[computers] what makes for a good CAD (drafting) PC?

amRam

amRam

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I need to source a few AutoCAD computers for architectural drafting (2D only). No nonsense, just the essentials. Whats important and what doesn't matter? I assume I wanna go with 64bit Win7, i7 processor, a bucket of ram... how much does the video card matter when only drafting 2D?

Also, does anyone know if network-attached storage would be good enough to play file server for 2-4 concurrent users doing drafting?

Just doing a favour for a friend who owns a millwork company... don't particularly wanna waste all my time building computers for them, just order em up and install everything.
 
Autocad 2d doesn't require much to work. Typical i5-2500 build with an entry level GeForce is overkill.
NAS is plenty, but you might want to look into some kind of svn type thing (Autodesk has Vault).

Apple? For engineering work? What?
 
I'll look into Vault, though I don't think versioning is that important. They don't do massive drawings, and its typically only 1 guy actually doing the drafting (of any given file), and then two shop managers viewing the files.

No good reason to spend for i7?

How bout Windows 7 64-bit, would that be the default choice?
 
CombatWombat said:
Autocad 2d doesn't require much to work. Typical i5-2500 build with an entry level GeForce is overkill.
NAS is plenty, but you might want to look into some kind of svn type thing (Autodesk has Vault).

Apple? For engineering work? What?
Click to expand...

End thread
 
2D...?

they need a 486DX2 with 48MB minimum ram. I'd recommend an external bernoulli drive over the tempting 1024x768 Sony Trinitron 21" monitor, that way you can also move jobs on/off the 120MB HD with ease.
 
CombatWombat nailed it, and AutoCAD and its verticals aren't multithreaded. You'll still make use of multiple cores with other apps and background processes running at the same time as AutoCAD (Outlook, AV, whatever) or multiple instances of AutoCAD.

I've never used Vault but it seems to get a bad rap with Civil 3D. I also should be saying that there is a Mac version of AutoCAD and people are using Parallels for Civil 3D without issue.
 
I've also worked with and without SSD and haven't noticed much of a difference with respect to CAD work (assuming you're not working off your local drive).
 
SSD, photoshop loads really fast!

I noticed its pretty awesome to have 12+ gigs of ram to play with a mega rez canvas.
 
people still do "2D only" drafting?

Then yeah, nothing special, really. However, if you're going to be doing renderings and whatnot, most apps require workstation cards (ie: Quadro), not consumer/gaming grade ones. You pay more, but they tend to focus a lot more on driver stability and render accuracy over and above out-and-out speed in those lines.

Plus they know it's generally businesses buying them with "not my money", so they can happily afford to charge more.
 
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