Will you build me one as well please
Good luck though I hope it works

Goodbye is such a little word and yet it brings such pain to think; we were best friends once and we'll never meet again
Forum Systems A must read

Well, I do not know of any good websites with building tips.
But I can offer some advice when it comes to hardware.

Since you want a higher end machine I think it should be decked out.

Here are the specs I would recommend:

Athlon64 (I think the highest speed is around 3.2GHZ)
Asus Motherboard (Currently they only have two that support the Athlon64)
3072MB XMS Corsair DDR Memory
1x 160GB Seagate SATA HDD (Maybe 2x HDDS if you want alot of storage)
nVidia GeForce 6800 Vid Card
SoundBlaster 2 Audigy Platnium
A nice set of 5.1 speakers (I recommend logitech)
550w Powersupply
Viewsonic VP201s (20" LCD Monitor"
Logitech Cordless MX Duo (Not reqired, but neat to have )
Plextor 52x32x53x Burner
Maybe a DVD Burner for large projects.
WinXP PRO (NOT WinXP HOME! Pro is much better!)
I think that should cover most of the hardware.

This machine should be able to handle anything you throw at it!

Edit: Some Spelling...

Edited by - banjokazooie2000 on 6/13/2004 12:35:39 PM

Huffer, you are at the right forum.
Banjo, are you aware that that listed gear will
cost at least £3700, and up to $5000? i'm not
sure Huffer has that kinda cash to spend.

Ps, If you do have that kinda cash Huffer, you are
real lucky.

if you're doing CAD then my advice is go high-end on everything that counts. I have plenty of CAD experience from before went into IT full time, and I still spec CAD systems and support them.

processor must be Intel, any of the high-end P4s are fine. dual-processor is even better. edit - don't be tempted down the false path of the Athlon 64s, despite their siren promises of undreamt-of power. most CAD software is written on largely Intel-hardware machines, and is often sensitive to cross-platfrom changes. It's looking for Intel instruction sets and is finding AMDs. Intels are much better number crunchers than AMDs, and that's what CAD software is; number-crunching. So the Athlon 64 is a non-starter for you, trust me on this.

mobo must be Intel-chipset, but doesnt have to be an Intel branded board. Go for the dollowing makes, Abit, Intel, MSi, Gigabyte - don't bother with anything else

memory, lots of it and fast too, Corsair performs well and is reliable. get DDR400 if your motherboard will take it

hdd - go SATA you need the fast disk access for paging, and you'll find CAD needs a lot of storage

graphics, always a point of debate for CAD. unf it doesnt sit well with gaming excellent gaming/general adaptors like the Nividia FX and ATi Radeon simply don't perform well with stuff like AutoCad and the like, or a lot of high-end graphic design work. it does very much depend on the apps. true CAD users usually insist on pro stuff like Pure or WildCAT, 3D rendering cards. A lot go with Matrox for colour reproduction and clarity of vector graphics. But the former oyu prob wont play any games on much cos they won't let you, the latter can behave q badly with some games. tbh unless you know you're going to need dedicated features, one of the high-end Nvidias is prob best for you if you're going to mix gaming and CAD. if it was just gaming I'd say the Radeons.

sound is entirely up to you. if you just want general sound for multimedia, then you may as well go with the onboard. however if your CAD work needs sound reproduction the go for a Soundblaster Audigy 2.

obv DVD-RW

I recommend a backup device, like a tape drive or a large capacity Zip or Jaz. if this CAD stuff is professional or otherwise important, then you need to securely store it and archive it.

UPS to protect you if you're in the middle of something and the power goes.

CAD work? always go with a CRT monitor, LCD do not have the definition yet. I recommend Iiyama (superb monitors) or Mitsubishi, Sony if you want to save a bit of wodge cos Mitsubishis are expensive; otherwise Belinea, AOC, and Samsung are good alternatives, a lot cheaper and no where near as crisp, but better than most others. and don't get monitors with speakers, the coils distort the image!

don't arse about with silly cases, just get a nice big one with lots of cooling. get a nice powerful heatsink fan unit and chuck loads of case fans in.

oh I agree btw, XP Pro, not Home. if you're interested there are some excellent CAD applications for Linux, it's the sort of application that works really well on Linux because the memory usage is such more efficient than Microsoft, leaving more system resource for the application to use.

alternatively you could get a Mac


Edited by - Big Monkey on 6/14/2004 1:47:28 AM

CAD, eh? I agree; a good CPU and plenty of RAM are very important. As for sites, well, there is always Google .

Yes I am aware that this system will cost upto $5,000
He did state that he wanted a high end gaming/cad machine.
High End/Low Price Machines are what I call "Oxymorons"

As for the Athlon/P4 chip, I am not very familer with cad chip-usage, and if it works better on a P4 go for it.

I am used to using Athlons for gaming, so far I have not seen a P4 out perform an Athlon when it comes to games.

Edited by - banjokazooie2000 on 6/13/2004 11:37:25 PM

Edited by - banjokazooie2000 on 6/14/2004 10:42:58 PM

sh*t, I almost forgot; pointing devices!

meeces are rubbish for CAD, you need a more versatile and accurate pointing device. Now this depends on what sort of work you want to do. if its detail work using line and points, a trackball is best. If its colour/tone work and picking up and dropping objects and editing them, then a graphics tablet is prob better. Whether its wireless or not is a matter of personal prefernce, but you'll find high-level CAD limiting with a meece, wired or unwired.

Thanks very much for the advice guys.

The CAD program I use most is Autodesk Inventor, but I am also using several CAD/CAM programs such as MasterCAM, Edgecam and Procam.

I guess now I need to start looking around for all the components I'll need.

Edit: Off topic, but Taw's Mac comment made me think of it. What do you guys think about the new water cooled Apple G5?

Edited by - Huffer on 6/15/2004 9:10:24 PM

I just hope Apple don't decide to do any extended warrenty rubbish. My guess is there's going to be a lot of them frying from burst water kits in 2-3 years,

Listen to taw(big monkey) he knows how to build computers since for awhile he did;nt do anything else but fix or make computers!

thanks LM my little man; but you'd prob best not play in Off-Topic too much unless I'm around with you, it can get a bit rough.

for those who don't know, LM is my little boy (he's 9) i didn't expect him to start posting in OT, he's been hanging around FL discussion but now he's obv exploring.

back to business, I'm rather circumspect of water-cooling too; well no. it terrifies me. I have a G3, and I just couldn't bring myself to get a G5 beautiful though they are, because of water-cooling. Water and electronics? sorry, bad mix.

..there is nothing better in life than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro..

Then "Fluid XP" is the stuff for you Taw. It is a non-conductive water-based liquid that can be used in water cooling systems. Just thought I'd mention it .

Rough? In OT? I've never noticed that. *Goes back to stalking Nickless*

would you put it in your PC? no, I didn't think so.

..there is nothing better in life than writing on the sole of your slipper with a biro..

Ordinarily, you'd be right, but I would seriously consider it. That is if I didn't have any decent fans, and I could afford it.