Building a desktop computer for a arquitecture student

[jeyeda]

I thinking in a desktop for arquitecture mission. I know that I need a powerfull video card, and also I'm thinking in a double processor maybe pentium 4,so advice me about a motherboard with a right chipset with the best north bridge and a right capacity for the nessesary RAM for this system. I do not want a computer to be obsolet in two o three years. oh! very important what about power supply.
Thanks

 

[TheViper]

I know you don't want it obsolete in 2-3 years but the Pentium 4 was obsolete as of 2-3 years ago already.

And it's for an architecture student...I understand they usually hate modern computer case designs, lol.


Well, we need a budget to go by. Give us a budget and we'll give you the best you can get with it.

 

[LePhuronn]

Without budget I can only suggest what would be good, not what's affordable.

Personally I'd go Core i7 920 with 12GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM and some kind of NVIDIA Quadro or ATI FireGL workstation card - Quadro FX 3800 maybe? Won't need too big a PSU for that (750W Corsair I reckon).

Case-wise, if architecture students can't appreicate modern aesthetics then go simple with an Antec 300, Lian Li or Silverstone - clean, no fuss yet high-performance.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I thinking in a desktop for arquitecture mission. I know that I need a powerfull video card, and also I'm thinking in a double processor maybe pentium 4,so advice me about a motherboard with a right chipset with the best north bridge and a right capacity for the nessesary RAM for this system. I do not want a computer to be obsolet in two o three years. oh! very important what about power supply.
Thanks

Is a student, "old school" profs tend to minimize what the computer does. I recently advertised on an engineering school job board and the dean complained about my listing "AutoCAD experience" saying that if I wanted a CAD person I should advertise in a tech school.

What you need greatly depends on what programs will be used. I have a box here built in the last millenium with a P600 and 8 MB vid card that does some things faster in ACAD 2004 than I can on the "super boxes" with ACAD 2010.

If it's straight AutoCAD, then not much is req'd. here's min system req'ts:

For 64-bit AutoCAD 2010

* Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP2 or later) or Windows Vista (SP1 or later) including Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium edition (compare Windows Vista versions), or Windows 7 (see note below)
* AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, or AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, or Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
* 2 GB RAM
* 1.5 GB free space for installation
* 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
* Install from download, DVD, or CD

Additional Requirements for 3D Modeling (All Configurations)

* Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3 GHz or higher; Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or higher
* 2 GB RAM or greater
* 2 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
* 1,280 x 1,024 32-bit color video display adapter (true color) 128 MB or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D® capable workstation class graphics card

Note regarding Windows 7 support: Known minor limitations have been posted to Autodesk Knowledge Base.

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/dl/item?siteID=123112&id=14056444&linkID=9240617

Of course the bigger the drawings you run and more sophisticated you get, system requirements climb. But a student will be working on small drawings as part of lesson plans and shouldn't run into this much. Without doing heavy ray tracing and 3D modeling, I don't see much need for $1,000 cards.

best bet is to contact the school....see what will be needed. By year 5, my gues sis the requirements willl differ greatly from years 1-3/