New PC for AutoCAD LT 2014

Hello,

I am upgrading the computer and want to make sure that it will run AutoCAD LT 2014 comfortably. I know I need to exceed the recommended specs to get it running smoothly. I dont really do any 3D or rendering work however I sometimes have large dwg files to work with - 20-30mb.

The following are the specs of the pc I am considering:

4th Gen Intel® Core™ I5-4570 Processor (Quad Core, 3.20GHz Turbo, 6MB)

4GB (1x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC

500GB 3.5inch Serial ATA (7.200 Rpm)

Intel Integrated Graphics, Dell OptiPlex

Windows 7 Professional (64Bit Windows 8 License, Media)

Do I have sufficient RAM, would it be better to downgrade to an i3 and upgrade the RAM?

Will integrated graphics be ok?

What is more important? CPU, GPU or RAM?

Also, am I better off staying with Windows 7 Pro or installing Windows 8.1?

For reference, the following are the recommended LT 14 64 bit specs:

Windows 8 Enterprise or Professional edition, Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium edition, or Windows XP Professional edition (SP2 or later)

AMD Athlon™ 64 with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support with SSE2 technology, or Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support with SSE2 technology

2 GB RAM

4 GB free disk space for installation

1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color

Internet Explorer 7.0 or later

Install from download or DVD

Thanks for your help!

If you are working with 20-30MB file sizes you would benefit from more ram and a dedicated graphics card would be a plus too.

Re: Choice of OS. My personal opinion is Win7 Pro if you have a copy or can get your hands on a legal copy.

Thanks.

This is another option and is about €60/$80 more expensive:

4th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-4440 Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.3 GHz)

8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz

NVIDIA GeForce GT 635 1GB DDR3

1TB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive 6.0 Gb/s

Windows 8 64 bit

The graphics card seems to be entry level and the processor is a step down from the one above but for minimal additional cost, it seems to be a much better machine?

Stay with an i5 or i7 processor. Get it with the highest mhz possible. Speed is critical, Quad Core is plenty.

Ram- 1600mhz is min. Get 1866 or above if you can. Also buy the memory in 2 chips so you can buy 2 more later if needed. I personally would do no less than 16gb.

The memory in the video card is important. Get as much as possible. I had a Ti-660 card and it worked well.

SSD drive are awesome, big speed improvement.

Is this a custom build or are you buying it already packaged?

I've actually put the order in since for the pc specced on post #3. Im buying prebuilt as I wouldnt be comfortable building myself when its for work.

Theres another couple of slots available for RAM so Ill definately be looking at upgrading that and adding SSD when funds arent as tight.

Hoefully itll do the job as Im not rendering or working in 3D. Its leaps and bounds ahaead of what Im currently working on and seems to be specced well above the min. requirements.

Thanks for the help!

That setup will work. Since you are not getting the SSD for your main drive get a small SSD (60GB) to use for autosave and saving files. That will speed things up a little.

Also you can get a USB 3.0 key and use it in a 3.0 slot and use it for Intel Rapid Storage. Read up on it. It adds a little speed for the $30 you will spend.

I also have 20gb+ files. I still have a slow responce going from model to paper space but I can deal with it.

You will be happy with it.

Good Luck

I read that your programs should go on the SSD along with your OS. You save your data files to the platter drive.

Yea, thats my reading of it too. Have now ordered to 120GB Samsung Evo SSD to go with it too. I wont know what to do with all that speed!

After a month you won't even notice the difference. What is fast today seems slow a week from now. Human nature.