Building a PC from scratch to AutoCAD use.

You are right about that! Because Pro cards typically come out after gaming cards and if you buy something decent, the way the trend is the gaming card will typically always be a version/tech ahead of the pro card due to the extensive testing on pro cards. I had nothing else to compare the 1500 to but I figured at the price point comparison at the time of purchase it was accurate but you are right they are in different families.

Oh yeah, just picking one you pretty much :wink: My two that I compare aren't similar either but it is all I have to compare with as well.

Well I bleed nVidia green when I get cut so I am biased but with their cards the 1st number is the series and the 2nd shows it level (or something). Always stay with the 2nd number up at 6 or above while 8 is nice IMHO.

6800

8800

9800 and so on

Looks like the new 200 series are the new cards on the block though.

Sweet......

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp%3FProductCode=10009933%26prodlist=at

Wow...after reading all this' date=' I'm feeling left behind again. I just did a video card upgrade (Geforce 8400gs) to this computer and was pleased with the results in that it was a considerable improvement over what I had. After reading all this, I wonder what I'm missing. This machine is two years old and was a bargain purchase at Best Buy then. Even at that, it ran faster and with less problems than the machine I had at my previous employer. They did mostly 2d stuff, but if I did have to do any 3d stuff I'd wait till I got home to do it here simply because this one would out perform what we had there (leased Lenovos).

 

May have to see what else I can do to it now.[/quote']

Well I bleed nVidia green when I get cut so I am biased but with their cards the 1st number is the series and the 2nd shows it level (or something). Always stay with the 2nd number up at 6 or above while 8 is nice IMHO.

6800

8800

9800 and so on

 

Looks like the new 200 series are the new cards on the block though.

The 200 series are impressive as far as performance numbers, but holy cow do they consume some energy. If you're not running at least a 500W or even 750W PSU then that'll be an extra cost just to keep that bad boy satisfied for power consumption.

To me the most impressive gaming card in regards to power consumption and price is the ATI 4870. Mid range price and just a hair behind the 200 series, and very efficient power consumption.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from ATI cards in the past for me to try again. I still don't like their driver support.

I still have a bad taste in my mouth from ATI cards in the past for me to try again. I still don't like their driver support.

I'll agree to that with CAD apps, but not for gaming. I've always been a fan for that.

Im studying architectural technology at the moment and would like to build a well spec'd computer to handle CAD 09, and I know next year we will be learning Revit. Ive put together a list of items I think would be sufficient for the job, but as always, feedback would be muchly appreciated on my selection.

INTEL CORE 2 QUAD Q8400 2.66GH

GIGABYTE EP45T-UD3LR DDR3 2200+ 1600 FSB PCI Express x16

Kingston 2 GB DDR3 x 2

NVidia GeForce 9800GT

Samsung SH-S223F SATA 22x DVD-RW

Samsung 500GB SATAII 16MB 7200RPM HDD

Cooler Master CM 690 Black

ANTEC NeoPower 550 550W

SAMSUNG 23' 2333SW

The main questions are:

Should I stick with DDR3 RAM, as it limits me to the lower end of the scale of DDR3 compliant mobos with max RAM on the mobo I chose being 8G; or should I go with the DDR2 RAM and get a comparable mobo that supports 16G RAM.

Also questioning the strengths of the graphics card and a possible upgrade on the psu if need be.

Should I stick with the Samsung monitor or just try and get as big as I can for as cheap as I can.

I feel that DDR3 is only worth it if you are going with a i7 build or an AM3 mobo with DDR3 support (see below). DDR2 800 or 1066 will still be sufficient if you need to go that route - maybe lose 4% performance going from ddr3 1600 to ddr2 1066 - not enough to matter IMO.

Right now if you were going to build a computer, I think that AMDs phenom x2 940 is the BEST price:performance champ. At sub-$200, it comes close to performance of the core i7 920 (over $100 more). Not to mention a cheap AM3 mobo can be had for about $70.

I would look at getting:

Phenom x2 940

ATi HD4770 (cheap as the 9800 and WAY faster)

Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P

G-SKILL 4GB DDR3 1333 (only $60)

keep everything else you had listed.

I thought the AMD cpus were not as good as the Intel brand.

The Corsair branded ram is pretty similar priced to the G-Skill brand in New Zealand. I went with a HD 4850 1GB card as it wasnt too much more expensive than the HD4770.

For an extra $360 NZD I have found I can build a healthy "bottomend" i7 rig.

Intel Core i7 920

ATI RADEON HD4870 1GB GDDR5

kingston valueram 4gb 1333mhz ddr3 non-ecc cl9

Samsung SH-S223F SATA 22x DVD-RW

Cooler Master CM 690 Black

SAMSUNG 23' 2333SW

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R X58

Western Digital 640GB SATA 3 Gb/s 32MB Cache

Corsair 620W 120mm fan, Dual

Zalman ZM-F3 120mm Black Case Fan x 2

Im choosing the kingston ram as it runs at 1.5V and Intel recommends not to run ram at over 1.65V incase of damage to the cpu.

OS will be 64-bit

Get 32! I've had nothing but nightmares with 64bit and cant wait to scrap it

Get 32! I've had nothing but nightmares with 64bit and cant wait to scrap it

What problems have you had?

What problems have you had?

Not sure if hes just had bad luck, but Ive been using a 64bit OS since windows xp x64 came out (and people called it a buggy 64bit OS) - it was FAR more stable than 32bit windows I was running earlier. It makes no sense to get 32bit anymore for a workstation because of the 4GB ram limit for the system (which is 4GB combined for video ram, memory, etc - ends up giving you roughly 3GB memory in 32bit windows). If you are using more powerful cards - which can now have memory as much as 2GB per card (WOW), you seriously limit the performance of the machine when struck by the 32bit limits.

I have to agree with Kevin on everything he said. When 64 bit systems first became available, they may have been buggy, but not anymore. I've been on 64 bit at work for over a year, running 8GB RAM. And now at home, I've got a 64 bit system with 12GB RAM and I have not experienced any problems.

I have been using the new setup for around a week now and am very impressed at the speed at which it runs CAD. Even though most of my work is still in 2D, I still find it a huge improvement over the computers we are using at Unitec.

Setup:

i7 920

P6T

GSkill 6GB 1333 kit.

HIS 4870 1GB