i plan to buy a pc for the sole purpose of using autoCAD for my buisness. Can you advise me on what type of display,hard drive, running speed etc I Should buy. Should i buy a custom made pc?
id be very greatful if you can help
thanks
Azeem Alim
[email protected]
My advice would be to buy a custom built machine. The most important piece of the machine for running AutoCAD is the Graphics Card. Cadalyst has an article on 5 different graphics cards here at http://www.cadalyst.com/reviews/hardware/0400gcards/report.html
On the graphics cards you can spend as much money as you want. For myself I usually just buy a decent ATI card for about $100-$200. Get as much Video ram as you can afford and make sure the card is an AGP (not a PCI). Most of your new cards are AGP and this usually is not a problem.
For your CPU, AMD and Intell have performed equally as well for me. Just get at least a 600mhz. The faster the better. Once again it just depends on how much you
want to spend.
As for a monitor, SONY in my opinon make the best monitors on the market. There are a few others that make good monitors too (NEC, Viewsonic just to name a few). The important thing is to get at least (bare minium) a 17" screen. I use a 20" Sony monitor. One of the most import issues with a monitor is the Dot Pitch the smaller the number the better. 0.27mm-0.25mm is about what you want. Anything bigger will cause headaches for the draftsman.
Harddrive - the bigger the better. Check the RPM's for the IDE drives come in 5200rpms and 7500rmps the 7500 is preferred. This will speed up seek time. Also the seek time shown on the box the smaller the better. Get at least a 10 Gig hardrive. Western Digital and IBM are some good name brands that I trust.
Ram - is another important thing, once again get as much as you can afford and as fast as you can afford. Use at least 128mb and 100mhz speed. 256mb and 133mhz
speeds are perffered.
To top your machine off, install a logictech Mouseman 4 button, optical mouse. I have this mouse at
work and at home. Also a split ergonomic keyboard is NOT something you want to buy for an AutoCAD machine. You want to buy the single standard old keyboard because, most of the time you will be typing with one hand and using the mouse with the other.
I hope that helps. I always go to ZDnet or PCmag when I need help deciding what to
buy.
Good Luck
Jim
