AUTOCAD 2007 system requirements....

[red930]

I'm building a system strictly for AUTOCAD 2007. I've done some research regarding hardware requirements but they don't really make any sense to me. Some say low-end hardware and some say mid-range hardware. I wanted to ask someone that's familiar with graphic designing software and what they recommend using for stable operation as far as which CPU, how much memory, video card, and harddrive space i'll need. I want the system to be at default speeds with no overclocking settings. I'm thinking about spending around $1200 to $1500 on this system. Thank you in advance and any suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

 

I've thought....

 

Intel Core 2 Duo (Undecided which model)

Motherboard (Undecided)

2Gb or 1Gb Dual Channel memory (DDR2 600Mhz or 800MHz not sure)

250Gb harddrive (Western Digital 7200RPM, 16Mb Cache)

NEC DVD-RW (Cheap with good performance)

nVIDIA 7900GT (Maybe even something lower...)

Sound Card (Using BUILT-IN)

Case (Something nice and cheap that keeps the California heat out)

[poopshotgun]

A friend uses a P4 3Ghz with 512mb of RAM, but he's only using AC 2002. I would imagine 1gb of RAM would be fine. Depending on whether you are using the full-on 3D features of AC, you may want to stick with the card above. My buddy does traffic flow analysis and designs intersections, that sort of thing, so he's not into the 3D side of it.

 

Of course, I've also heard of people loading AC into a RAM drive...

[red930]

Hmm....interesting. I'll keep that in mind, and thank you for your reply.

[Guest Tmod]

Hi Mack27,

 

I would recommend a CAD only video card as they have specialized drivers for several of the different CAD/CAM programs.

 

My personal suggestion would be something from 3DLabs as they take the extra time to create a driver that will work flawless with Autocad.

 

I use GibbsCam and Solidworks at work with a ATI FireGL 5200 and we have had problems at times with it.

 

With CAD the more memory the better, 1 gig would be minimum.

 

On the one Solidworks machine we used a SCSI hard drive running at 15,000 RPM it was a little noisy but it kicked butt.

 

Well that is about about all I have for suggestions.

 

Tmod

[shatteredsteel]

You going to be using Inventor as well?, if you are a 2 GB kit is a must. And although a specially designed card is a great thing it isn't a must, I'm running it quite smoothly on a 7600GT. If you need any help My PM box is open, I've been building ACAD systems for the school district for 3 years now.

[wingspar]

The more memory, the better. I’d start with 2gb, but if you are only doing 2D, you will probably be ok with 1gb. 3D, = 2gb or more. Each version of AutoCAD becomes more of a memory hog, and more and more bloated. Last version I used before retiring was 2005, and good grief. I must have spent a half a day turning off stuff that I didn’t want or need that starts up with AutoCAD.

 

You can get by just fine with nothing fancy in the graphics card, but might need more if doing 3D. I’m not up on Intel processors, but AutoCAD can be processor hungry, but of course, that depends on what you are doing.

 

I used to have a subscription to Cadalyst Magazine when I was still working. It’s oriented toward the CAD user, and you can research a lot of stuff there.

[davidhammock200]

Intel Core 2 Duo (Undecided which model) Fine

Motherboard (Undecided)

2Gb or 1Gb Dual Channel memory (DDR2 600Mhz or 800MHz not sure) 2GB minimum, the more the better!

250Gb harddrive (Western Digital 7200RPM, 16Mb Cache) BIGGER IS BETTER! Use a seperate OS-Software HDD & Very Large File HDD

NEC DVD-RW (Cheap with good performance)

nVIDIA 7900GT (Maybe even something lower...) No! What is recommended by Software

Sound Card (Using BUILT-IN)

Case (Something nice and cheap that keeps the California heat out)