hw specs for CAD workstation

**badkuk** · March 23rd, 2009 11:55 AM

guys, pasuggest naman. would a core 2 duo processor be enough? ano kayang magandang graphics card(prferrably under 5k) for this nowadays? will be doing lots of rendering. tia

**1D4LV** · March 23rd, 2009 12:17 PM

yes, a core duo would be ok. taasan mo na din RAM mo. at least 1 GB RAM is recommended, but if you can get it higher to 2GB, much better.
as for the video card, the bigger memory, the better. but i think there are good brands and specs within the 5k budget.

**Horsepower** · March 23rd, 2009 11:34 PM

You'd need nVidia QuadroFX - class videocard for better CAD performance.

Memory, around 8-16GB is good (in 64bit mode) or 4GB dual channel (useable:3.5gb in 32bit). DDR2 is cheap so it's okay and you can never have enough ram. hehe

RAID 0 Harddisks for fast storage performance (WD 10,000 rpm SATA2 HDDs or WD 640KS dual 320gb platters - very fast SATA2 HDDs).

Core2 Duo is okay but it's a past model. Get the new Nehalem processor (Core i7 series).

**badkuk** · March 24th, 2009 09:19 PM

sirs, how about the video ram? is 512mb ok? ok lang ba kung ddr2 ung ram, or is vram still better?

**Horsepower** · March 28th, 2009 03:11 AM

graphics card na yun, yung QuadroFX. yung vram, para lang yun sa integrated video. Gagapang ang rendering sa CADD nun.

usually GDDR4/GDDR5 ang ram ng mga videocards these days. As for the size, depende kasi sa gagawin mo eh but 512mb is a safe bet. if you can go 1GB, better.

**badkuk** · March 28th, 2009 07:03 AM

i did some research on this: Quadro cards are something like 20 - 40k pesos pala?!? that's more than the budget for the entire CAD rig

anyways, apparently there's a "hack" where you can get improved rendering performance from the cheaper Inno3D gaming cards -- basically just use the equivalent Quadro drivers for the gaming card. performance boost isn't consistent though, varying from worse or up to 160+% improvement depending on the particular task/software package

**DonT** · March 28th, 2009 11:52 AM

I think gone were the days na you need to have a specially spec'd computer to run CAD programs. I think if you can play games like Crysis on your computer...it can do anything.

Mas demanding pa kasi ang requirements ng games nowadays.