Need help - specs for CAD PC

[Lemon]

Im currently using a 9 year old PC and thinking of getting a new one soon. Medyo mabagal kasi and nasulit na kaya im upgrading. Mostly gagamitin for Photoshop, AutoCaD, Corel & 3DSMax. Totally clueless ako kung anong parts ang ok. Max budget is 20k kung possible. CPU lang, I'll still be using my old CRT & keyboard.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

[oj88]

The choices you make will be highly dependent on your budget. How much do you have to spend?

Consider the hardware requirements of each software you plan on using when choosing processors, memory size, and video cards. Quad-core CPU's may be advantageous when you're doing a lot of complex image or video rendering.

I have Sony Vegas to do my video editing. Dati, when I was still running an athlon XP 1800+ CPU, my rendering time for a 1 - 1.25hr DV is about 2-3 hrs. Nowm naka Q9550 quad-core na and rendering time is down to less than 30 mins.

[Lemon]

Hi oj88. Thanks sa reply. For now, budget is only 20k. Possible na ba quad-core CPU in this budget?

[jut703]

Hi oj88. Thanks sa reply. For now, budget is only 20k. Possible na ba quad-core CPU in this budget?

Dun sa 20k, ano included dun sir?

Kasi ang decent quad-core (i.e. i5-750) nasa 11k tas P55 mobo na ok 9k. jan palang 20k na.

Kung ok ka na sa dual core, 20k would include an E5200 processor, a P43 motherboard, 4 GB RAM, a 640 GB hard drive and a generic case. To get a decent video card + 4-5k pa.

[straker]

Lemon,

From your question, I presume you're more on the graphical side. AMDs could be for you. If you're on the eng'g side, then its got to be Intel.

Given the range of CPUs in the market, I suggest you pick those belonging in the 70%. Not within the top of the line, but relatively higher than the mainstream variety. Para hindi malaos agad ang PC mo.

Check out the benchmarking sites to compare how each CPU fares against the others.

For the mobo, search for those who use either a Nvidia 8xxxx series chip or ATI's HD45xx. This way, you won't need to buy an extra video card.

As for the memory, go for 4GB (2 2GB sticks), and depending on the mobo's design, allocate as much allowable memory for the video card. If you can buy more memory (8GB), the better!

I think you need to let go of the CRT and get an LCD. Sell off your old hardware while you still can and augment the proceeds for your would-be PC.

[Lemon]

Dun sa 20k, ano included dun sir?

Kasi ang decent quad-core (i.e. i5-750) nasa 11k tas P55 mobo na ok 9k. jan palang 20k na.

Kung ok ka na sa dual core, 20k would include an E5200 processor, a P43 motherboard, 4 GB RAM, a 640 GB hard drive and a generic case. To get a decent video card + 4-5k pa.

20k is for the CPU only. Mukhang kailangan kong i-adjust yun budget to 25k to build a decent CAD rig. Thanks for the input.

[Lemon]

Hi straker. Thanks sa reply. I'll check PC Express tomorrow for the prices. Also what particular model of AMD should I check? Sorry, totally wala ako idea with PC parts.

Keep the suggestions coming. Thanks.

[oj88]

Go to Rising Sun's website. They have a page that allows you to "assemble" your own PC and it will give you an accurate estimate of the total cost based on your selection.

I composed a decent setup using an Intel quad-core, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, an entry-level video card, and casing with 500W PSU. This costs a little under 30k. Adjust accordingly your choice of parts if you want to lower the price.

http://rsun.com.ph/mix_and_match.php

[jut703]

Hi straker. Thanks sa reply. I'll check PC Express tomorrow for the prices. Also what particular model of AMD should I check? Sorry, totally wala ako idea with PC parts.

Keep the suggestions coming. Thanks.

For 25k I suggest:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 (P 3,670)
Mobo - Asus P5QL Pro P43 (P 5,020)
Memory - 2 x 2 GB Kingston ValueRam DDR2-800 (2 x P 1,350)
HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA (P 3,020)
ODD - Samsung 22x SATA DVD+-RW (P 1,400)
GPU - nVidia 9600 GT 512 MB GDDR3 (P 4,370)
PSU - Corsair CX400 400W (P 2,700)
Case - Kahit ano (~1.7k)

Total Cost: P 24,580

* Prices are from PCX website

Kung sobra talaga yung 25k for you, you can take out the branded PSU kasi may kasamang generic PSU yung mga case (i recommend against it though, see here why: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/534)

Also, you can get cheaper boards, kasi di ka naman magooverclock. For a cheap board you could get a Gigabyte GAG31M-ES2C G31 for P2,700.
That would reduce your total cost to P 19560. I still think the extra 5k is worth it, though.

[jut703]

Go to Rising Sun's website. They have a page that allows you to "assemble" your own PC and it will give you an accurate estimate of the total cost based on your selection.

I composed a decent setup using an Intel quad-core, 4GB ram, 1TB HDD, an entry-level video card, and casing with 500W PSU. This costs a little under 30k. Adjust accordingly your choice of parts if you want to lower the price.

http://rsun.com.ph/mix_and_match.php

I tried it, ang konti ng selection. I would rather recommend that you download a pricelist from the PCX website and mix and match by yourself. Addition skills lang kailangan.

[oj88]

I tried it, ang konti ng selection. I would rather recommend that you download a pricelist from the PCX website and mix and match by yourself. Addition skills lang kailangan.

I figured that the TS does not need an exotic gaming machine. Suffice to say, that tool is still ok if just to instantly provide him a ballpark cost of his future rig. Besides, sometimes having too many choices can be daunting.

FWIW, I assembled my HTPC using that tool exclusively. Bought everything from the said store. I'm also a regular at PCX, btw.

[jut703]

I figured that the TS does not need an exotic gaming machine. Suffice to say, that tool is still ok if just to instantly provide him a ballpark cost of his future rig. Besides, sometimes having too many choices can be daunting.

FWIW, I assembled my HTPC using that tool exclusively. Bought everything from the said store. I'm also a regular at PCX, btw.

He doesn't need an exotic gaming machine but he would need the best value parts.

If you're residing in the Metro, the best parin pumunta sa Gilmore. :D

[batang_raon14]

For 25k I suggest:

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 (P 3,670)
Mobo - Asus P5QL Pro P43 (P 5,020)
Memory - 2 x 2 GB Kingston ValueRam DDR2-800 (2 x P 1,350)
HDD- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA (P 3,020)
ODD - Samsung 22x SATA DVD+-RW (P 1,400)
GPU - nVidia 9600 GT 512 MB GDDR3 (P 4,370)
PSU - Corsair CX400 400W (P 2,700)
Case - Kahit ano (~1.7k)

Total Cost: P 24,580

* Prices are from PCX website

Kung sobra talaga yung 25k for you, you can take out the branded PSU kasi may kasamang generic PSU yung mga case (i recommend against it though, see here why: http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/534)

Also, you can get cheaper boards, kasi di ka naman magooverclock. For a cheap board you could get a Gigabyte GAG31M-ES2C G31 for P2,700.
That would reduce your total cost to P 19560. I still think the extra 5k is worth it, though.

This quote is good and the specs should do more than enough for the requirement. As for the PSU, stick with it even if you have to stretch the budget. Wasted investment IMO if you'll use the bundled one (got a bundled one burn out after startup). If you can't afford Corsair, try AcBel, but don't go for DYNAMO, generic na nilagyan lang ng tatak IMO.

EDIT: Here's a pricelist from PCOPtions: http://www.pccorner.com.ph/downloads...lettersize.pdf

ADD: You can settle for a cheaper Asus board, BUT, I don't know, I love the P5 series' ExpressGate (allows you to browse the web in just 5 seconds, highly used by yours truly)

[jut703]

Add ko lang kaya I prefer Asus kasi for me they have excellent reliability. My other PC is a 7 year old Pentium 4 1.70 GHz with Asus P4S533-E and 1GB DDR RAM and it still works like a charm.

[Jun aka Pekto]

From rsun.com
Case:
Myphone MP 11A with 500w psu and Intex Keyboard/mouse



CPU: AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3Ghz (quadcore)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM US2H
Hard drive: 160gb WD Caviar 7200rpm SATA
RAM: 4gb DDR2 800 Geil Dual
Video Card: Inno3d GF8400GS 512mb
Media: Unitek Card Reader

Not sure if this is the Unitek card reader


Price: P19,670.00

If you use this pc strictly for work, even a measly 160gb should take a while to fill up. Plus, you don't need a fancy video card. You do need to bulk on as much ram as you can afford. RAM would be the first thing I'd increase followed by hard drive space.

[Jun aka Pekto]

For P24,170.00, you get 8gb RAM and a WD 320gb SATA hard drive instead of 4gb ram/160gb hard drive. Plus the video goes up to an Inno3d 9400GT 512mb

[oj88]

Just a reminder that you'll need 64-bit versions of Windows for it to utilize over 3 gigs of RAM.

[Jun aka Pekto]

Just a reminder that you'll need 64-bit versions of Windows for it to utilize over 3 gigs of RAM.

Well, he'll have to go to another web site then. All the OS offered looks like 32-bit. Either spend extra or go with my first config + 64-bit XP from somewhere else.

The only other option is stick with 3gb and soldier on with XP Home (hopefully he has a retail version). That gives him more options to improve the other components.

[oj88]

^ Oh, my last post was directed towards the TS. I don't know whether autocad is processor or memory intensive. If it's memory intensive, 4 gigs and up of ram may be beneficial. But the downside is, he will need the 64-bit versions of XP, Vista, or Win7 to fully utilize the memory. It follows that in order to fully appreciate the 64-bit processor, he may want to get the 64-bit version of autocad (or whatever cad software). But I believe, 32-bit programs in compatibility mode should work fine on 64-bit OSes.

If it's the former, 2 gigs of ram will probably be fine and just use the extra money on the best quad-core he can afford.

[Horsepower]

Wouldn't one need an ATI Fire / nVidia QuadroFX class videocard for CADD?