Computer building geeks, I need your help

[helenabear]

Originally posted by Saffron
**Maggie looks left, then looks right** Sorry! I must have wondered onto the wrong thread by mistake. I don't recognize the language over here! I'm lost! Could someone point me in the direction of the plain ol' geeks' thread? That's where I belong.

Try living with this Maggie I love computers and I admit I am listening to a computer geek talk show on the radio right now, but this is what I hear about most of the time, and sometimes I swear I am just dying for "real" conversation!

And Luis, over my dead body will you be buying your dream computer! Your current computer is just about a year old... mine is going on three. You get your dream computer when I get my laptop And don't you DARE suggest taking my Disney trip away to pay for any of this

 

[Kama89]

And Luis, over my dead body will you be buying your dream computer! Your current computer is just about a year old... mine is going on three. You get your dream computer when I get my laptop And don't you DARE suggest taking my Disney trip away to pay for any of this

Snicker snicker.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

wow luis.. it's a good thing I can order my toys through work wholesale so I don't have to cope with this!

 

[coqui]

Originally posted by WebmasterAlex
wow luis.. it's a good thing I can order my toys through work wholesale so I don't have to cope with this!

I only wish I had that luxury. I've been trying to get reseller liscense for quite sometime. That would save me a ton of cash. But alas, all the companies are major pains (and yes I am trying to start a computer building business so that's why I was looking into the liscense.

And Elaine my computer is over a year old. That means it is way obsolete. I mean there have been three generations of processors come out since mine has come out. C'mon Alex back me up here

 

[WebmasterAlex]

If you think I am getting between you and your wife you are nuts!
Buy her the laptop... trust me on this one!

 

[helenabear]

Originally posted by WebmasterAlex
If you think I am getting between you and your wife you are nuts!
Buy her the laptop... trust me on this one!

I'm with Alex on this one

Sometimes I swear I wish I hadn't told you to join the DIS, Luis... and no matter how you look at it sweetie, my computer is still nearly 3 years old!

 

[jipsy]

Thanks for all the computer geeky advice. $1200 is about my budget, so what you described is perfect Thanks a bunch!

 

[Leota]

Computer Geek Central! You guys are WAY over my head....
Can I ask a question too? I need a system for Max on which he can run CAD efficiently - The quote I have from Gateway is close to 2k for the entire system including 17" flat screen monitor etc... The quote from Soyata to build just the tower is 1k - Is this realistic? Is there a better alternative for a lesser price? (Coqui, I clicked on your link, but I'm too computer illiterate to configure the system to get a price)

 

[coqui]

To run Cad, you can just get a normal system. One of the $500 ones will do.

The only thing you will need to do to it is triple the memory in there (I have a GB of RAM) and I don't know if this is necessary but upgrade the Video Card. With those two things Cad will run wonderfully.

You definitely won't need the highest end processor to run CAD.

 

[coqui]

Originally posted by jipsy


Thanks for all the computer geeky advice. $1200 is about my budget, so what you described is perfect Thanks a bunch!

Glad you said that. If you need help finding stuff let me know. FYI, I just priced this out and found a great system at $1205 including shipping.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

you definitely want to upgrade the video card to run cad but you don't need to go insane. A "real" cad video card can cost a 1000 dollars.
I had an autocad consultant recomend the Matrox G-550, it works extremely well with Autocad and is pretty reasonably priced for a cad graphics card.
It is available for under 150.

 

[Leota]

OK - I just configured a Pentium 4 system w/ 512 mb ram & a 64 mb GeForce4 video card - Total system including monitor etc for $1.2k, which got my price down $800 from the Gateway quote -
On the video card - what is DVI & do I need it for CAD & games?
The Gateway GeForce was 128 w/ DVI - the 64 GeForce doesn't have DVI - I'm lost with this stuff - Don't want to get way more than necessary, but don't want to have his system freeze up/etc because I didn't get the right stuff.....

Thanx for the help - Saved me alot of cash so far!

 

[Cricket2]

Cluster baby <U>C L U S T E R</U>!

Why limit yourself to $10,000

Get about 2 or 3 of these:

up to 32 1.224 GHz Alpha processors
up to 256 GB of ECC memory
over 51 GB/s aggregate internal bandwidth
16 MB ECC memory onboard cache per CPU
up to 224 PCI slots on 64 PCI buses
up to eight system partitions and mixed CPU speeds
complete "lights out" system management
Tru64 UNIX, OpenVMS and Linux Advanced Developers Kit support

 

[WebmasterAlex]

DVI=Digital Video Interface
You don't need it.
The 128 part of that would help games and cad somewhat but is not neccesary.

 

[Leota]

OK - 1 more question then I think I have it -
Is the 128 worth an extra $310? Or is it a minimal difference that I should skip the $310?
Most of the games Max likes are Sim type games - SIMS, Pharoh, Roller Coaster Tycoon - those aren't massive speed games, are they?

Max thanks you too - He's very excited about getting his own system & I'm excited to maybe get my 'puter back again.....lol

 

[WebmasterAlex]

for 310 dollars? I would skip it!
If he needs a speed boost for CAD you could replace it later on with the card I mentioned above for half that money and it is a card that is known to work really well with autocad.
It probably won't be neccesary.
BTW I ran autocad 2000 on my old system which was a P-III 700 with 128 megs of RAM. It ran just fine.

 

[Leota]

Cool!
Alex - Thank you again for all the help - Now I can get Max's system ordered & hopefully get it by his birthday for him. He'll be a very happy camper. Gary & I will be happy to get our puter back & to see him zipping along with CAD -

 

[mjenni27]

What type of drawings is he doing in CAD? If it is not that intensive, the standard card will suffice. I am running an antique Dell (PIII-500) with the stock card and it runs Land Development Desktop just fine. The card is nice as an add-on later, but almost all the graphics cards out there today will run CAD easily IMO.

 

[Leota]

Right now, he's doing small design pieces for school (9th grade) - He's in Project Lead the Way & is working towards a degree in Mechanical Engineering. We use CAD for Gary's fab shop & had a beast of a system built for it because it really gets put thru the paces there. I knew Max didn't need to start out with the massive system we have at the shop. I do want to get him something adequate for the next couple years, knowing that we will have to upgrade it by senior year at best.
Since I'm planning to go back to school for ME as well, an efficient system will be worth it.

 

[mjenni27]

As long as it does not do a lot of 3d rendering, the standard system should be usable. The current recommended requirements for Mechanical Desktop are :

System Requirements


For training (minimum): Intel® Pentium® II or AMD Athlon® based PC with 450MHz processor or better with 128MB RAM
For part modeling: 450MHz or faster processor with 256MB RAM and OpenGL workstation graphics card
For assembly modeling: 600MHz or faster processor with 512MB RAM and OpenGL workstation graphics card
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional (supported with Mechanical Desktop 6 SP2 and later), Windows 2000 Professional, Windows NT® 4.0 (SP6a or later), Windows 98 SE, or Windows Me
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later
Note: Less capable machines (such as Pentium II 300) can run Mechanical Desktop 6, but the results will likely be less than ideal. The use of additional memory and later generation, faster processors will directly improve performance and capacity and are highly recommended. Typical production systems employ a 1GHz or faster processor with 512MB to 1GB RAM and an OpenGL hardware accelerated graphics card.

If it fits that, it should run fine. Mechanical Desktop is more demanding than LDD or plain Mechanical.