Disk Configuration for 3D/CAD

[djminus1]

I am building a PC for a buddy who is in school for architecture, CAD, and 3D modeling. I am spec'ing out an Intel Quad-Core and an AMD Quad-Core system for him to do this stuff at home. The PC will be Vista 64 with 8GB DDR2.

My question is around disk. I am assuming that some of these programs require high performance disk or seperate scratch disks for max performance. I know that photoshop, though unrelated to CAD, gets major performance boosts if you can assign a scratch disk pool to it seperate from the disk where the application and OS resides.

Anyone have experience with these types programs? What should I do for disk? How about a video card recommendation as well while you are at it!

I was thinking of doing this...

OS/Application Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 250GB 16MB Cache
Data/Scratch Drive - 7200 RPM SATA 3.0 500GB 32MB Cache

[glc]

If you decide to use 2 drives, I'd use 32mb cache WD Blacks for both.

I would use a workstation graphics card that's on the approved list for all the software programs used. I prefer ATI Fire to Nvidia Quadro, but those are the 2 affordable ways to go. I would also make absolutely sure that all the said software will run on Vista 64.

[djminus1]

Thanks for the suggestions. His issue is that he needs a PC now, but the applications he will use down the road could vary. I did ask him about Vista 64 compatibility and he said all of the programs he uses now are compatible.

I agree on the WD blacks. I recently ditched my loyalty to Seagate for WD. It seems like Seagate is falling behing in terms of quality. Plus, WD Blacks are always on sale somewhere.