Computers & Networking

[BigAl]

I'm looking to purchase a new home desktop computer to help me with a class that I'm taking at college.  I need this computer to be able to run the "AutoCAD 2009 and the Solidworks" software.  The following is some info I have gathered and was wanting someone else's opinion who knows alot more about what is needed; 

- Gateway or HP Brand

- 500GB Hard drive @ 7200 rpms

- 4GB DDR2? memory

- Good graphics card?

- Dual-Core chip or better - (Better meaning Quad-Core chip?) - What's the diff?

- AMD Athlon 64X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo processor

This is all greek to me and I don't think my old Dell 4600 will handle this stuff in it's current condion.

I'm being told to stay away from Dell and the Pentium Dual-Core processor? 

Any help steering me in the right direction would be appreciated. 

[Sassums · Accepted solution]

I used to work in Computers for Best Buy, so I can help you out.

As far as brand names go, there really is no different, other than, the name.

Sony will stick out a little bit, they are more expensive, as you are paying for its name, however they have a little higher end quality to them, such as the screens, and hard ware.  I myself, would never buy anything but Sony, funny thing is, I bought an HP for college as the Sony I wanted was not carried at the time.

HP and Gateway are good, along with Dell and Toshiba (My girlfriend here at school has a Toshiba, and its great)

I would avoid Compaq and E-Machine, as compaq is owned by HP and emachine by gateway, basically they are the off brands that are lower power, and lower quality.

As hard as hard drives go, they will really always have enough space these days, the 7200 rpm drive speed is very normal, you can find those that have a 10,000 rpm, Western Digital calls them "Raptors" - I have one, very nice stuff.

4GB RAM or Memory is a good place to start, if the computer is running Vista, I would suggest 4, especially with Autocad., in fact, I wouldnt go any lower with that kind of program running.

Most computers you will buy from a store, will not have a good graphics card, they will be whats called "on board memory" - you can however, upgrade the card (Which if you do so, you will need a new powersupply - whereever you get the computer will know how to take care of that)

You may find some computers that do have a good card, and you can tell so by if it says "dedicated video memory", meaning the video card has its own RAM to make the video appear, if it is onboard memory, it will use the computers RAM to support the video.

Pentium D was the very first dual core chip (which is why you should avoid them, they are older, and slow, also avoid Sempron, and Celeron chips) The Intel Core 2 Duo is a good chip, it will be faster and more efficent than AMD, but for all intensive purposes, you wouldnt tell a difference.

Quad Core chips mean there are 4 processors, vs 2 that a Core 2 would use.

[Ron]

You should also look into the I7 Intel processors with DDR3 memory if you're trying to be ahead of the game and not be "obsolete" as soon.

[BigAl]

Thanks Ron,

Bought a new I7 DDR3 today.  Hope all goes well.

BigAl

[ssmith35]

AM purchasing similar computer to run AutoCad as well as Photoshop.  WHat sis you buy and how did it turn out?  Thanks!

[transcend08]

ssmith35, you should start a new thread.

- Jason

[Nokia]

This thread is ten months old. He's long gone.