New CAD Workstations

[cellophane]

Good morning!

I am currently looking for a new PC spec for our office to update our systems. We will end up buying through a vendor (Dell et al), rather than building our own for the support options (I'm an architect who likes computers, not an IT pro) but I am pretty much lost when it comes to the myriad of new options in video cards, memory & processors. The systems will be running mainly AutoCAD Architecture, Revit, SketchUP & Photoshop. We do run animations through SU and once we fully switch to Revit through that. I'm looking at DIY forums rather than vendor sites at the moment to get an idea of what I actually need rather than what they want to sell me.

Budget is in the $1,000 - $1,500 range. We have all the peripherals lying around, so I just need the computer.

parts:

Processor: No preference - I honestly don't know enough about the various options anymore to even know where to begin.

Memory: Lots - I'm shooting for 8gb

GPU: Good CAD / 3D card. My 1gb card at home is awful for CAD compared to the 512 cards we have at the office. Go figure. Dual monitor support is a definate, and a high max resolution.

CD / DVD Burner

OS - Win7 64

HDD - 500gb would be more than enough. All of our work is stored on a network. Local drive just holds software and misc files.

Sound - basic card / onboard is fine. just enough to get music to the speakers.

LAN - fast is good, but I don't know the specs of our network offhand.

Thanks,
Chad

[glc]

Go to dell.com, then look under small & medium business, then desktops and workstations. Pick Dell Precision Workstations. Pick the T1500 and customize the first one.

How does this look?

PROCESSORS Quad Core Processor Core i7-860,2.8GHz,8MB edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, English edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word and Excel with ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook edit
MEMORY 8GB, DDR3, Non-ECC SDRAM Memory, 1333MHz, 2x4GB edit
SERVICES & WARRANTY 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service edit
VIDEO CARD 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 600, Dual MON, 1 DP & 1 DVI edit
CONTROLLER CARD No 1394 edit
SECURITY SOFTWARE Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services, 30-days edit
HARD DRIVE/RAID CONFIGURATION C1 All SATA Hard Drives ,Non- RAID for 1 Hard Drive edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD-ROM with Cyberlink Power DVD™ No Media edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
MEDIA READER No Media Card Reader edit
My Accessories
SOUND CARD Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio edit
SPEAKERS No Speaker option edit
KEYBOARD Dell QuietKey Keyboard edit
MOUSE Dell MS111 USB Optical Mouse edit
My Services & Warranties
ON-SITE SYSTEM SETUP No Onsite System Setup edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
BASE Dell Precision T1500 Base for Intel H57 Chipset
RESOURCE DVD No Resource Media
Shipping Packaging Options Shipping Material for System
Quick Reference Guide Quick Reference Guide, English
ADDITIONAL NETWORK CARD Intergrated PCIE 10/100/1000
SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Documentation, English, with 125V Power Cord

It comes to $1489.

EDIT: I forgot to upgrade to a DVD burner.

[cellophane]

Originally Posted by glc PROCESSORS Quad Core Processor Core i7-860,2.8GHz,8MB edit VIDEO CARD 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® 600, Dual MON, 1 DP & 1 DVI edit

Thanks for the reply.

How does that processor compare to a bigger core architecture with the same clock speed or a smaller core with faster clock speed? i.e. Dual Core 3.5GHz vs Quad Core 2.5GHz

edit - it is probably out of budget, but for the sake of argument & presenting over priced rigs to my boss - how does a dual processor compare to a dual core / quad core?

For the video card - I know Autodesk has a recommended cards list, but I really don't know how to go about comparing options on various cards. Similar to the CPU question - how do clock speed and onboard RAM affect things?

[glc]

If your software can utilize quad core, you should get it regardless of clock speed.

[jdeb]

Not meant to undermine glc's recommendation but intent for comparison and budget.

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