Building a system for my friend

[Dallows]

So I'm looking to put together a system that mainly centers around working on CAD and photoshop. I'm not really sure what type of video card I'm going to need though, not looking for something in the $$$ range but probably mid-range that can handle CAD nicely and some DVD video as well. I'm not too familiar with CAD myself so I don't know how video card intensive it is. There won't be much, if any gaming done on the machine as well.

 

[NickN]

I don't know much about 3D stuff like CAD, etc, but I've read that a gaming card (Radeon/Geforce/etc) is NOT what you want for it. Get one of the cheaper FireGL or Quadro cards; they will be much more efficient and much faster.

I could be wrong though; I'm just repeating what I've read elsewhere.

 

[akademik_7]

Whats your budget because my system is currently for sale.

Dell XPS 4

3.8ghz P4
4gb Ram
2x74gb Raptors In Raid 0
250 gb Harddrive
BFG 6800 256mb GTO videocard
DVD+RW Black
CD-RW Black
SB Audigy 2 ZS
Sony StylePro Series SDM-S204/B 20.1-inch Black Flat Panel LCD Display
Logitech MX500 6 Button Mouse
Windows XP Pro

And would be perfect. Just change the videocard to one of those FireGL or Quadro's like that guy said.

 

[FunkStar]

dude stuff buying a proper firegl or quadro. Buy a 6800gt and just softmod it to quadro, costs 4 times less and goes the same speed.

But yer, just make your average kinda puter and stick the 6800 in and use rivatuner to click it over. Doesnt void the warranty and saves alot of hassle, plus it can play games

 

[SuddenDemise]

I have a 6600GT and I use Maya, Rhino3D, 3ds Max, Z Brush and Softimage XSI and I have no problems what so ever, My roomates uses a 9800PRO and it works for all the modeling programs as well......

 

[akademik_7]

He said he wants CAD , photoshop , and some DVD editing ..something that performs nicely in both of those..

My system is along what the professionals will use with a different videocard..
Check benchmarks for my processor(3.8ghz P4) And its not overclocked.

Do not listen to those fools telling you to buy a 6800 and softmod and all that stuff.. They do not know what they are talking about. You need a FireGL or something similar to perform at its best.. The 6800's and all other gaming videocards will WORK but you will benefit GREATLY from a card that is made for stuff that you plan on doing. Like a FireGL and similar.

All of what you plan on doing is very cpu/ram intensive. Do not listen to those people. Also my CPU is at the top for the stuff your trying to do. Check benchmarks again

 

[Dallows]

I have checked the benchmarks and the intel chip barely beat the new amd duals in a rare few of the benches. I'll probably throw in something fairly cheap to hold him over till the prices come down for the X2's.

 

[TeeJayHoward]

Do not listen to those fools telling you to buy a 6800 and softmod and all that stuff.. They do not know what they are talking about. You need a FireGL or something similar to perform at its best.. The 6800's and all other gaming videocards will WORK but you will benefit GREATLY from a card that is made for stuff that you plan on doing. Like a FireGL and similar.

The FireGL/Quadro lines are the exact same cards, only binned for greater stability. It's kinda like how TCCD chips are chips guarenteed to run at 250Mhz, but clocked down to 200Mhz. You do NOT NEED one of these ultra-expensive cards to do CAD work. I work in Maya 6.5 on a daily basis with a GeForceFX 5700 Ultra. I do DVD and MiniDV editing daily also.

In short, the only difference is that the card is guarenteed to work in these programs. They're no faster.

Your average person playing with CAD/3D Modeling software will not stress out even a 6600GT. Once you get above a few million polys, though, you're going to want a nice card. A 6800GT is overkill for the most part. I do low poly modeling (Mostly car models for various video games) and even my 2-generation-old card is silky smooth. If your friend is looking into Photo-realistic-quality models, have him buy a 3DLabs Wildcat card. He's going to be paying thousands, though. But, like I said, your average person will not use a 6600GT to it's max.