Autocad & Sketchup Machine X3

[Phat Momma Hoe]

Hello there,
My girlfriends boss wants to update their office machines, its a small architectural company running on basically arcane machines that have badly needed some loving for a long time.

He has told me that he would like to spend about £700 each on 3 identical machines. This must include a decent sized and high res TFT, idealy 1900x1200 and 20"-22" but can drop down a res.

I figure a majority or the funds can go on the screen, ram and graphics adapter as the rest can be of lower quality parts. Obviously the need for sound isnt there and the PSU's dont need to be monsters, just enough to power the basics.
Will need windows XP too, as their version of Autocad will not run on Vista (apparently).

What would people suggest spec wise ? I have an idea of what I'll probably go for but its always good to get other opinions.

 

[DavidB]

Hey, is the £700 budget including VAT ? seeing as its a business and all.

Also, not sure if theres any 1900*1200 screens that are less than 24", so thats another difficulty.

Overclocking at all, might help lower the expense.

What version of autocad are they using ? The more recent ones require a reasonable graphics card.

 

[Phat Momma Hoe]

Pretty sure its something like Autocad 2004 at the moment but they are looking to upgrade it.

Its £700 ex VAT, been looking at the Dell's.

Components
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad-Core Q6600 Processor (2.4GHz,1066MHz,8MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Professional - English edit
HARDWARE SUPPORT 2 Year Business Hardware Support - Next Business Day edit
MONITOR Dell™ 22" Black Wide Flat Panel (E228WFP) - UK/Irish edit
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024] edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB Serial ATA RAID 0 Stripe [2x250GB 7200rpm drives with DataBurst™ cache] edit
GRAPHICS CARD 256MB nVidia™ GeForce 8600GT graphics card edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives edit
KEYBOARD Dell™ Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) edit
MOUSE Dell Optical Scroll Premium Mouse edit
Accessories
SOUND CARD Integrated Audio with Dolby Digital 7.1 capability edit
SPEAKERS No Speakers edit
FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader edit
MODEMS No Modem edit
ACCESSORIES Belkin F5D7050 Wireless USB Adapter (802.11g) edit
Services & Software
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee® Security Centre™ 8.0 - 15 Month Protection - English edit
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English edit
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support edit
Also included with your system
Gedis Bundle Reference List D08922 Dimension 9200
Shipping Documents English Documentation with UK Power Cord
Order Information Dimension Order - UK
Standard Warranty 1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Money Off Savings save £30ex VAT
Dell Internet Order Dell Internet Order.
SYSTEM MEDIA Resource CD - contains Diagnostics and Drivers

That comes to £695.27 ex vat, which to be honest looks alright. Unfortunatly it cant be specced with a dual core CPU as the quad is compleate overkill and likely never to be used.
Not sure on the res of the included 22", but at that price I'm sure it would suffice. Was looking to build the 3 machines myself, but I dont think I could match that in terms of price Vs spec.

My only concern is the graphics adapter, not sure how that particular card handles CAD. Other business configs offers a more suitable card but that comes at a larger price.

 

[DavidB]

Theres obviously difficulties in making this spec for people in here because very few of the forum have much knowledge on what autocad really requires.
I wont lie, im no exception, but im going to try and make the best spec i can, with a reasonable graphics card.

Id agee that the TN dell screen probably isnt good enougth for autocad use, i also dont like the dell mice, and my brother hated using one for autocad.

You may also want to take account of the P&P, on some dell computers there absurdly high for what it is.

Yeh, that wasnt easy at all, and to be honest im not sure if this is better or worse for autocad than the above spec.

4gb ram, good enougth graphics card, 500gb hard drive, reasonable screen (would have selected the dell 2007wfp but its out of stock), dual core processors ok, but im not sure if a quad core wouldnt be better.

£728 not including VAT only £15 p&p though.

 

[allllec]

That dell is better than what your gonna be able to spec up from ocuk WITH a 1920*1200 monitor afaik. this is best rough thing i could come up with.. however drop back to a 22" monitor and you'll have a lot more space to breathe its the monitor that knackers the budget..

 

[DB_SamX]

I run AutoCAD, SketchUp, ArchiCAD on my laptop. I'd recommed 4gb ram at least for a professional practice at the expense of the 24" screen. Rendering times will be so much more bearable whilst it is easy to get used to a screen over time.

I'd venture into the software manufacturers' site and forums and gather ideas. i do know of the odd gfx card not supported as well.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I'd much prefer nVidia over ATI but in order to get 512 MiB memory I had to go for the ATI. This spec seems to tick all the boxes. it's a good motherboard, a great processor, 4 GiB memory, a serviceable case and PSU, and an adequate HDD and ODD. It also leaves two RAM slots open for future upgrades, depending on what they're designing it may or may not come in handy.

You can never have enough screen real estate for CAD work (I run AutoCad and SolidWorks) but there just isn't enogh money for 24" screens, as others have pointed out.

 

[Zaf]

Dell do a basic Quadro graphics card for £88 which will be much better than the gaming cards, we use them at work with AutoCAD, OrCAD and PADS PCB would also recommend dual 20.1" Displays work flow is much more productive but will take you over your budget.

 

[Phat Momma Hoe]

Thanks for the reply's, all suggestions taken on board

Will carry on looking.