solid computer for architect

the_r_sole

the_r_sole

the_r_sole

Soldato
Joined
25 Aug 2010
Posts
3,030
Hi,
First post from a lurker here!
Was wondering if anyone could help me spec a build for a decent working machine, the thing i have at the moment is a shuttle box with a core2 duo e7200 and 4 gig or ram (but only actually 3.24 on xp pro)

I don't need a total beast for gaming, i have played a couple of games when bored of shooting folk on mw2! But what i do need it for is mainly autocad, photoshop, 3d studio max, sketch up - sometimes all open at once, with outlook/skype/msn running in the background. I also use a dual monitor set up (just running off the on board graphics atm)
need everything to build, although no monitors/keyboard etc and quite fancy an upgrade to win7 - managed to avoid vista!

(considering one of the oci3 bundles but not sure if they really are as good value as they sound...)

total budget inc os is about 600 max but would happily go lower!!

cheers
 
came up with the following, 4850 should be enough for some mw2 and similar.

change from the 600 could go on a better case if you want, but the athena looks good enough to do a decent job.

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition "125W Edition" 3.20GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail £117.49 (£99.99)

OCZ Gold 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (OCZ3G1600LV4GK) £84.59 (£71.99)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-00599) £79.89
(£67.99)

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-Express Graphics Card £74.99 (£63.82)

Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard £72.99 (£62.12)

OCZ ModXStream Pro 500w Silent SLI Certified Modular Power Supply £56.99 (£48.50)

Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD103SJ) £46.99 (£39.99)

OcUK Athena Tower Case - Black £18.99 (£16.16)

LG GH22NS50 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99 (£12.76)
Sub Total : £483.32
Shipping : £10.00
VAT : £86.33
Total : £579.65
 
Hi, i build CAD workstations for my workplace. The spec i use and all the designers love their new pc's is:
Asus mobo (or very similar)
I7 930
6Gb ram
Intel X25-M 80GB SSD (for OS and apps)
500Gb-1TbGb sata drive (for storage)
FX580 gfx (cad certified gfx card, great for sketchup rendering too)
Win7 pro x64
I think the only thing OCUK don't stock is the FX580 gfx card.

The rig in my sig only differs by having a gaming card instead of a workstation card.
Win7 boots up in 15 secs, everything is very fast.

Budget for £1000 and you'll get a great rig for that.
Hope it helps.

edit: just seen mp260767, with respect you will get what you pay for. if you need high end kit (if you're serious about rendering, cad etc), i7 and SSD with cad certificed gfx card is the way to go. I done both ways and suffered from buying cheaper, less powerful kit.

edit2: Sorryyyy.......didn't see the part of your op stating your budget, my bad.
I think you'll suffer though with only £600.
 
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looks like a pretty good one, any reasons to choose the amd over intel, had both in the past wasn't sure what was best value this weather!
might stretch to a decent case, trying to persuade my friend to part with his lian-li beast first!
 
cheers banzai - would love to shell out £1000 but just don't have it to spare and anything will be an improvement on this thing!!

(although rendering is really not a priority, i'm a one man show atm)
 
Yeah, i feel your pain dude, if you don't have the cash, you don't have the cash.
What i would suggest though, is if you already have a lot of storage, go for a SSD for your OS and apps. They make such a huge difference in performance to any pc.
 
That's exactly why i built our rigs with SSD's. Even though they are low capacity for a heavy outlay, all our files are stored on a network server, so local storage wasn't essential.
Huge psd files can be copied to the local drive for faster working, then copied back to the nas/server when done. We rarely need to do this, but its an option if you network isn't very fast.
I promise you will see a huge difference from SSD over mechanical drive performance.
 
can you use dvd drive, hard drives from your current spec ?





Banzai_Joe said:
edit: just seen mp260767, with respect you will get what you pay for.
Click to expand...
i'm well aware you get what you pay for, but when your asking for over £400 more than the op says he has thats not really an option is it ?
 
i think i'll probably keep the current one in tact, it's quite handy for connecting up in the living room for films etc, although i do have some bits and pieces kicking around - would prefer just to get new bits and guaranteed working/quality! just as it's a working pc rather than a fannying about one!
 
1055t600pounds.jpg

6 cores, CUDA enabled.

oh, forgot win 7. Can probably scrounge around the build to save enough for Win 7 retail.

8 gigs might be useful if you multitask a lot.
 
go with olivier renault that will run cad photoshop etc like a dream, and when you can save up and get an ssd as it does make a nice diffrence.
 
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you mentioned mw2, do you game on the pc or on a console, if its a pc are you using a gfx card ?, not sure from your description if your using onboard gfx totally or just to allow dual screens.
 
/\ cutting it a bit fine with the GFX card and the PSU don't you think?

I run fine with fast 4GB RAM when I'm producing final presentation renderings and drawings (AudoCAD, PS, Podium etc.) but I could NOT do it without squeezing everything I have out my OC 260GTX. And IMO you need at least a 600w PSU for a machine like this.

I also run 2 x 24" BenQ LED monitors.
 
oh sorry, I don't play mw2 on the pc, i've only played a couple of games on it when i get bored with the ps3 - so not really needing a meaty gaming rig.

what i would like to do is get something that is good to start with but could be improved when i get some more cash, so gfx can be upgraded later if needed and more ram chucked in - as long as the first stage is still an improvement!!
 
I'd agree that a bit more butch PSU would help but other than that olivier renault's suggestion looks good to me.

On the GFX front, there's very little advantage going Nvidia Quadro at this price point, you'd get a lot less power for your money for the very slight possible improvement in driver stability in CAD packages. Saw an interesting article in some 3D mag a while back where they pitched gaming card against ATI Fire and Nvidia Quadro FX cards for 3D and CAD production and unless youre going top end you'll get a lot more performance from the normal gaming cards at a fraction of the price.
 
the_r_sole said:
oh sorry, I don't play mw2 on the pc, i've only played a couple of games on it when i get bored with the ps3 - so not really needing a meaty gaming rig.

what i would like to do is get something that is good to start with but could be improved when i get some more cash, so gfx can be upgraded later if needed and more ram chucked in - as long as the first stage is still an improvement!!
Click to expand...

ah cool, in that case i'd drop the 4850 out of the spec i listed and invest in the Intel X25-V Value 40GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive, will bring the total up to around your max of £600.

could then use the ssd for the o/s and apps, obviously depending on the size of your app installs, then use the 1tb drive for any other apps and data.
 
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mp260767 said:
ah cool, in that case i'd drop the 4850 out of the spec i listed and invest in the Intel X25-V Value 40GB 2.5" SATA-II Solid State Hard Drive, will bring the total up to around your max of £600.
Click to expand...

You still need a reasonably meaty graphics card for CAD work. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! I'd say SSD is nice to have and will make it very snappy but better graphics would be my priority.
 
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