Build for a Client - CadWorx / Civil 3D

[Birk]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. - Engineer Drafting, Cadworx, Civil3D, Photoshop
2. What YOUR budget is. - ~$1000 - $1200
3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from. - Can buy Canada or US.
4. IF YOU have a brand preference. - I prefer Intel but Client doesn't care
5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts - Nope
6. IF YOU have searched and/or read similar threads. - Always reading
7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds. - There will be no overclock
8. WHEN do you plan to build it? - Now

I'm not overly familiar with this kind of build with it not being a water cooled gaming rig.

I found this package at Newegg. Any thoughts? how are Cooler Master PSU ranking these days? and the Biostar Motherboards?

Intel Core i5-3450 Quad-Core, Biostar B75MU3+ B75 Motherboard, Mushkin DDR3 8GB Memory, Seagate 1.5TB HDD, Cooler Master HAF XB ATX Case, Cooler Master 600W PSU SuperCombo
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!

Open to suggestions!

[magiwizard]

I personally would go Asrock if you want a cheap mobo everything there looks fine if you decide to go with the package pick up a 7950 or 7970 and you're golden same thing i posted in another guy's thread if you want 1000-1200 gaming comp here's the list

CPU - i5 3570k is really good bang for the buck (if you have the extra money go i7 3770k)

Mobo - Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H (or UD3H if you want to save a bit) most z77 mobos will suite your needs just fine

Ram - G Skill ripjaws 4x4gb or 4x8gb

Video card - Radeon HD 7950 or 7970 whichever you feel like buying 7950 is more value oriented 7970 performs a bit better but costs more (might be able to fit two 7950s in your budget)

power supply - any decent 650w+ power suply (higher if you go with 2x 7950 route)

case - really up to you

Assuming you have the peripherals cost ends up being

i5 3570k (220~) + UD5H (200~) + 7950 or 7970 (300-400) + power suply (100) + case (100~) = 1000 give or take


If you want to overclock the 3570k usually does decently. If you pick up some used parts even better hope that helps cheers

[moocow]

Well does your client care about the machine's physical size? If not, a Corsair Carbide 200R will be good enough. I will stick with mATX since it will give you 32GB RAM max. As for graphics, I would go with Quadro 600 simply because it's not a gaming machine and it's supported by Autodesk and CS suite. While it's a Fermi card, it should be good enough and it got a lower power requirement compared to the gaming cards. I did a quick build using NCIX:

I7 3770 4C/8T
G Skill 32GB 1.5V (4x8GB)
Gigabyte B75M-D3H mATX
Nvidia Quadro 600

That came out to $700 before tax and using weekly deal prices. So that gives you $500 left for case, PSU, OS, and tax.

[Kingsix]

If your client is doing anything in 3d, especially if they are planning on or already are into a program called Autodesk Revit, make sure you provide a minimum of 16GB RAM.

Civil3d requirements:
Windows 7 (recommended) Enterprise, Ultimate, or Professional edition or Windows XP Professional edition (SP2 or later)
AMD Athlon™ 64 processor with SSE2 technology, AMD Opteron™ processor with SSE2 technology, Intel® Xeon processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
4 GB RAM minimum (8 GB recommended)
12 GB disk space for installation (7 GB for electronic download with at least 2 GB free after installation)
1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter (1,600 x 1,200 with true color recommended, multiple monitors are supported)
Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
DVD drive

I do this type of work myself, although Electrical. I would recommend a very good video card, for 3d autocad I would not save money in that area. My workstation at work has a Nvidia 560 TI and it works rather well. Just because a video card is not verified by Autodesk doesn't mean they won't work. While some of what a CAD machine needs is different from a Gaming computer the two are getting closer together in my opinion. As 3D gets a lot more prevalent in the Engineering Design field the graphical requirements are increasing a lot.

Edit:
Here is what Revit Requires
For 64-Bit Autodesk Revit 2012 Products

Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium edition, Microsoft Windows Vista 64-bit (SP2 or later) Enterprise, Ultimate, Business, or Home Premium edition, or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional x64 edition (SP2 or later)*
For Windows 7 64-bit or Windows Vista 64-bit: Intel® Core™ i5-2300 quad-core processor (2.8 GHz, 6 MB cache) or equivalent AMD® processor.
For Windows XP Professional x64: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual core, 1.6 GHz (or higher) with SSE2 technology
8 GB RAM
5 GB free disk space
1,680 x 1,050 monitor with true color
Display adapter capable of 24-bit color for basic graphics; 256 MB DirectX 10-capable graphics card with Shader Model 3 for advanced graphics (find out more about recommended graphics hardware)
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 (or later)
Microsoft Mouse-compliant pointing device
Download or installation from DVD9
Internet connectivity for license registration

Of course these are the bare bones requirements for the product to run probably on an empty file. As soon as the project starts to be built, this bare bones system will soon cripple your productivity.

My workstation that does very well.
Intel Xeon E5-1620 0 @ 3.60 Ghz
16 GB Ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti