CAD and Entertainment spec please?

V4nger · 4 Apr 2010 at 13:32

my uncle wants me to build him a PC for cad, autocad and watching DVDs and BluRay. its doesnt need to be anything extreme but he builds all sorts of things with wood but doesnt have anything to design them with. i dont know much about this kind of thing but i hope you understand my needs

. he doesnt have a budget but could you try to keep it sensible? also include a quality HD monitor, OS and peripherals.

thanks,

Jake

atmax1 · 4 Apr 2010 at 13:53

I know some people who use auto cad and they don't have a all singing and dancing pc, just a duel core with 2gb ram, so maybe get an i3 - 4gb ram etc?

V4nger · 4 Apr 2010 at 13:57

thanks for the vague ideas on what to look at but could someone spec me a system for my requirements?

atmax1 · 4 Apr 2010 at 14:09

maybe something like this

cmndr_andi · 4 Apr 2010 at 14:24

I agree with atmax, that even a reasonably low power spec will handle your requirements. However, something faster will reduce rendering times and generally make the machine quicker (as you would imagine). I put together two full specs based on the Intel i3 CPU then the Intel i7 CPU. The other components do not change much as I know they are high quality kit that works well.

Spec 1 - i3

Spec 2 - i7

If you think both of these are too expensive, please let me know and I will try and rework them to maintain as much performance for a lower cost.

The monitor I chose uses a wonderful e-IPS panel and is generally gorgeous. I have used it myself and compared it side-by-side with a TN panel and the difference is like night and day. I would be tempted to reduce other areas of the spec before giving up this monitor, however, if it must be done - this is a half-decent monitor.

V4nger · 4 Apr 2010 at 14:57

all of them look great, thanks guys! andi you forgot the Bluray drive but i can change that. may change the HDD to a WD. anid, you also forgot the GFX in the i3 build. dont whether this is intentional.

is the Antec 300 quite a quiet case at stock? if not ill choose some other fans.

i think an i3 build is the most likely option but i havent researched i3 very much. coming up to an i7 build myself so havent really looked at any other processors.

thanks again for the specs

anyone else who cares to could you also post your specs? i would like to see other peoples ideas on this.

cmndr_andi · 4 Apr 2010 at 15:17

My bad on the blu ray drive, I'd suggest going for the LG blu ray rom / DVD rw. It's a good drive

However, picking no gpu for the i3 was intentional. The i3 has an integrated gpu on the chip - so when used with a h55 or h57 board a discrete gpu is not required. The integrated gpu that comes with the i3 os not that powerful, but can easily handle 1080p video and blu ray.autocad will also be fine.

V4nger · 4 Apr 2010 at 20:14

ok ill go for that drive then. i think i will add a gpu for the i3 build just to increase functionality further.
id any one else would care to spec me then go ahead

i would like to see as many options as possible.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 4 Apr 2010 at 21:31

For rendering tasks and encoding an Athlon II X4 635 will be a better choice than a Core i3 540:

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/122?vs=143

harryohh · 4 Apr 2010 at 21:31

I used AutoCAD 2009 fine on my old Pentium 4 PC with 1.5GB of RAM and a Radeon 9800 PRO.

That was just 2D drawings for college though so can't say how it'd handle 3D.

Some of the systems listed here seem way over the top for just AutoCAD and watching DVDs/Blurays.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:23

This is what I would look at:

Samsung F2380 23" Widescreen LCD Monitor ~ £195

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mo-122-sa

this is a 1920x1080 monitor.

amd athlon ii x4 quad core 635 ~ £100

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=cp-263-am

4gb 1333mhz ddr3 ~ £95

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=my-085-gl

this has low latencies which is optimal for the athlon ii memory controller.

windows 7 home premium retail ~ £90

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=sw-124-ms

since this is the retail version of windows 7 it is not locked to one motherboard meaning that it the license can be transferred to another motherboard.

samsung sh-b083l retail ~ £82

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=cd-131-sa

being a retail drive this comes with the software required to play blu-ray discs.

asus m4a785td-v evo ~ £75

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=mb-355-as

this 128mb of dedicated ddr3 ram on the motherboard for the igp. it also has a split 8+2 phase vrm with cooling.

samsung f3 1tb ~ £66

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=hd-082-sa

antec 300 ~ £42

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-101-an

creative t3130 ~ £37

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=sp-122-cl

ocz stealthxstream 400w ~ £33

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=ca-029-oc

microsoft wireless media desktop 1000 ~ £28

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=kb-114-ms

the total comes to around £861 including postage.

the monitor has got a good review:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/monitors/display/samsung-sm-f2080-f2380.html

It uses a C-PVA panel. However both the Samsung F2380 and Dell 2209WA lack HDMI.

kylew · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:29

V4nger said:
all of them look great, thanks guys! andi you forgot the Bluray drive but i can change that. may change the HDD to a WD. anid, you also forgot the GFX in the i3 build. dont whether this is intentional.

is the Antec 300 quite a quiet case at stock? if not ill choose some other fans.

i think an i3 build is the most likely option but i havent researched i3 very much. coming up to an i7 build myself so havent really looked at any other processors.

thanks again for the specs anyone else who cares to could you also post your specs? i would like to see other peoples ideas on this.

I wouldn't suggest you change the samsung drive, they're pretty much the best drives you can get for the performance they offer and the price they're at.

I've got about 8 samsung drives and they're hands down better than any other drives I've owned.

kylew · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:31

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
It uses a C-PVA panel. However both the Samsung F2380 and Dell 2209WA lack HDMI.

Is it bad that they lack HDMI?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:34

kylew said:
Is it bad that they lack HDMI?

IIRC, there was some noise being made about needing HDMI to play Blu-Ray discs but I don't know if it was ever implemented.

cmndr_andi · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:44

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
IIRC, there was some noise being made about needing HDMI to play Blu-Ray discs but I don't know if it was ever implemented.

As long as the monitor is HDCP enabled then it can play blu-rays just fine using a DVI connection.

I regularly play blu-rays on my machine with the monitor connected via DVI-D, no problems at all.

kylew · 4 Apr 2010 at 22:46

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
IIRC, there was some noise being made about needing HDMI to play Blu-Ray discs but I don't know if it was ever implemented.

Ah right.

Well there's no problem as far as I know using DVI, I have a Blu-ray drive in my PC and all my screens are DVI (well they were, I'm using HDMI now) and they played Blu-ray discs fine.

I think you just need your PC monitor and graphics card to be HDCP compliant.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 5 Apr 2010 at 00:54

cmndr_andi said:
As long as the monitor is HDCP enabled then it can play blu-rays just fine using a DVI connection.

I regularly play blu-rays on my machine with the monitor connected via DVI-D, no problems at all.

kylew said:
Ah right.

Well there's no problem as far as I know using DVI, I have a Blu-ray drive in my PC and all my screens are DVI (well they were, I'm using HDMI now) and they played Blu-ray discs fine.

I think you just need your PC monitor and graphics card to be HDCP compliant.

Thanks for that! I was not sure.