Need help w/ AutoCAD system

Looking for some system specs for customer that wants to have new computers for running AutoCAD-like application (they are in excavation biz). I know they plan on doing some complex 3d rendering.

Anyone have suggestions on where to focus resources? I was thinking along the lines of a dual Opteron (have to verify application is multithreaded), 2-4GB RAM, & maybe a Quadro video card & 2 250GB hard drives.

get as much CPU power and RAM as you can afford.

^^^ exactly

with AutoCAD the GPU does most of the work, but it will need fast ram to keep that vid car running.

You will also want fast harddrives as well - and since it is CAD work a good backup system (a main cerntral tapeback up maybe for everyone to use?)

perhaps a raid with 2 raptor drives as the working drive and a seperate larger drive to save work on....

northrop said:

get as much CPU power and RAM as you can afford.

Click to expand...

its the truth.

Is autocad multithreaded?

Doing complex renderings will be significantly faster with multiple cores.

Don't worry to much about dual core,(while it does help)
Memory is your best friend,get as much as you can
and a very good Video card is your bester friend.
Fast hard drives come in third.
and then a nice big crt moniter, but lcds are coming around

I used to spend 9 hours a day doing AutoCAD and 3-D modeling & Rendering. I switched jobs in november so I haven't used it that much since then. But I can relay my experiences:

Almost any of todays higher end machines will run autocad with no problems. I was running AutoCAD Architectural Desktop 2006 on a Dell XPS Gen2. (it was a work computer. not my home machine)

If you'll mostly be doing 2d drawing, follow the above recommendations:
Lots of RAM
fast CPU
and fast chipset/memory config.
Almost any hard drive these days is fast enough.
any decent video card will work.

For 3d modeling and rendering, you might want to look into a "professional" video card
such as the Quadros or ATI Fire GL's.
simply b/c they will usually (not always) produce more accurate rendering results.

Spend the cash on an LCD monitor that does 1600x1200 such as the Planar.
Or one of the widescreens that do 1680x1050.
The bigger the better.
With all else being being equal, I would opt for any run of the mill higher end computer and allocate more of the budget to a bigger monitor.
The bigger monitor will increase productivity more than a faster cpu.
Autodesk Autocad is a really great product in the 2006 versions and it runs well
on most modern computers and laptops.

High quality renderings with high levels of Radiosity, Light Bounce calculations, & Materials Quality is when the hardware specs become a little more critical.

Thanks Terminator & all for the advice. Now know where to focus their money.