well i am in the position of helping someone i no set up a home office. things needed include a computer for autocad and so i guess a workstation sort of thing? a wireless router Pre-n? data backup i need someone to explain to me raid. and other choices liek teh 1 botton back up things. also maybe fileserer? iono i need ideas just brain storming rite now be back to update with more info on more stuff needed.
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10k budget
- Thread starter i2ice
- Start date
1. RAID is not backup.
2. It would be nice if you wrote comlete sentences in English.
3. If this is for work (AutoCAD makes me believe that) the customer may want to choose an OEM since they may offer better service contracts than you may be able to deliver. Please note the usage of 'may' instead of 'will', since I do not know how well you would be able to support it.
4. While Pre-N routers are supposedly rather nice, I don't know why a workstation would need a wireless connection. Considering that it is likely to be a desktop machine, I would think that it is most likely going to be connected using a cable. Also, does he need the range from Pre-N for his laptop or not? How far does he want to be able to move?
5. If AutoCAD is the most frequently used application you should consider doing research on what hardware is going to enhance perfomance most. Does AutoCAD support multiple cores? Would a dual-dual system be a good choice? Does he need a lot of I/O? What kind would the I/O be, etc.
2. It would be nice if you wrote comlete sentences in English.
3. If this is for work (AutoCAD makes me believe that) the customer may want to choose an OEM since they may offer better service contracts than you may be able to deliver. Please note the usage of 'may' instead of 'will', since I do not know how well you would be able to support it.
4. While Pre-N routers are supposedly rather nice, I don't know why a workstation would need a wireless connection. Considering that it is likely to be a desktop machine, I would think that it is most likely going to be connected using a cable. Also, does he need the range from Pre-N for his laptop or not? How far does he want to be able to move?
5. If AutoCAD is the most frequently used application you should consider doing research on what hardware is going to enhance perfomance most. Does AutoCAD support multiple cores? Would a dual-dual system be a good choice? Does he need a lot of I/O? What kind would the I/O be, etc.
well yes raid is not back but i still dont know what it is can anyone explain?
and i am in need of a back up solution.
oem? well this person is my dad haha
autocad becaseu he is an archietect, and pre-n because i want it for my computer and we will be getting laptops so thast the main reason.
and yea i am not sure about what autocad supports but i was thinking pentium d? not sure but he wants soemthign faster than his 2.4 p4 well its good he says but fast is nice.
and i need suggestions or anyone to throush some ideas of specs on a good desktop.
buget semi changed more liek 6k 4k going to plotter
in the end i win plus i can get some more stuff for my comp maybe conroe yay !!!
and i am in need of a back up solution.
oem? well this person is my dad haha
autocad becaseu he is an archietect, and pre-n because i want it for my computer and we will be getting laptops so thast the main reason.
and yea i am not sure about what autocad supports but i was thinking pentium d? not sure but he wants soemthign faster than his 2.4 p4 well its good he says but fast is nice.
and i need suggestions or anyone to throush some ideas of specs on a good desktop.
buget semi changed more liek 6k 4k going to plotter
in the end i win plus i can get some more stuff for my comp maybe conroe yay !!!
DaCoOlNeSs
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2004
- Messages
- 1,474
if you are asking [H] about it, get someone that knows what they are doing.
That was my point too. I do not know how busy your dad is and how valuable his time is, but I somehow think that he would not be too happy about downtime. Almost irrespective of your skill level, it is generally a smarter (risk management wise) move to outsource the hardware if it is mission critical.DaCoOlNeSs said:
i2ice said:well yes raid is not back but i still dont know what it is can anyone explain?
and i am in need of a back up solution.
oem? well this person is my dad haha
autocad becaseu he is an archietect, and pre-n because i want it for my computer and we will be getting laptops so thast the main reason.
and yea i am not sure about what autocad supports but i was thinking pentium d? not sure but he wants soemthign faster than his 2.4 p4 well its good he says but fast is nice.
and i need suggestions or anyone to throush some ideas of specs on a good desktop.
buget semi changed more liek 6k 4k going to plotter
in the end i win plus i can get some more stuff for my comp maybe conroe yay !!!
You seem to be trying to bite off more than you can chew. The project sounds like a lot of fun, but fun turns into terror when you lose important data and/or can't fix issues that prevent someone from doing their work in a timely matter.
I advise you to simplify things and stick to what you know. Instead of going with a RAID array or file server, tone it down to a large hard drive and an external drive for backups. Ideally you should also incorporate removable media into your backup routine to safe-guard against the office being destroyed or burglarized.
I would go with a dual core CPU and 2-3GB of RAM. Check with Autodesk to see if they recommend a workstation graphics card such as a Quadro, or if you can get away with buying an enthusist board like the GeForce or Radeon series - this could have a huge difference in the performance of the machine. Also, a SATA II drive with NCQ should be more than fast enough so you also don't have to worry about SCSI controllers.
Good luck!
thankyou F1xxer at least you helped instead of criticising enven though it was constructive ccritisism ehh cant spell that word. well thast exactly what i wanted to know my dad jsut wanted to get a new computer and i was wondering if sula core was the way to go and i guess it is and yes quadro vs normal cards. and the backup things like removable hd's
like the 1 botton back up ones i saw on egg. in conclusion mucho gracias.
like the 1 botton back up ones i saw on egg. in conclusion mucho gracias.
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http://www.boxxtech.com/ the best of the best
Erasmus354
[H]F Junkie
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About the backup solutions : How important is the data to your dad, and how much data is it. I helped someone over my spring break work out some problems with his backup solutions, and give him suggestions (his server was about to die as well).
Anyways, something to keep in mind is a backup external drive that is in the same room, or same house even doesn't do a whole lot of good. All that really hedges against is a harddrive failure, which can be easily solved by avoiding an external drive and using a mirrored raid array. If there were to be a fire in the house, or a robbery you would still lose all of the data.
Ideally you want to have backups in multiple locations. For the person I was helping out he had two external drives, each of which was setup to automatically update all the important files whenever plugged into the computer. The client would then take one drive home and leave one at work, and swap them around every day. This way he had two backups in two completely separate locations, each of which was never more than a day out of date.
Another simple solution would be internet backup. There are a number of online companies which offer easy to use internet backup solutions. These are very reliable assuming the company doesn't go out of business. They usually backup the content on 3 or more servers located far apart geographically so there is nothing to worry about. They can be a bit pricey however.
All in all you need to think about how important the data is, and how far you need to go to keep it safe. Research long and hard about it, and possibly tell your dad that he should hire a consultant because it does seem you are a little green on this, and the last thing you need is to botch setting up the backups so that nothing is ever actually backed up.
About the workstation, multiprocessing is probably a big plus. Something else which shouldn't be overlooked is the monitor. Large monitors provide large workspaces. This is very good for CAD work. Color fidelity usually isn't that important for CAD work so a large 24 or 30 inch widescreen LCD would do a lot to improve productivity. Possibly consider going with a dual monitor setup.
Also both ATi and nVidia offer workstation grade graphics cards. These may or may not be a good buy for you. Not having much experience with CAD (I am a Computer Engineer Student so I did use CAD for general engineering classes) I haven't looked into the performance benefits of using the workstation graphics cards. I do know however that the workstation graphics cards (nVidia Quadro Series, ATi FireGL Series) do carry a price premium, so it is wise to make sure the extra performance is really worth it.
Good luck getting everything working well for your dad, and remember if you aren't sure about something do not hesitate to tell your dad that he needs to hire a more knowledgeable consultant. Thats what I had to do with the problems I couldn't fix with the person I helped over spring break. Dont let your pride get in the way, or thinking I can do this, because the important thing is that your dad gets everything setup correctly so that there wont be any annoying hiccups later on.
Anyways, something to keep in mind is a backup external drive that is in the same room, or same house even doesn't do a whole lot of good. All that really hedges against is a harddrive failure, which can be easily solved by avoiding an external drive and using a mirrored raid array. If there were to be a fire in the house, or a robbery you would still lose all of the data.
Ideally you want to have backups in multiple locations. For the person I was helping out he had two external drives, each of which was setup to automatically update all the important files whenever plugged into the computer. The client would then take one drive home and leave one at work, and swap them around every day. This way he had two backups in two completely separate locations, each of which was never more than a day out of date.
Another simple solution would be internet backup. There are a number of online companies which offer easy to use internet backup solutions. These are very reliable assuming the company doesn't go out of business. They usually backup the content on 3 or more servers located far apart geographically so there is nothing to worry about. They can be a bit pricey however.
All in all you need to think about how important the data is, and how far you need to go to keep it safe. Research long and hard about it, and possibly tell your dad that he should hire a consultant because it does seem you are a little green on this, and the last thing you need is to botch setting up the backups so that nothing is ever actually backed up.
About the workstation, multiprocessing is probably a big plus. Something else which shouldn't be overlooked is the monitor. Large monitors provide large workspaces. This is very good for CAD work. Color fidelity usually isn't that important for CAD work so a large 24 or 30 inch widescreen LCD would do a lot to improve productivity. Possibly consider going with a dual monitor setup.
Also both ATi and nVidia offer workstation grade graphics cards. These may or may not be a good buy for you. Not having much experience with CAD (I am a Computer Engineer Student so I did use CAD for general engineering classes) I haven't looked into the performance benefits of using the workstation graphics cards. I do know however that the workstation graphics cards (nVidia Quadro Series, ATi FireGL Series) do carry a price premium, so it is wise to make sure the extra performance is really worth it.
Good luck getting everything working well for your dad, and remember if you aren't sure about something do not hesitate to tell your dad that he needs to hire a more knowledgeable consultant. Thats what I had to do with the problems I couldn't fix with the person I helped over spring break. Dont let your pride get in the way, or thinking I can do this, because the important thing is that your dad gets everything setup correctly so that there wont be any annoying hiccups later on.