Help with hardware for Autocad design suite 2012 standard.

[druhoh]

I need help with choosing hardware.

I was thinking about a laptop but it seems there are very few with either a firepro v8900 or quadro 4000. Any thoughts on this would be great.

Current choices for new grsphics card.

Both have Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit.

Desktop either i970 6 cores + 6 threads with 24GB DDR3 SSD boot Velociraptor for Autodesk.

or

Intel dual processors 4 cores each xeon E5472 16GB FB-Dimm Velociraptor Boot auto desk RE4 drives.

****Video Firepro V7900 or Quadro 4000. I have used (quadro FX2500M T7600 processor 3GB RAM Windows XP) in the past but it was on a laptop and I was not pleased I am still not sure if it was autodesk or Nvidia or the computer.

I need to start using my software and had such bad luck last time my software did not get used. I also am not familiar with the new program versions. I hope to be able to choose a graphics card for the best of these two desktops and in a few months get the laptop. I need to be mobile sometimes.

[TravisNave · Accepted solution]

The amount of CPU cores you have is not relevant, so choose whatever you want.  Personally, I prefer nVidia cards over ATI.  Certified drivers are easier to come by and they are released and updated often.  More than anything, just make sure you get lots of system and video RAM and you'll do just fine.

[druhoh]

I understand about the Nvidia I was looking at ATI only because they seem to be very fast (V7900 vs. Qaudro 4000 my price range) and my problem has been a very slow system.

I have a question you may or may not be able to answer. PCIE slot 1.1 VS. PCIE 2.0. Is that going to be a major issue?

Last question I have anything from 19" to 30" monitors available is there a better size and would 2 or 3 monitors be better?

Thank you for the help. My autocad has lain dormant for 2 years because of hardware issues.

[TravisNave · Accepted solution]

PCIe 1.1 is pretty old by today's standards so if you're going to get a newer 32x card, you'll want to at least have a mobo with PCIe 2.  Anything good made in the last year will likely have PCIe 3, but most video cards still use the PCIe 2 standard. 

In any case, I think most engineers agree that using more than one monitor is preferred.  I see many dual 20+" monitors out there in the field.