What GigaByte motherboard for modest CAD workstation?

richard00001

richard00001

richard00001

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At the moment I'm intending buy a GigaByte motherboard and use the CPU I have to hand in it, (a gifted Intel 530j - running at 3.0Ghz - single core - Pentium 4 processor - Prescott core). Later I want to be able to upgrade the CPU.

I was thinking about motherboard specs for a modest CAD workstation. This is what I'm thinking I more-or-less need:

CPU support: CPU that will run my 530j at 3.0 Ghz. Able to upgrade to Duo Core. I have a list of GigaByte mobos that support my CPU.

RAID support: Yes - I think.

HDD support: SATA but need one IDE port for my current PATA HDD's.

Memory support: At least 2GB of memory, and hopefully more.

Video card support: At least one PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slot. Don't know whether I should go for two PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots. Possibly not.

I think the somewhat aged GA-965P-DS3 is a kind of base motherboard by which to compare. I suppose I'm more-or-less looking for an up-to-date counterpart of this somewhat aged board.

Should I be looking for something like GA-EP45-UD2LR? This does support my CPU.

Any comments appreciated. Thanks.

I have XP professional.
 
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Is money a real issue?
I do not envy whoever has to use that as a CAD system.
Do you need to buy the RAM or have you got some already?
 
BIGBC said:
Is money a real issue?
I do not envy whoever has to use that as a CAD system.
Do you need to buy the RAM or have you got some already?
Click to expand...

Sadly, money is an issue and that probably is the critical bit of infomation. I cannot afford more than say £100 max for a mobo.

I'd need to buy new RAM and new PCI video card and PSU, by and by.
 
BIGBC said:
This would appear to tick the boxes.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Support/Motherboard/CPUSupport_Model.aspx?ProductID=2951
Should allow you to upgrade to a Quad LGA775 later if needed too.
Click to expand...

Yes, without knowing a great deal of what I'm doing, I was thinking this board might be about right for now. I mean, I guess I'm just wanting to "get-up-and running" with a mobo that will allow me to "half-decently" run AutoCad or SolidWorks. The system I have at present: P11 at 500 Mhz with AGP x2 and 384Mb of memory - MS-6119 mobo - would just curl-up-and-die trying to run a good CAD program.
 
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Oh, I've had a thought: I think I'd need to focus on chipsets that can do PCIe 2.0

These do that: G43 G45 P43 P45 X38 X48. Possibly not a complete list of all chipsets, but these are the ones appropriate for my CPU.

So, I can narrow down the list I have of GigaByte boards that support my 530j, and focus only on those that have those above character strings in GigaByte's model numbers. P45 is in the string of the mobo I'm thinking about.
 
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