Help me spec out a low budget CAD system!

[Xevuhtess7]

Haven't visited ocforums in a loooong time. I'm on a collegiate engineering team, we design+build a race car. We're getting personal liscences to UGS NX 6.0 and I don't know if my rig I built years ago can keep up. It has:

P4 Northwood 1.8Ghz @ 2.4Ghz watercooled (had it as high as 3Ghz)
512mb ddr ram
radeon 9700 pro 128mb

My university comps are typically ~2.8ghz dual, with radeon x1300 video cards, and sometimes have trouble rendering our whole racecar at one time because there are so many parts.

I am going to try running CAD on my comp, but if it is slow, I will rebuild it using the same case and peripherals (which is where I need you guys to help). I've been out of the oc'ing game for years now, and I don't know what the new goodies are. This is what I've come up with after checking out newegg's top sellers:

P4 E5200 or E8400 (whats the diff b/w dual core and core 2 duo? will 2mb vs 6mb l2 cache make a big diff for CAD?)
2x2gb g.skill 1066 ddr2 memory (if I go with the e5200, I will only be running the ram at 800mhz, correct?)
gigabyte ga-ep43-ud3l motherboard
evga 8800gts 512mb 256-bit gddr3

I'm trying to spend as little money as possible, im ok with oc'ing, but i want to use air cooling, not water again.

Thanks!

 

[ryanmartini]

It was good to talk to you on AIM.

For the processor, there is a mildly huge difference. The E5200 is a budget orientated CPU with a much smaller L2 cache vs. the E8400 with its massive 6mb of L2 and the monster has been known to go to 4ghz on air. The thing is a monster of a dual core. If money allows, the E8400 will definately last you a long time and will definitely give your system some OOMPH!

Memory: Depends on the ratio if your overclocking. the 1066 at 1:1 would seem to provide some nice headroom for that monster of a cpu. It loves to clock.

I like the motherboard.

For the graphics card, it really depends if you will be gaming on it or you are really serious about CAD work there. If you are really wanting to dedicate some cad time to it:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814195048

If you are not doing anything too hard core with CAD, the 8800 will do the job, but I am very partial to having a workstation card while doing cad work.

Feel free to im me again.

-Ryan

 

[ou_phidelt]

Haven't visited ocforums in a loooong time. I'm on a collegiate engineering team, we design+build a race car. We're getting personal liscences to UGS NX 6.0 and I don't know if my rig I built years ago can keep up. It has:

P4 Northwood 1.8Ghz @ 2.4Ghz watercooled (had it as high as 3Ghz)
512mb ddr ram
radeon 9700 pro 128mb

My university comps are typically ~2.8ghz dual, with radeon x1300 video cards, and sometimes have trouble rendering our whole racecar at one time because there are so many parts.

I am going to try running CAD on my comp, but if it is slow, I will rebuild it using the same case and peripherals (which is where I need you guys to help). I've been out of the oc'ing game for years now, and I don't know what the new goodies are. This is what I've come up with after checking out newegg's top sellers:

P4 E5200 or E8400 (whats the diff b/w dual core and core 2 duo? will 2mb vs 6mb l2 cache make a big diff for CAD?)
Your going to notice more of a difference from the Ghz difference than the cache difference.
2x2gb g.skill 1066 ddr2 memory (if I go with the e5200, I will only be running the ram at 800mhz, correct?)
Actually it will only be running at 400Mhz. To get the speed the ram will run at one Intel C2D CPU's divide the FSB speed by 2. There is more of a back story to it but that is the end result. Even with max OCing the e5200 is very unlikely to hit a speed fast enough for 1066 and it would take a bit of luck for the E8400 to. On top of that I doubt that motherboard will either.
gigabyte ga-ep43-ud3l motherboard
Good motherboard for the money.
evga 8800gts 512mb 256-bit gddr3
Are you getting it used? It has been discontinued for a while now.
I'm trying to spend as little money as possible, im ok with oc'ing, but i want to use air cooling, not water again.

Thanks!

If it was me I would look into a quad for CAD, a Q8400 if you can squeeze it in. Also take a look at the PII X2 AMD chips. I think they are a better option for what you are doing the the Intel alternatives.