CAD Machine

E

effen

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 23, 2002
Messages
158
I'm putting together a machine for 1 application, an industry specific cad program
I would appreciate a quick look to see if there any glaring incompatibilities that I'v missed. Here are the specs

(no over clocking planned)

Mother board Gigibyte p35 ds3l

CPU Intel Q 9300 core 2 quad 2.5 mhz (yorkfield core) with retail cooler :confused:changed to E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz (program not optimized for multi core)

Memory 8 gigs crucial ddr 2 5300

Video BFG 8800 gts 640 ddr 3 mem

Operating System Win XP Pro 32:confused: changed to xp 64

Power supply Raid max RX 700 :confused:changed to CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX

Hard drive raptor 150 gig 10,000 rpm sata :confused:changed to WD6400AAKS



Thanks in advance for your time to review and comment.
:)
 
With 8 gigs of ram you are going to need the 64bit OS to get the most out of all of that ram.

Other than that it looks fine to me, at my job we run AutoCAD 2004 MEP on much less. We're updating to 2008 and Vista soon so it should be interesting to say the least.
 
Why a Raptor? The latest 640gb Western Digital drive is pretty much just as fast (or faster) for less money.
 
Looks good to me. I use alot of cad, and having alot of ram, and a great cpu is crucial. The 8800 is also a good thing to have for 3D rendering.
 
There's a new Raptor... Velociraptor. 300GB and much faster than the old 150GB version. If its too pricey for you, get the WD6400AAKS someone mentioned earlier.

Avoid RAIDmax PSUs. Get a good quality PSU, like a Corsair, Antec Earthwatts, Silverstone, Seasonic, or similar. For your system, all you need is the Corsair 520W, if you want modular, or the 550W if you don't.

What AutoCAD program? If its openGL based, why not a pro card? Or at least a card that you could softmod into a FireGL (IIRC, GeForce cards can no longer be softmodded into Quadro cards). Also, listing the program would help, or at least the recommended system requirements. Will it not run in Vista 64-bit?

Ditch the 8800GTS 640MB either way. The 512MB version is actually a newer GPU and is faster.
 
"enginurd" Thanks for comments "There's a new Raptor... Velociraptor. 300GB and much faster than the old 150GB version. If its too pricey for you, get the WD6400AAKS someone mentioned earlier."
I read about the new Velociraptor before chosing. My research shows that drive to not be available until may. If there is a source let me know. I will look at the WD6400AAKS if its faster I'll go with that.

Avoid RAIDmax PSUs I chose the raid max because it was listed with the mother board on new egg I think I'll stay with 700 watts but will look at Corsair, Antec Earthwatts, Silverstone, Seasonic.

"What AutoCAD program?" mepcad I'm not sure if its open gl based but I'll find out.

"soft moding to quadro ?" not interested in "moding" no confidience in my skill set for the modification and I have no knowledge of quadro other than they cost more . The mission is speed so I'm a little unsure which way to go with the video card. The budget is $400. to $500. if a "quadro would be faster I can go that way within the video card budget.

Vista: I'm trying to stay away from vista. I have no experience with it other than the massive negative comments re hardware incompatibility and spotty 64 bit driver support. My feeling now is to reduce the memory by half to stay with 32 bit operating systems memory support limits.

Thanks for everyone's comments
 
effen said:
I read about the new Velociraptor before chosing. My research shows that drive to not be available until may. If there is a source let me know. I will look at the WD6400AAKS if its faster I'll go with that.
Click to expand...

The old Raptor isn't worth its price premium. Here are some HDD benchmarks I ran... check out the rest of the thread for other people's results.
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1032282618#post1032282618

effen said:
I chose the raid max because it was listed with the mother board on new egg I think I'll stay with 700 watts but will look at Corsair, Antec Earthwatts, Silverstone, Seasonic.
Click to expand...

Even if you OC'd that CPU, with the 8800GT or GTS 512MB, that system would barely use 400W. There's no need for a 700W PSU for a single card system unless you plan on having 10+ HDDs. A good quality 450W - 650W is all you need. The Corsair models are highly recommended because they're built by Seasonic or CWT, are 80+ efficient, have a TON of power on the +12V rails (where most of the system draws its power from these days), and are very quiet while being built of quality parts.

effen said:
mepcad I'm not sure if its open gl based but I'll find out.
Click to expand...

I can't tell from the M.E.P CAD website, but here are the system requirements...
System Requirements:
* Intel or compatible CPU
* Microsoft Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP
* 64 MB of RAM
* Color video board set to 1024x768 screen resolution
* 100 MB available hard-disk space
* CD-ROM

Recommended System:
* 3 GHz or faster Intel or compatible CPU
* Microsoft Windows 2000 or later
* 1 GB of RAM
* Nvidia video board with 64 MB or more of Video RAM set to 1280x1024 screen resolution
* 17" SVGA display monitor or larger
* 1 GB available hard-disk space for drawing and work data
* CD-ROM
* Windows compatible printer or plotter
* Internet Access
* Three-button mouse
* Microphone
Click to expand...

It looks like either your planned system is overkill or the MEPCAD website needs to be updated (or their software needs to be updated, lol).

effen said:
not interested in "moding" no confidience in my skill set for the modification and I have no knowledge of quadro other than they cost more . The mission is speed so I'm a little unsure which way to go with the video card. The budget is $400. to $500. if a "quadro would be faster I can go that way within the video card budget.
Click to expand...

Soft-modding is easy. Its basically using unofficial drivers so the card will act the same as a professional card -- with OpenGL enhancements. The FireGL and Quadro cards are professional graphics cards mainly for CAD systems.

effen said:
Vista: I'm trying to stay away from vista. I have no experience with it other than the massive negative comments re hardware incompatibility and spotty 64 bit driver support. My feeling now is to reduce the memory by half to stay with 32 bit operating systems memory support limits.
Click to expand...

If you have all new hardware, and they all have Vista64 bit drivers, then you have nothing to worry about. Vista has improved over the past year, and its a very smart OS that makes better use of its resources. However, I'm not sure if your CAD program will work in Vista 64-bit.

BTW, to quote people, there's a button on the bottom right of posts.
 
Thanks every one heres the revised list:

no over clocking planned)

Mother board Gigibyte p35 ds3l

CPU Intel Q 9300 core 2 quad 2.5 mhz (yorkfield core) with retail cooler:D changed to E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz (program not optimized for multi core)

Memory 8 gigs crucial ddr 2 5300

Video BFG 8800 gts 640 ddr 3 mem :D changed to bfg 8800 gts 512

Operating System Win XP Pro 32 :D changed to xp 64

Power supply Raid max RX 700 :D changed to CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX

Hard drive raptor 150 gig 10,000 rpm sata :D changed to WD6400AAKS
 
As mentioned above, "Soft-modding is easy. Its basically using unofficial drivers so the card will act the same as a professional card -- with OpenGL enhancements. The FireGL and Quadro cards are professional graphics cards mainly for CAD systems."

Both of my HP workstations use the ATI FireGL cards for CAD and structural FEA analysis.
 
bmaverick said:
As mentioned above, "Soft-modding is easy. Its basically using unofficial drivers so the card will act the same as a professional card -- with OpenGL enhancements. The FireGL and Quadro cards are professional graphics cards mainly for CAD systems."

Both of my HP workstations use the ATI FireGL cards for CAD and structural FEA analysis.
Click to expand...

I believe the soft modding voids warranty and some where I read that it does not work on the newer (8600, 8800 9600 and 9800 series cards. The tech guys strongly recommend Nvida NOT ATI they refer to a driver incompatibility.
The program is a 3d program and I'v been told the best system is a gaming system.

Thats my justification for not going with the pro quadro systems. I am open to further suggestions in the video card dept
 
Hard mods void warranties. Soft mods are purely software, make no physical alterations to the card, and therefore do not void warranties, IIRC. Yes, I mentioned that the newer GeForce cards can no longer be softmodded into Quadro cards. Since you can't get ATI, you should find out if a low end Quadro would be better than a high end gaming card (ask the same tech guys; I'm assuming their from the company that makes the software you're using?).

Even if you go with a gaming card 8800GTS, again, go with the 512MB version instead. Its a newer, cooler running GPU thats more effecient and OUTPERFORMS the 640MB GTS.
 
Thanks for the continued input,
I have posted an inquiry re the quadro cards on the software maker forums and am waiting for a reply to the question "does the increased performance justify the additional cost" ?
I'll keep you informed. Thanks again:cool:
 
The following are 3 comments from the software maker forums in response to my question will performance be improved 3 times by a 3 time increase in video card cost ??

"I'd say no. Auto***** is set up to natively render in Open GL. The majority of the Quadro cards don't support this method, and you would have to change settings in Auto***** to accomodate it. The Geforce is set up to support Open GL right out of the box and doesn't require any settings changes. As far as performance goes, I've used both and would give the Geforce a little bit of an edge, but that's just my opinion."

"go with geforce all the way.
we have the quadro card in our machines and they suck. My laptop that I just bought and has a slower processor than my desktop, same amount of memory, but with a geforce 8600 m gt run auto****** noticeably faster on large jobs.
Quadro cards are good, but for other things, not auto******"

"ditto to that above. I had a machine built to the recommended specs on the Auto***** site. When I was having some problems, ******** at Tech support said that I needed a GeForce card to eliminate the problem. I suggested that if they require a GeForce, to put it on the website the GeForce was a minimum requirement.

So, go with the GeForce card!!!"

I think that about settles it for me it would seem clear that g force is the way to go.

Thanks everyone I'm Effen out a here :D
 
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