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Help wanted. ( Please no threadcrapping!)

M

m2005

n00b
Joined
Oct 14, 2005
Messages
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I'm starting school in Jan at a comunity college to major in commercial Architecture. I will be given or buy the programs needed but i need guidance on what hardware to use. Im going to be using some Cad software, and also if there is any 3D software outhere better than Cad 3D maxx, tell me plz. I need to know for example, what kind of mother board, memory stick(how much), video card, sound card, processor, power supply. I need some help fast. I will be puchasing these items one by one since i only have a part time job at UPS. Thnx guys i appreciate it!


Mizael
 
m2005 said:
Im going to be using some Cad software, and also if there is any 3D software outhere better than Cad 3D maxx, tell me plz.
Click to expand...

There is no such program as Cad 3d Maxx, you are probably thnking of 3d Studio Max which is not cad software at all.

For visualization work, you can use general 3d programs like 3d Studio Max, Lightwave 3d, Softimage XSI, Maya, Cinema 4dxl, etc. but those programs generally cannot be used for cad as they do not have the necessary precision needed by CAD engineers.

For cad there are programs like solidworks, autocad, turbocad, vectorengineer, realcad, and intellicad. I don't know much about cad software so I'm sure that is a very incomplete list.
 
meatycheesyboy pretty well nailed it; are you doing some type of mechanical engineering (CAD) or are you doing 3D animation / visualization?

The requirements for both families of software are very similar; good floating point performance (a decent CPU), at least a gig of ram, and a fair amount of disk storage are the key points. You really don't need a fast gaming video card for most of this type of work, and of course a sound card is completely optional. A "modest" system in the eyes of a gamer can be a very solid, reasonable CAD workstation. You may well want to use the system for other things, even < gasp > play a game now and then, to that's something to think about as well. There are a ton of guys getting system recommendation in this forum; those threads are actually pretty good for getting started. Figure out what your overall budget will be, find a system that's close, and then you'll be able to ask more specific questions.

(Threads like this or like this.)

However, if you are really doing 3D modeling and want to move rendered objects around in real time, all bets are off. Dual CPU's, dedicated graphics co-processors, and 4+ gigs of RAM are the norm in systems like that. My guess is you don't need something in that catagory.

Good Luck - B.B.S.
 
Like they both said, but an easy rule of thumb to go buy, look at what program(s) you will need to run, anymore on any box (on the outside) they will give you 2 things.

First is what is the bare min you need to run the program,
the next is what setup is best to run that program.

Take a piece of paper with you and copy all this information down (online or in the store that sells the stuff) for each program you know you will have to use.

From there price out the system req's that are the highest on all of the programs you are looking at, and look at what the bare min is, then we can work from there :)
 
Yeah, like the guys have said. You'll need a decent CPU, lots of RAM, lots of HD space, and a semi-decent video card (nothing special though).
 
Deffinately check out the requirements for the actuall programs you will be running. Some of the CAD/other high end programs i've had to use had very strict requirments to what they would and would not work with.
 
I work for a living using Solidworks, and I'd recommend not getting too cheap on the video card, if your going to be doing this type of work. Nothing spectacular, but I'd say the low end is probably an nVidia 6600GT.

Having a the model "jerk" around because your computer can't keep up is a pain.

I'd recommend the Athlon 64 or Athlon X2 for your processor.

Good luck
 
I'm pretty sure you can also pick up cards that are designed specifically for CAD applications. Last I checked they were expensive though. I'll try to find some and post a link or two.
 
The NVIDIA Quadro or ATI FireGL cards might be something to look into.
 
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