Video Cards and Hardware

[rocksolid2]

Just a quick question everyone.

I'm looking at building a CAD orientated machine to cope with Solidworks 2001+ (soon to be 2003) as well as Rhino NURBS modeller, as well as all the other standard office software.

What video/graphics card in your experience would best fit such a machine? I've been advised through sources that Nvidia's Quadro4 are a good bet, but it's difficult to trust reviews sometimes. Also, what would be the advised CPU to aim for speed wise. I'm not looking to shell out mega bucks but I'm going to build myself so I don't get caught up in all the warranty c**p that these resellers spew.

Looking forward to some sound advice

 

[SBaugh]

I recommend this:

1) AMD Thunderbird or what ever is top of the line.

2) 1 gig of RAM

3) Look at the Ultra-ATA PCI cards for your HDD. I use one and I love it. Even though my HHD is a 7200 RPM HDD. The Card makes the HDD run faster. Plus I can hook 2 HDD to that one card.

4) I use the GF2 right now, but I think I would buy the GF4 if I was building a new one. I would follow up and look at the Oxygen and Wildcat cards as well.

IHTH, Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com

http://www.3dmca.com

http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

*When in doubt always check the help*

 

[rocksolid2]

Scott,

Would you go for an AMD over Intel's Pentium 4?

 

[SBaugh]

I prefer AMD over Intel by far, but check out these sites. I think they run smoother than the Intels.

http://www.anandtech.com/

http://www.tomshardware.com/

Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com

http://www.3dmca.com

http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

*When in doubt always check the help*

 

[rocksolid2]

Thanks Scott. WIll check out the sites.

 

[packmen]

I'm having problems using GeForce2...
Sometimes when I open more than one window the computer gets slow.
Do you know a drive to fix it???

 

[SBaugh]

What drivers are you using and what OS? Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com

http://www.3dmca.com

http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

*When in doubt always check the help*

 

[linqur]

You can also get confirmation from SW benchmark

http://www.solidsolutionsmag.com/Summary/SWBM02_results.htm

that AMD gives far better results because of more processor speed they have.

I am configuring one myself right now and will go for
AMD Athlon XP 2200+
Video card: thread559-33163
I was ofered quite expensive DDRAM (512MB 333 PC2700 CL2,5), I will check if I can install cheaper
(probably slower) RAM.

BR;
Linqur

 

[packmen]

I'm using Win2K and the video card version is 3.0.8.2

 

[SBaugh]

Im using W2k also....Sp0.0 till I can find someone with SP 2 on CD. The drivers I'm using are 28.32 version. I got my drivers from this site:

http://www.reactorcritical.com/download.shtml

I hope this helps you out and if you or anyone has a CD of SP2 for W2k I sure could use it...I don't trust MS site anymore after my last experience with them....SP3 ate my registery.

,


Scott Baugh, CSWP
credence69@REMOVEhotmail.com

http://www.3dmca.com

http://home.insightbb.com/~scott.baugh/

*When in doubt always check the help*