CAD PC Hardware suggestions needed...

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

I need to build a machine for use running CAD programs. I know that CAD takes some pretty serious computer horsepower but I"m not sure if the power is required in the video card or the processor or both. I certainly don't want to underbuild for the application and then have to keep waiting for it to create files. Of course I also don't want to spend more $$ than I have to either. Because the machine will only be used in a commercial application it will not be used for gaming. It seems that you guys know what's best in the market right now so I am looking for help.... I need decent speed and of course, reliability. I"ll admit that I haven't built a computer in over five years so this is mostly new to me.

Thanks in advance.

wolfeking · Mar 3, 2012

what is your budget? Also do you just need the tower, or do you need a full system including monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers?

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

Just need to build the PC... I have all of the peripherals that I need. Budget can vary as long as I am going to end up with a well suited machine. (But I have to admit I really like the NZXT Phantom case).

wolfeking said:
what is your budget? Also do you just need the tower, or do you need a full system including monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers?

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

Two other things.... My monitor is a 42" Plasma screen so it doesn't have a USB video input. If I had to I could use a USB to VGA converter but I"d rather not.

I just realized that I will also be using the machine to scan items with a Kinnect (made for the Xbox).

wolfeking · Mar 3, 2012

1. That is a bad idea. You will see bad picture quality on that. I am assuming that you have 1080p, which puts your DPI @ 52. In comparison, the DPI of 1080p on a 21" monitor, made for computers, would be 102, nearly double. That means you get double the picture quality.

Anyway, I will build you up a computer, giving you as many options as possible to save money and offer performance all the way. It will be a while though, about an hour or so.

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

Okay, I understand about the monitor. Point well taken. Knowing this I will say that the 42" will be hung in the room with the machine and viewed from a bit of a distance just to monitor the CNC machines data as it is running. To do the actual programming and running the CAD builds I think it would be best to have a nice monitor by the PC in the next room over (clean). I don't want the PC near the CNC as the environment isn't very electronics friendly. The CNC machines controller is actually a wireless bluetooth device. I just looked up the Quadro cards and the 2000 looks affordable but it's not much different in price to a well rated consumer card. Next jump up is the Quadro 5000 but $1,700.... Jeeeezzz!! A little more than I"d like to spend on a video card. From what you said earlier a consumer card isn't a good idea. However, with the Quadro does one really get a decent bang for the buck? Thank you again.... I"d be lost without your help.

wolfeking said:
1. That is a bad idea. You will see bad picture quality on that. I am assuming that you have 1080p, which puts your DPI @ 52. In comparison, the DPI of 1080p on a 21" monitor, made for computers, would be 102, nearly double. That means you get double the picture quality.

Anyway, I will build you up a computer, giving you as many options as possible to save money and offer performance all the way. It will be a while though, about an hour or so.

Gary1 · Mar 3, 2012

Consider upgrading your monitor to this. Usually a budget CAD PC will cost up too $2500. They can be built much cheaper, but it will probably include a gaming GPU instead of a professional GPU. Either will work fine its important to know what exactly your doing? I draw blue prints for homes and pieces of furniture so I could get along with a AMD CPU and a Radeon HD 5000 series GPU. Ram is no issue usually because its so cheep 16 Gigs would be easy.

wolfeking · Mar 3, 2012

I would go for a professional GPU, mainly because they are built for stability and have a BIOS specifically programmed for stability in CAD environments. I personally have a NVS135m OCd to 700 MHz and love it. It is fairly weak though.

You may be ok with a gaming card, or you may be able to flash it with a CAD BIOS, but I would trust the design of the pro cards before that of a gamer.

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

Looks like it is a great monitor but the price is about what I was hoping to spend on the entire PC.

The machine will only need to run "Artcam" which controls a large CNC router table. I would think that a great PC could be built for under $1,500 but what I don't know is... at what point does the $$ vs. speed tradeoff make sense. I was looking at consumer (gaming) video cards and for about $500 a nice 3gig can be had. However, I really don't yet know if the commercial cards are all that much better. That's why I am here, to learn.

Gary1 said:
Consider upgrading your monitor to this. Usually a budget CAD PC will cost up too $2500. They can be built much cheaper, but it will probably include a gaming GPU instead of a professional GPU. Either will work fine its important to know what exactly your doing? I draw blue prints for homes and pieces of furniture so I could get along with a AMD CPU and a Radeon HD 5000 series GPU. Ram is no issue usually because its so cheep 16 Gigs would be easy.

jonnyp11 · Mar 3, 2012

For the stuff you want, a good professional card, even with only 1gb vram, would kill a equally priced gaming card, no matter the vram.

So you want to spend ~14-1500? How much memory do you need (500gb's or so?, or 1tb's+)? Do you need like a blu-ray player or anything like that special?

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

I think I have a gtx470 floating around here someplace. It may be worth a try to stick it in a pro GPU machine. But I have to say that I was pretty disappointed in that I couldn't get any stability out of the video card in a Vista machine. It couldn't handle two monitors. It would flake out on reboot. Perhaps it was the OS?

wolfeking said:
I would go for a professional GPU, mainly because they are built for stability and have a BIOS specifically programmed for stability in CAD environments. I personally have a NVS135m OCd to 700 MHz and love it. It is fairly weak though.

You may be ok with a gaming card, or you may be able to flash it with a CAD BIOS, but I would trust the design of the pro cards before that of a gamer.

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

1.4-1.5K... Yes, if that is what it takes. Thanks for the input on the pro cards vs. gamer cards. Not sure about what you ask about the the memory.... If you mean HD space, 1 Tb would be nice....

i

jonnyp11 said:
For the stuff you want, a good professional card, even with only 1gb vram, would kill a equally priced gaming card, no matter the vram.

So you want to spend ~14-1500? How much memory do you need (500gb's or so?, or 1tb's+?)

jonnyp11 · Mar 3, 2012

Vista was a pretty bad OS, i never used it but i think driver support was one of its main problems, but i can't say definitely. and the part about the vram was about where you said something about a 500 buck gaming card having 3gb's of vram, i was saying that doesn't matter much, or at least not as much as you think probably.

wolfeking · Mar 3, 2012

Vista is not a bad OS jonny. In fact quite the opposite. It is stable, reliable, and has as much if not more driver support as 7. It is 7 at its heart, just not quite as good according to most people.

The way I see it, if you have not used it, you have no point in offering opinions of its use. Hardware wise this is not the case, but don't be telling us how to play the game when you have not ever played yourself. After all, you don't want a 2 year old telling you how to shoot, right jonny?

A GTX470 should be ok. If you need more power, then you can always upgrade to a CAD card later.

As for the rest of the system, I would go with either a 2600/P67 or 3870/X79 setup and 16 GB of RAM, along with a good cooler (cooler parts last longer), a quality PSU and maybe a SSD or 2 for speed.

jonnyp11 · Mar 3, 2012

Gary1 · Mar 3, 2012

The guy is only using it for a CNC machine. Something not exactly like this but close. These can be ran on laptops. The CNC machine doesn't matter. Its the files that he will draw that matters most. Yes you would be better off with a pro Video card, they are correct, but you would not need much of one.

Nicely done Johnny. I think for what the CPU is being used for the i5 will be plenty. And wolfking would be correct as well with GPU choice, but why not play it safe and use the firepro.

Gary1 · Mar 3, 2012

jonnyp11 said:
Vista was a pretty bad OS, i never used it but i think driver support was one of its main problems, but i can't say definitely. and the part about the vram was about where you said something about a 500 buck gaming card having 3gb's of vram, i was saying that doesn't matter much, or at least not as much as you think probably.

In my opinion, The biggest problem with Vista is XP was about 8 years old and no one wanted to upgrade. I am not saying it does not have problems but it was so different from XP not many could understand it. For a NVIDA card to use 2 monitors you have to have 2 GPU's.

Perkomate · Mar 3, 2012

Gary1 said:
For a NVIDA card to use 2 monitors you have to have 2 GPU's.

I thought they can run 2, but not 3?

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

Hmmm.....

Regarding the firepro 7800, it looks like it's not getting very good reviews. Kinda' worries me a bit. I do agree with a previous post that it may be best to build a machine while doing a little more research on the video card. However, after looking at the 3870 vs. the 2600 I have noticed a huge price difference in the processers but this seems to be balanced by the inverse of the price difference of the motherboards. Am I missing something here? Which would be my better option?

The X79 and P67 seem to have a few variants available. Any thoughts from anyone on which would be best for my application?

Oh, you are somewhat correct with the woodcraft routing machine but mine is much bigger..... Makes 4' x 8' parts.

Please remember, I have been out of the building arena for quite some time and I'm trying to catch up.

Thanks again to all.

Gary1 said:
The guy is only using it for a CNC machine. Something not exactly like this but close. These can be ran on laptops. The CNC machine doesn't matter. Its the files that he will draw that matters most. Yes you would be better off with a pro Video card, they are correct, but you would not need much of one.

Nicely done Johnny. I think for what the CPU is being used for the i5 will be plenty. And wolfking would be correct as well with GPU choice, but why not play it safe and use the firepro.

southsoon1 · Mar 3, 2012

That 2500 combo deal is tempting but will I miss the extra power of the 2600 or 3870? I.E. Is the difference in speed noticeable? Hmmmm....

jonnyp11 said:
Well if you want to go the way he was saying i can make the changes, but this is what i had put together, the cpus he suggested and a good cooler would be smart though.

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