Upgrade office PC into CAD PC

[almoststew1990]

We need to upgrade an office PC into a PC capable of doing 2D CAD work. We work with 2D architectural CAD plans up to 20mb in size. The PC at the moment is:

i3 4160
4GB DDR3
Integrated graphics.

Could we up the RAM to 8GB (or 16GB?) and stick in a workstation graphics card and be good to go? Will it need a new PSU too for the workstation GPU?

Our other CAD PCs are haswell i5s with NVidia GT730s, which I've been told are 'alright' for the CAD work we do.

 

[Kurgen]

to be honest 2D Cad work isn't very tasking on modern PCs. The most I would spend is what you have suggested, upgrade to 8gb which helps if you have a few files open. I use onboard intel on my worklaptop and its fine. so I woulndt spend any more than the GT730. I have an i3 on my personal laptop and this runs AutoCAD fine as well

oh.. If you don't have an SSD I can highly recommend you get one even if its just a 120gb, the speed increase is well worth it