Need some feedback about System configuration

[Anonymous]

I'm in the process of specifying a new system for me to use (personally - so
budget is an issue).
I will be running Inventor and other graphically intense products.
I plan to purchase immediately (possibly as soon as this weekend).

Questions:
1) What are some good motherboards to look for? I plan on having 1gb of RAM
to start, but may want to have more later.
2) What is the difference between ATHLON MP & XP?
3) I know the Quadra's are top notch, but many are using GeForce4's (I
believe for budget reasons). What's the difference in performance and price?
I expect to go 128MB version.
4) Has anyone tried wireless networking with any of their configurations?
Pro's/Con's, no effect?
5) I expect to have a minimum of 80GB HD, perhaps 2 of them because video
production/editing may be involved.

Any other helpful feedback is welcome. What to look for, what to stay away
from (i.e. ATI, etc.).

Thanks immensely!!!

Bill Bogan

[Anonymous]

Motherboards I like Gigabyte GA-7VAXP or similar
MP is for multiprocessor and XP single
I have heard the GeForce 4's are ok there are a few posts about the card.
Western Digital has a nice 80 Gig drive with 8 meg ram to speed things
along.

If your going to build it yourself buy a good solid motherboard so you can
expand down the road. I like www.newegg.com they have good prices. Don't go
for a barging video card its the engine of your CAD workstation so to speak
(Nvidia is very good). Our company got PC's from XI Computer very nice for
3K we got.

Dual AMD MP2200
Quadro4 750XGL
80 Gig HD
2 Gig Ram

Hope this helps

Matt


"Bill Bogan" wrote in message
news:177334B9148F53372D055BA1E9B1EFC5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> I'm in the process of specifying a new system for me to use (personally -
so
> budget is an issue).
> I will be running Inventor and other graphically intense products.
> I plan to purchase immediately (possibly as soon as this weekend).
>
> Questions:
> 1) What are some good motherboards to look for? I plan on having 1gb of
RAM
> to start, but may want to have more later.
> 2) What is the difference between ATHLON MP & XP?
> 3) I know the Quadra's are top notch, but many are using GeForce4's (I
> believe for budget reasons). What's the difference in performance and
price?
> I expect to go 128MB version.
> 4) Has anyone tried wireless networking with any of their configurations?
> Pro's/Con's, no effect?
> 5) I expect to have a minimum of 80GB HD, perhaps 2 of them because video
> production/editing may be involved.
>
> Any other helpful feedback is welcome. What to look for, what to stay away
> from (i.e. ATI, etc.).
>
> Thanks immensely!!!
>
> Bill Bogan
>
>

[Anonymous]

On the topic of wireless I can send you some info next week. I'm in the
process of specing out a wireless routing for use on my home laptop. I'll
let you know what I find...

--
Sean Dotson, PE
http://www.sdotson.com
Check the Inventor FAQ for most common questions
http://www.sdotson.com/faq.html
Tampa Bay is going to spank the 49ers...
-----------------------------------------
"Bill Bogan" wrote in message
news:177334B9148F53372D055BA1E9B1EFC5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> I'm in the process of specifying a new system for me to use (personally -
so
> budget is an issue).
> I will be running Inventor and other graphically intense products.
> I plan to purchase immediately (possibly as soon as this weekend).
>
> Questions:
> 1) What are some good motherboards to look for? I plan on having 1gb of
RAM
> to start, but may want to have more later.
> 2) What is the difference between ATHLON MP & XP?
> 3) I know the Quadra's are top notch, but many are using GeForce4's (I
> believe for budget reasons). What's the difference in performance and
price?
> I expect to go 128MB version.
> 4) Has anyone tried wireless networking with any of their configurations?
> Pro's/Con's, no effect?
> 5) I expect to have a minimum of 80GB HD, perhaps 2 of them because video
> production/editing may be involved.
>
> Any other helpful feedback is welcome. What to look for, what to stay away
> from (i.e. ATI, etc.).
>
> Thanks immensely!!!
>
> Bill Bogan
>
>

[Anonymous]

for motherboards supermicro is the most stable. i run dual p3's on a
supermicro board and i never have any IV problems, crashes ect.. but they
dont make amd boards so you would have to go with a p3, p4 or xeon setup


athlonMP's are for smp systems and the XP is the single cpu version.

the geforce4 4200 thru 4600 will work well with most smaller assy's

a gig of ram is good, and maybe think of raid0 if you can afford the extra
drive.

good luck

Matt

"Bill Bogan" wrote in message
news:177334B9148F53372D055BA1E9B1EFC5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> I'm in the process of specifying a new system for me to use (personally -
so
> budget is an issue).
> I will be running Inventor and other graphically intense products.
> I plan to purchase immediately (possibly as soon as this weekend).
>
> Questions:
> 1) What are some good motherboards to look for? I plan on having 1gb of
RAM
> to start, but may want to have more later.
> 2) What is the difference between ATHLON MP & XP?
> 3) I know the Quadra's are top notch, but many are using GeForce4's (I
> believe for budget reasons). What's the difference in performance and
price?
> I expect to go 128MB version.
> 4) Has anyone tried wireless networking with any of their configurations?
> Pro's/Con's, no effect?
> 5) I expect to have a minimum of 80GB HD, perhaps 2 of them because video
> production/editing may be involved.
>
> Any other helpful feedback is welcome. What to look for, what to stay away
> from (i.e. ATI, etc.).
>
> Thanks immensely!!!
>
> Bill Bogan
>
>

[Anonymous]

I came across a systems house in my search for best prices on Quadro4 cards
called The 3D Shop (www.the3dshop.com). I haven't bought anything there as
yet, but their prices look very good.

Pricewatch.com can also help with price comparisons.

Our IT dept here tried wireless for part of our company network. Most of
the comments were not printable, but then it might have been the way they
were implementing it.

--
Hal Gwin
Mechanical Designer
Xenogen

[Anonymous]

1) Have a look in the Hardware ng there has been a fair amount of discussion about
motherboards just recently.

Most of your other questions have been answered already. I bought most of my components
from 3 or 4 places and was the happiest with the price and service from www.googlegear.com
For memory go straight to http://www.crucial.com/

--
Kent
Member of the Autodesk Discussion Forum Moderator Program


"Bill Bogan" wrote in message
news:177334B9148F53372D055BA1E9B1EFC5@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> I'm in the process of specifying a new system for me to use (personally - so
> budget is an issue).
> I will be running Inventor and other graphically intense products.
> I plan to purchase immediately (possibly as soon as this weekend).
>
> Questions:
> 1) What are some good motherboards to look for? I plan on having 1gb of RAM

[rllthomas]

Bill, if you are going the Athlon route I very very highly recommend the SiS chipset on the mobo. SiS used to make lowend stuff but lately it has been extremely stable and great performing. Elite has been making some good products with the SiS chipset.

Also place close attention to the RAM since the speed is important. I've posted this URL enough times people are probably sick of it but see http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/20021114/p4_306ht-09.html for the various types availble.

As always, Nvidia chipset for the graphics. Best bang for the buck is undoubtably the Ti4200.

I can't comment much on current hard drives, I've always had great luck with Maxtor. I have 5 of them at home without a problem but I don't know how they compare performance wise in the most recent technologies.

Finally, before you purchase anything I would check out www.tomshardware.com for a review of the product. It is one of the best resources on the net in my opinion.

Hope this helps,

Rich Thomas

[Anonymous]

What was the Quadro board that John Bilton has posted about a couple of times? The price
is about the same as a 4200.

I found a post .... It is a Quadro4 380 but it sounds like availability might be spotty?


--
Kent
Member of the Autodesk Discussion Forum Moderator Program


"rllthomas" wrote in message news:f137706.5@WebX.maYIadrTaRb...

Best bang for the buck is undoubtably the Ti4200.

[Anonymous]

Hey Bill, How goes it?
I stayed away from wireless because of advice from others (so I haven't
tried one) but if you need it upstairs, unless you want to fish a cable up
through the walls, you might not have much choice. I went with a LAN
(LinkSys Cable Router) and it seems to work well. The built-in firewall let
me junk my personal firewall software and has checked out invisible to the
web every time I have checked it.

I run ASUS boards on both my Pentium and AMD, but I check specs every time I
build a system and am not locked into any particular brand. Best chipset and
RAM slots (capacity) are the highest on my priority list.
~Larry

[Anonymous]

We have 2 wireless network nodes in our shop at work. The guys that have
laptops with wireless network can be anywhere in the biulding or driving by
on the street for a block either way and be on the network. I haven't heard
any complaints as of yet. I am not sure of the brand - I can look Monday if
you are interested.

Cory McConnell

[ltspd]

Here are a couple of places I use to buy the stuff for the computers I have built in the past. www.tcwo.com and www.atacom.com The later has a pretty good price on the 750xl 128mb nvidia card (350.00)

[Anonymous]

Hi Bill.

What everyone has said so far is pretty good advice, but just to add my 0.02

Single processor systems for raw performance go for a P4, but it is more
expensive than an Athlon system. The only MoBo's I've used with Athlons are
the Tyan boards - they developed the multiprocessor Athlon system as a
partnership with AMD, and they are pretty rock solid and not that expensive,
but you have to make sure you are up to date with things like BIOS and
miniport driver.

As for graphics cards, you can get some bargains on Quadro2 cards on E-bay,
and currently PNY (in the UK anyway) are doing some fantastic trade in deals
on old Elsa cards. For example you can upgrade an old Elsa SynergyII card
to a Quadro4 550 for less than the price of a GF card - old Elsa's can be
picked up cheap on E-bay as well.

John Bilton