Advice Please!

[Anonymous]

I need some advice / suggestions: I will soon be setting up a temp office and workstation at a company I do a lot of work for, I currently am a sub for them and will continue to be so. I CAN NOT afford a high dollar system to put on site. I have an older system I am planning on using, AMD 2.0, 768 pc2100, Biostar m7mia M-board standard HDD no raid. What I need suggestions on are as follows: 1) low cost video card. The biostar M-board is 4x agp (agp pro.....) I can pick up some Ti GF4 cards cheap as well as the FX 5000 series. I would like to spend less than 200, the cheaper the better. Dual output is a possible, I run dual LCD's on my main system and may go this route again, if not it will be a 21" or larger CRT. Nothing but Nvidia. 2) would you bump the RAM to compensate for the lower end VC? I cant run anymore than pc2100 I think, and I am not 100% sure if the biostart MB will handle any more than 1 gig total, so I would only be increasing 256mb, not much but it might make a difference. 3) Leave the cpu or bump up some? Once again I will stress money is a major factor. I know that good systems in the long run pay for themselves, but I HAVE a high end system in my home office. This off site office will only be used by me around 20 hours per week, and I will more than likely bring work home on occasions. Thanks Paul

[Anonymous]

How about $100 for a graphics card? PNY 550XGL http://www.emicrox.com/eShop/product.aspx?advanced=1&cid=10020&attr=AGP&pid=944777 Ram might be fine - it all depends on what you do with it. The good thing is you can make that decision down the road when you find out you're running against a wall. I'd leave the CPU - but of course the old "depends on what you do with it" applies. If you're making jigs and fixtures, I'd think it's fine. If you're doing surfacing, lots of derived parts, arrays, etc... but again, you can decide later on if you find yourself hitting that wall. "Ltspd" wrote in message news:401d1ddb_2@newsprd01... | I need some advice / suggestions: | | I will soon be setting up a temp office and workstation at a company I do a | lot of work for, I currently am a sub for them and will continue to be so. | I CAN NOT afford a high dollar system to put on site. I have an older | system I am planning on using, AMD 2.0, 768 pc2100, Biostar m7mia M-board | standard HDD no raid. | | What I need suggestions on are as follows: | | 1) low cost video card. The biostar M-board is 4x agp (agp pro.....) I can | pick up some Ti GF4 cards cheap as well as the FX 5000 series. I would like | to spend less than 200, the cheaper the better. Dual output is a possible, | I run dual LCD's on my main system and may go this route again, if not it | will be a 21" or larger CRT. Nothing but Nvidia. | | 2) would you bump the RAM to compensate for the lower end VC? I cant run | anymore than pc2100 I think, and I am not 100% sure if the biostart MB will | handle any more than 1 gig total, so I would only be increasing 256mb, not | much but it might make a difference. | | 3) Leave the cpu or bump up some? | | Once again I will stress money is a major factor. I know that good systems | in the long run pay for themselves, but I HAVE a high end system in my home | office. This off site office will only be used by me around 20 hours per | week, and I will more than likely bring work home on occasions. | | Thanks | Paul | |

[Anonymous]

I agree with Ron. For 20 hrs a week a 550 xgl will work great. I would kick the ram up to 1 gig for sure. The 2.0 AMD will work fine for 20 hrs aweek. At home I run a 1800+ AMD thoroughbred, and 1.5 Gb PC133 SDram, and a GFIV MX 440 softquadroed. For small assemblies it works great. -- Cory McConnell Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

[Anonymous]

Heck, here at home - which IS my office, I'm running my dual Athlon 1600+ and I see no problems with speed at all! "Cory McConnell" wrote in message news:401d3b79_1@newsprd01... | I agree with Ron. For 20 hrs a week a 550 xgl will work great. I would | kick the ram up to 1 gig for sure. The 2.0 AMD will work fine for 20 hrs | aweek. At home I run a 1800+ AMD thoroughbred, and 1.5 Gb PC133 SDram, and | a GFIV MX 440 softquadroed. For small assemblies it works great. | | -- | Cory McConnell | Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert | |

[Anonymous]

They just ordered a new machine for me at work - 3.2 P4 with 2 Gb of Ram, Quadro FX 1000 (finally talked them into a cad card) and a 20" LCD (and he is working on getting me a second LCD) I can hardly wait. -- Cory McConnell Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert

[Anonymous]

Dual 20's SWEET!!!!! I run dual 17" LCD's (all I could swing) but I will never go back! Thanks for the link on the card and recommendation. Most all of my assemblies will be less than 100 parts and have been. Paul "Cory McConnell" wrote in message news:401d484e$1_3@newsprd01... > They just ordered a new machine for me at work - 3.2 P4 with 2 Gb of Ram, > Quadro FX 1000 (finally talked them into a cad card) and a 20" LCD (and he > is working on getting me a second LCD) I can hardly wait. > > -- > Cory McConnell > Autodesk Inventor Certified Expert > >

[Anonymous]

Ron,

Thanks for sparing me from having to type that one out again! LOL

[Anonymous]

Go with the 550 XGL. If you find you need more ram then buy some good ram, PC3200 in matched pairs for dual channel. Not because THIS system will take advantage of it, but because when you buy your next system the ram will work in it (unless everyone switches to DDR2).

For example at home I have an Athlon 2600+ that uses PC2100. I put PC3200 in it, it doesn't know the difference. Just find out what chip configs your board supports ie 32x8, 16x8, etc. etc. and buy ram in those configurations.

I believe anything above PC3200 is just overclocked, not a real standard.