cad and games. The cad cards cost more, sometimes by a factor of 10X, yet no one has conclusive data that says they actually work better. Everyone quotes a source saying that cad cards are required but no one that I can find has done a hard core scientific comparison of the two. I wish someone like Tom's Hardware would do a real world test for us. I have a feeling the inflated cost of cad cards is just marketing and there is little to be gained by spending that much money.

[StykFacE]

I sometimes wonder about this whole video card division between cad and games. The cad cards cost more, sometimes by a factor of 10X, yet no one has conclusive data that says they actually work better. Everyone quotes a source saying that cad cards are required but no one that I can find has done a hard core scientific comparison of the two. I wish someone like Tom's Hardware would do a real world test for us. I have a feeling the inflated cost of cad cards is just marketing and there is little to be gained by spending that much money.
Just marketing? So you believe that nVidia or ATI (now AMD) would put a $2,000 price tag on a video card just because they name it for CAD/Render designwork? I don't think so.... lol

These cards' architecture are significantly different than that of gaming cards, plus they take advance of the full GL driver that most CAD applications use, not a MiniGL driver that all gaming cards use. I think that Tom's Hardware does post something relating to this comparison....

[SLW210]

Try checking out CADYLIST (http://management.cadalyst.com/graphics+cards) magazine, they do some testing on cards.

They also have for Free Cadalyst Labs Benchmark Test 2008 (http://www.cadalyst.com/benchmark)

[rkent]

Not Just marketing, but it plays an important factor. I don't have any proof of course, but then no one has proof that they perform better than a gaming card. Have you had any marketing classes? It is an eye opener into how some products are priced, the cost of production is a factor, of course, but lots more goes into it than that.

The links to Cadalyst some one else provided only talk about CAD, near as I could tell.

[SLW210]

Not Just marketing, but it plays an important factor. I don't have any proof of course, but then no one has proof that they perform better than a gaming card. Have you had any marketing classes? It is an eye opener into how some products are priced, the cost of production is a factor, of course, but lots more goes into it than that.

The links to Cadalyst some one else provided only talk about CAD, near as I could tell.

I work with CAD not gaming .

There are others out there that do testing as well.

Try giving this one a look...XBITLABS (http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/quadrofx-vs-firegl.html) this link is to a test on CAD, but if you will browse the site it reviews and compares for gaming.
There are several places to get info on Gaming and you can compare the results.

[StykFacE]

Not Just marketing, but it plays an important factor. I don't have any proof of course, but then no one has proof that they perform better than a gaming card. Have you had any marketing classes? It is an eye opener into how some products are priced, the cost of production is a factor, of course, but lots more goes into it than that.

The links to Cadalyst some one else provided only talk about CAD, near as I could tell.
I still don't understand how you can say that marketing plays an important factor as your main reasoning why these cards are so much more. These cards sport 12bits of sub-pixel precision (4X higher than an 8800GTX Ultra), they support the full OpenGL driver extentions (the highest priced gaming cards support Direct3D which is COMPLETELY different set of rendering instructions), they have DVI-I connectors that support 3840x2400 resolutions @ full-screen anti aliasing which is INSANE (no gaming card would DREAM of reaching this high), not to mention real-time lossless z-buffer (gaming cards don't support) which 2-sided front & back lighting and rendering (another thing gaming cards don't support) and real time depth shadow renderings. These cards can support about 100 million textures while rendering lights/shadows, something a gaming card can't even fathom to do.

Let's not forget that these cards are also for Video Editing, Servers, Rendering Animations, full Media designs - NOT just AutoCAD and other CAD related programs. Gaming cards don't even support 3D overlay plane buffer, which is crucial in rendering programs like 3DS Max, and is a HUGE loss in performance without this feature. I can assure you I don't need a marketing class to figure that one out. If you're talking about an iPod, then maybe I'll agree with you, but we're talking serious performance graphics cards here in an area of technology who depend on serious results, this is not a "trendy product".

8)

[ReMark]

Styk:

Take a moment to come down off your soapbox, from which you speak with such eloquance, and take a look at this re GeForce 8800 based graphics cards:

http://www.xicomputer.com/new/welcome.html#GeForce™%208800

[StykFacE]

Very nice. didn't know the 8800 chipset is a competitor to the Quadro counterparts. But the Quadro/FireGL's are still what they are for a reason. :)

[rkent]

Styk:

Take a moment to come down off your soapbox, from which you speak with such eloquance, and take a look at this re GeForce 8800 based graphics cards:

http://www.xicomputer.com/new/welcome.html#GeForce™%208800 (http://www.xicomputer.com/new/welcome.html#GeForce%E2%84%A2%208800)


ReMark, Thanks for that post, lol.

[StykFacE]

don't flatter yourself rkent. It still doesn't compare to the high end workstation cards.

[NBC]

can i be a total n00b, and ask how do you check out your computer specs ?
with a pair of these -
http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/images/dress-up/acc/goofy-droopy-specs.jpg

[rkent]

don't flatter yourself rkent. It still doesn't compare to the high end workstation cards.

This is only one of several postings around the internet that pretty much show what I was saying about the high cost of CAD cards being mostly marketing. Google it for yourself, but there are people out there saying the same thing and have proof, as shown below.

Most of quadro features depends on softwares, as hardware features are present on both Gaming and Quadro cards (same PCB project), but Nvidia just lock the features as Professional VGA cards market are more profitable per unit . Nvidia used to use hardware lock in 5900 series VGA card , but with 6... family GPU the hardware lock were not instaled , using drivers to lock it up, rivaturner will skip the VGA id to unlock quadro features. So as I mentioned I use 6800 Ultra MSI vga as Quadro, as Pain mentioned, must test the VGA as some really may not be unlocked . Maybe the best way for U is get one from Ebay (and probably will be older batch , and more chance to respect Nvidia project layout). But I can tell U somenthing (I have 3 unlocked Quadro, 2 running Sli) it worths the try as U can check to FX3450 prices (at least in Brazil , quadro prices are at least 5 times over regular vga cards if product available) I bought 3 Vga and all are working as quadro, more, 2 6600 GT , 2 6800 from EVGA , were also turned into quadro for my fellows so chances are good

[StykFacE]

whatever you say man.... lol

All you did was hop on Mark's bandwagon about the 8800. Have fun with it... :)

[ReMark]

Do I get any brownie points for having, at one time, a nVidia Quadro 4 980XGL?

[StykFacE]

lol @ mark.... well heck yes you do man!! :lol:

[Alan Cullen]

Ahhh.....am I butting in where I am not welcome? Mark, Styk, Cut the crap. We all have differences, but we are also very close to each other.

I would have thought we could support each other, rather than get into conflict with each other.

Please, no more would be a thing I would love. Styk we all know you are the guru in this area, Mark, your ability lies in other areas. Me? I'm just am idiot who knows a little bit about acad. But nothing more.

Please, mateship is too valuable.

[StykFacE]

na man, Mark is one of the smartest dudes here... i've learned lots from this guy (as he has once again proven in this post). But still, high end workstations support 33% higher resolution outputs, up to 2GB of onboard video RAM, as well as a number of other things vs the 8800GTX. So i'm still not convinced that the 8800GTX is the best card ever for CAD designs. as far as price, and the ability to do gaming and CAD, then by all means it is probably the best bang for the buck, but this has only been with this new chipset, not from previous gaming cards. :)

And the 8800GTX is not a cheap card either.

[Alan Cullen]

Cheers, Styk. It's good that we have us. :lol: :lol: o:)

[StykFacE]

i <3 you too Alan. :)

[SLW210]

Here is a portion taken from the previously mentioned GeForce 8800 article...


For years the use of a gamers card for CAD has been the poor man’s choice, cheap, but with sure low performance.



Sounds like even Xi thinks most gamer cards aren't up to CAD.

[ReMark]

If the Stykman were running for president I'd vote for him.

We weren't arguing, we were debating. Each to his or her own opinion. I find it rather healthy, much like a breath of fresh air. Sometimes we need to open up the windows in here Alan.

P.S. - I love the Stykman like he was my brother. Come to think of it, he IS my brother! We were twin brothers of different mothers. Mom always did like him best.

[Calador]

Currently I have an Intel(R) Core2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 0.99 Gb Ram.
With Large Xrefs, it takes 2 secs lagging time to do any successive actions.

Anyone with 1gb ram having same problems? I soOoOoo need an upgrade but its the company's decision. >.<

I guess 2 Gb ram would be the min for a smooth operation

[SLW210]

Currently I have an Intel(R) Core2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz 0.99 Gb Ram.
With Large Xrefs, it takes 2 secs lagging time to do any successive actions.

Anyone with 1gb ram having same problems? I soOoOoo need an upgrade but its the company's decision. >.<

I guess 2 Gb ram would be the min for a smooth operation

It may help to create a large swap file, if you have an IT department, they should be able to do it. Memory is pretty cheap, it would actually save the company some money and increase productivity to add you another Gig of RAM.

[Hedgehog]

can i be a total n00b, and ask how do you check out your computer specs ?
with a pair of these -
http://www.sillyjokes.co.uk/images/dress-up/acc/goofy-droopy-specs.jpg
Have you got the original box your PC came in? :roll:

[phillion]

For windows, right click over your "my computer" icon, >>>> Properties>>>General (Tab)

For video card. Right click on your desktop >>>> Properties >>>>Settings and it should display your video card.

For me.
I use a 3.40GHz Pentium D, 2.00GB Ram, XP Pro (2002, service pack 2), 310GB hard drive space ( an 80 and a 250 ), and a cheap BFG 6600 GT video card.
2x19in LCD monitors

I do small and detailed drawings. So the video card has worked fine.

[SLW210]

Originally Posted by NBC http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/images/buttons_festive/viewpost.gif (http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?p=120665#post120665)
can i be a total n00b, and ask how do you check out your computer specs ?
with a pair of these -

Right-Click on My Computer and select properties or Control Panel>Performance and Maintenence>System.

[Hedgehog]

Naaa... I was gonna suggest packing it with all the leads into the box :D


... computer specs indeed!

[awii668]

make a new PC for your work........will make your drawing faster!

[CADGT]

Dell Precision 490
Intel Xeon 3.7ghz
2gb Ram
Nvidia Quadro Fx4500 512mb
150 Gb Hd
2 X Dell 20" Wides