Cheap PC for CAD

Orcvader · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:15

My friend wants a PC for CAD work and some light gaming for university. He's willing to spend as much as possible but he would really prefer it to be as cheap as possible due to high rent costs at his accomodation. He will need the whole set apart from speakers, keyboard and mouse (He's not eligible for free Win 7).

I've specced this but I'm not too confident on what's best for CAD. I'm also assuming a CUDA card will be handy for this? He will not be doing any overclocking at all.

I've also done an AMD version of the build, which I think would be better? He will need this in a couple of weeks time when his course starts so will not be waiting for Bulldozer.

King Damager · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:41

Possible changes:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-055-OC&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1098
I'd say this PSU, the BeQuiet had a couple of issues in some review that Stulid read and told me about last week (just looked it up and he said it failed something in this months Custom PC)

As long as you get a 'good' Fractal case then you shouldn't have an issue - they've had a couple of QC issues recently...

For Gaming, I'd really try and upgrade the 440 to a 460 if you can.... (for the light gaming rather than the CAD)

Also an i5 2500k if possible..

Sorry for adding costs!

I'm sure someone may come along and spec you an AMD llano build, which might be just up your street, but no good at them myself!

kd

Orcvader · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:45

Thanks, I was also considering the OCZ PSU but went with the BeQuiet to keep costs down (although it's only a few pounds more). Guess I'll go back to the OCZ then!

Well when I say light gaming, what I really mean is RuneScape :rolleyes:

He doesn't play any other PC games and plays on the PS3 for other games. Plus the 440 should have enough CUDA cores right?

King Damager · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:46

Orcvader said:
Thanks, I was also considering the OCZ PSU but went with the BeQuiet to keep costs down (although it's only a few pounds more). Guess I'll go back to the OCZ then!

Well when I say light gaming, what I really mean is RuneScape He doesn't play any other PC games and plays on the PS3 for other games. Plus the 440 should have enough CUDA cores right?

Haha, yeah a 440 should be fine for a bit of RS

kd

iviv · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:51

(He's not eligible for free Win 7)

http://www.software4students.co.uk/Windows_7-software.aspx

If he has a .ac.uk email then he should be able to get a cheaper copy of Win7 though there. Can check here to see if his uni is eligible.

pgi947 · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:55

If you go intel I would find room for a 2500k, its only £13 more than the 2400 you have up there, and is faster, and easy as pie to overclock, those higher clock speeds may come in very handy if doing 3D work in autocad.

Edit: if you insist on having an H61 board, the regular 2500 may suit your needs a little better, H61 boards wont OC so the stock 3.7ghz turbo frequency should be enough to keep things ticking over, £11 more than the 2400.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-361-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

King Damager · 7 Sep 2011 at 21:56

Your best bet for Win 7 might actually be the MM. Where I managed to get mine from..

As for getting Win7 as a student, it depends very much on what course he's doing. Most students can get upgrades for cheaper (look at iviv's link) however it's hard picking up a retail copy... I spent a good month or so running around asking and e-mailing people at my uni to see if I could get access to anything for them to tell me I can get a cheaper upgrade package or if I were doing a CompSci module I'd be eligible for the program that Microsoft do that I can't quite remember what it's called where you get it for free.

kd

Orcvader · 7 Sep 2011 at 22:02

Well his uni is on the list, but they're upgrade versions. Can he do a clean fresh install with these? And he already emailed his uni about the Windows, sadly they demand him to be a student in the computing faculty, even under the MSDNAA scheme.

@pgi947 He's not overclocking and doesn't plan to, he wants to keep it on stock speeds to ensure high stability on the system. Hence I decided to save the cash on the CPU by going for the 2400.

Actually thinking about it, since I myself am eligible for free Windows under MSDNAA, can I give him my free XP copy, then he can use a 7 upgrade disk to install over that if the upgrade requires windows preinstalled?

Reaper 392 · 7 Sep 2011 at 22:38

Orcvader said:
Well his uni is on the list, but they're upgrade versions. Can he do a clean fresh install with these? And he already emailed his uni about the Windows, sadly they demand him to be a student in the computing faculty, even under the MSDNAA scheme.

@pgi947 He's not overclocking and doesn't plan to, he wants to keep it on stock speeds to ensure high stability on the system. Hence I decided to save the cash on the CPU by going for the 2400.

Actually thinking about it, since I myself am eligible for free Windows under MSDNAA, can I give him my free XP copy, then he can use a 7 upgrade disk to install over that if the upgrade requires windows preinstalled?

i cant see any reason why that wouldnt work.

as for stability, he could happily overclock to 4Ghz on the standard cooler and it would be 100% stable

if you dont need windows then i'd get this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-2500K 3.30GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail with FREE TrackMania 2 Canyon PC Game £167.99
1 x OcUK GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - OEM £83.99
1 x OcUK V-Line 221V2SB 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Black £83.99
1 x Asus P8P67 LE Intel P67 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard ** B3 REVISION ** £74.99
1 x Corsair XMS3 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) £47.99
1 x Lepa W-Series 500W '80 Plus' Power Supply £46.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Alpha Gaming Case - Black £32.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST3500413AS) £30.98
1 x Samsung SH-S222AB/BEBE 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99
Total : £603.40 (includes shipping : £13.75).

Scythe · 8 Sep 2011 at 02:31

Orcvader said:
Well his uni is on the list, but they're upgrade versions. Can he do a clean fresh install with these? And he already emailed his uni about the Windows, sadly they demand him to be a student in the computing faculty, even under the MSDNAA scheme.

@pgi947 He's not overclocking and doesn't plan to, he wants to keep it on stock speeds to ensure high stability on the system. Hence I decided to save the cash on the CPU by going for the 2400.

Actually thinking about it, since I myself am eligible for free Windows under MSDNAA, can I give him my free XP copy, then he can use a 7 upgrade disk to install over that if the upgrade requires windows preinstalled?

Ouch that sucks. I get MSDNAA access and I'm doing Engineering!