Cad system build - spec me please

[solway]

Hi guys

My business is looking to buy a new pc. i am a surveyor, so a lot of Autocad & 3d civil work. its not a technician office, so prob no need in quadro/firepro etc (unless cheap)

its been a few years since ive done any builds so a little out of date myself.

have been looking at pre-built systems, and by the looks of it i could build a high one for same price.

cost is every thing, if i said below £600/500 mark. but to have enough power to use autocad etc 3dcivils, photoshop etc

im currently on a HP machine, intel 2core quad Q8300, 4gb ram, intel g41 express chipset with graphics inbuilt.

am i under the impression that autocad is more cpu based than gpu, although a separate gpu is good for rednering? gpu is the area im lacking on with this pc.

any advice please.

 

[solway]

a typical idea, on AMD system. if intel is faster with same price, i might go down that route.

i'll await for advice.

 

[solway]

thanks guys

anyone want to throw up some screenshots of a amd or intel system

don't care on case, or HDD space. i have always seen GPU embended as being slow, or thats just me being old school.

boss is spending, so if i could would be good option to add dedicated gpu, that way i could get dual monitor going if needed.

 

[solway]

PS, we need an extra machine, since we have an new employee, so i'll replace mine with a newer powerful system.

 

[solway]

danny thanks,

been reading up on autocad etc, its more CPU software, with a bit of heavy rendering graphics via GPU.
firepro/quadro is more precision/no errors than speed, whereas geforce/radoen is more speed/refresh

autocad looks like its not fully multi-core support, so higher the ghz the better 1 core will preform. rest of the core tend to idle.

yet i do use other software with multicore support.

im a bit confused on the cpu ranges. i.e. some have APU, some don't, not sure whats latest socket or chipset etc. whats diff between piledriver and Kaveri etc, whats the diff on intel/amd, at same cost bracket?

sorry for quick replys, im in work and have no time to chat lol

 

[solway]

danny

im looking more towards intel now for getting more out of single core. than AMD (although you get more cores with AMD)

im guessing Haswell only comes with HD4600 graphics? and that it only supports dual channel mem without going into i7 figures.

cpu it does support 2400mhz ram, but then its getting motherboard to support it to at a budget?

speaking on motherboards, whats diff between B85, H87, Z87 chipsets??
looking for 6gb sata, usb3, pcie spare for GPU,


also is amd cpu Integrated R7 Graphics better than intels HD4600?

 

[solway]

Intel Core i5-4670K 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM - £167.99

MSI Z87M-G43 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard - £91.99

Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD - £65.99

TeamGroup Vulcan GOLD 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLYD38G1600HC9DC01) - £59.99

SuperFlower Golden Green HX 450W "80 Plus Gold" Power Supply - Black - £53.99

Arctic Cooling Freezer i30 Intel Cooler - £32.99

Zalman T3 Micro -ATX Case USB 3.0 - black £20.99

LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99

Sub Total : £428.26

how about the above?
not sure on CPU cooler tho? any ideas?

 

[solway]

cheers,

another question

using the intel system, is it worth going to 2400mhz ram?? and if so is there a cheap mobo that will support it?

or is it overkill on the selected cpu?

just thinking that the system will have a lot of memory usage with autocad work etc.

 

[solway]

bump to last question?

 

[solway]

There's scant information on this, but my feeling would be go for the cheapest in the capacity you want. From ocuk that would be:

1 x GeIL Black Dragon 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD316GB1333C9DC) **OcUK Exclusive** £113.99
1 x TeamGroup Vulcan ORANGE 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C11 2400MHz Dual Channel Kit (TLAD38G2400HC11CDC01) £55.99



You can get 16 G of faster stuff for 1% more money, but as there's no guarantee of even 1% more performance I'd probably leave it.

sorry, what i was trying to get at..

Is there are advantage in increasing the memory stick to 2400mhz for more of a preformance boost?

or if even the i5 can take advantage of the 2400mhz mem?

i.e. if it gives 30% more preformance for the sake of £20/30 more?

 

[solway]

I know what you were asking, the answer is that I can't find any AutoCAD memory benchmarks so can't say for sure.

In general though, memory-limited applications are few and far between, so any extra money (even a couple of quid) will be wasted. So just go for the cheapest dual-channel set at the size you need.

For instance, in this 3D modelling benchmark, the faster memory made a 0.6% difference (1 second in 3 minutes, bottom of page):
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/bulldozer-ddr3-overclocking,3209-12.html

ok cool thanks for that

thinking of either i7 or i5, with 8gb of ram. since autocad is more cpu intense, i'll see how it fairs with hd4600 graphics, if not i'll shove GPU in