newbie - advice for CAD translation system
 

Hi,

My father is an engineer and does translation of CAD drawings from
various programs/formats .. e.g. CATIA, UniGraphics, and a bunch of
others.

Myself I'm not very knowledgable about hardware and he wants to build
a system that is customized specifically for translating these
drawings as quickly as possible.

In terms of money willing to spend, there is no real limit (i know you
are jealous ;), j/k!). but really, we are willing to put in any
amount of money as long as that gives a good performance increase.

For example, we were considering going for a P4 3.2C Ghz, but the 2.8
is so much cheaper and I don't understand why 3.2 is so much more
expensive. What is the difference in these processors besides the GHz
speed?

In browsing around the net, and asking a few people around I've come
up with this system but I'm not sure its the best config. Any advice
appreciated! Thanks. (I've left out irrelevant stuff to the
discussion, like monitor, cd-roms etc.)

CPU - P4 2.8C Ghz (or maybe 3.0, or 3.2, not sure yet)
Motherboard - MSI 865PE Neo2-LS
Hard Drive - Seatgate 120GB S-ATA w/8MB Cache (2)
RAM - Corsair 512MB x4 DDR400 (2GB)
Case - KingWin KT-424-BK-WM Aluminium Black
Power Supply - 350W Enermax P4 PSU
Video Card - MSI GeForce FX5900 Ultra 256MB DDR VIVO DVI (I really
dont know if this is suited for CAD translation)

You need to know more about the software you are going to run. Will it take advantage of dual processors? How much memory will it use? Does it involve a lot of disk access? He would probably like a PC with dual processors (fastest available of course), 2 GB RAM and a 15,000 RPM SCSI RAID array.
You will always have to pay top dollar for the fastest processor. You can get one that is slightly slower for a lot less money.


Talha wrote:

Hi,

My father is an engineer and does translation of CAD drawings from
various programs/formats .. e.g. CATIA, UniGraphics, and a bunch of
others.

Myself I'm not very knowledgable about hardware and he wants to build
a system that is customized specifically for translating these
drawings as quickly as possible.

In terms of money willing to spend, there is no real limit (i know you
are jealous ;), j/k!). but really, we are willing to put in any
amount of money as long as that gives a good performance increase.

For example, we were considering going for a P4 3.2C Ghz, but the 2.8
is so much cheaper and I don't understand why 3.2 is so much more
expensive. What is the difference in these processors besides the GHz
speed?

In browsing around the net, and asking a few people around I've come
up with this system but I'm not sure its the best config. Any advice
appreciated! Thanks. (I've left out irrelevant stuff to the
discussion, like monitor, cd-roms etc.)

CPU - P4 2.8C Ghz (or maybe 3.0, or 3.2, not sure yet)
Motherboard - MSI 865PE Neo2-LS
Hard Drive - Seatgate 120GB S-ATA w/8MB Cache (2)
RAM - Corsair 512MB x4 DDR400 (2GB)
Case - KingWin KT-424-BK-WM Aluminium Black
Power Supply - 350W Enermax P4 PSU
Video Card - MSI GeForce FX5900 Ultra 256MB DDR VIVO DVI (I really
dont know if this is suited for CAD translation)

--
Mike Walsh
West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S.A.