novice in need of help

Autocad is an archaic program, it will run fine on a 3 year old system, since you don't have much money I'd start looking at retired workstations. I'm seeing dual Xeon 500MHz systems going for around $500. OR an el-cheapo 1GHz system with a good video card would be more than adequate, considering it's made to run on 300MHz machines. BTW, I use SDRC Ideas.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Well, I have AutoCAD 2000 and although it can work on a slow system, the faster your system the better. On faster systems rendering is nearly immediate and generally you wait less for operations to finish.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

By the way, what's your price range.

AMD technology + Intel technology = Intel/AMD Pentathlon IV; the <b>ULTIMATE</b> PC processor

We run 2000 at work and they are going to give me a copy for home use and the more tI learn the greater my future employment opportunities are. My conceptual design skills are good but I need to practicce CAD annd putting together a nice system for the house here is the goal. i am going to use an old monitor and upgrade that later as funds allow

I'd recommend an Abit BX133-Raid, and a PIII 1000. The BX is the most stable, compatable system ever produced. While you can get a system twice that speed, you probably won't be able to tell the difference in use. It seems like your looking for the solidest system possible, not the fastest.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Got to disagree crash, he can get much more for much less and still keep stable with an amd system.

Get an amd tbird 1ghz and a kg7 lite, a very stable and fast amd760 mobo with no via issues to gripe about.

All told you will probably spend less on both the mobo and the cpu than you would have to spend on the p3 chip alone.

And it is as stable and faster, add to that a good videocard and 512megs of ddr ram and you will be good to go.

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Maybe. Maybe not. I simply can't think of a more stable chipset than the BX. He really doesn't need speed. Hell, he could buy an old Xeon workstation, put in a bigger hard drive and CD-RW, and be golden for what he's doing.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Agreed, but not sure he'd have to go with a P3. If its just for practive, *any* 3 year old system would do. im sure he'd be fine with a Celery 500+ or a lowly Duron 600+ system. I hate saying it, but even one of the faster K6s would do. Just look what config you can buy for $300 and add a nice monitor. For (auto-)cad, its really the monitor that counts, not the cpu. And a good mouse.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

Yes. I'm just thinking that anything that old might as well be on a BX chipset, chipsets for AMD didn't start getting good until several months ago.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?