CPU vs. Graphics Card

[Anonymous]

We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and getting
a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:

Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
-$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
+$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb

Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
routines can be processor intensive as well.

Terry Scanlon

[Anonymous]

Nothing is going to give you more bang for the buck than memory.
I would suggest a Minimum of 512mb.

Here's a review of graphics cards:
http://www.extremetech.com/category2/0,3971,485674,00.asp

- Jim

"Terry Scanlon" wrote in message
news:D7482150C6F3E44074E68517B9F5ADA9@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
> budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and
getting
> a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:
>
> Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
> -$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
> +$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb
>
> Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
> hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
> routines can be processor intensive as well.
>
> Terry Scanlon
>
>

[Anonymous]

Terry,

We do the same work you're talking about, and I never go for expensive video
cards. Always go for faster processors and a minimum of 512MB ram, the
higher speed ram the better.

HTH
Steve


"Terry Scanlon" wrote in message
news:D7482150C6F3E44074E68517B9F5ADA9@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
> budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and
getting
> a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:
>
> Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
> -$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
> +$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb
>
> Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
> hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
> routines can be processor intensive as well.
>
> Terry Scanlon
>
>

[Anonymous]

Terry,

If you are set on staying with the P4 platform, I recommend upping the
CPU to 2.53GHz (it seems to be a real sweet spot right now,
price/performance wise) and use DDRAM instead of RDRAM. For the kind
of work you will be doing on it, you don't need a Quadro or FireGL
card - a cheap GeForce 3 or 4 will do. I recommend something with
64MB, though, which is still very inexpensive. You base system isn't
bad, but I can't really understand the value relationship without some
hard numbers on the machines you are specifying.

However, if you really want to save some money, I could easily
recommend moving to the Athlon CPU on the nVidia nForce2 motherboard
platform using DDRAM. That should allow you to up the video card to
GF4/128MB status.

Whatever you do, MAKE SURE you have at least 512MB in the system.

Matt
mstachoni@bhhtait.com
mstachoni@comcast.net



On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 06:21:55 -0800, "Terry Scanlon"
wrote:

>We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
>budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and getting
>a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:
>
>Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
>-$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
>+$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb
>
>Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
>hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
>routines can be processor intensive as well.
>
>Terry Scanlon
>

[Anonymous]

Matt, hopefully you'll have the time to comment on my computer parts list.
In particular, would you go ahead and get the >300w power supply?

- Jim

"Matt Stachoni" wrote in message
news:h0tevug3r6rdjltso07ioj7oeb8ahbjtu0@4ax.com...
> Terry,
>
> If you are set on staying with the P4 platform, I recommend upping the
> CPU to 2.53GHz (it seems to be a real sweet spot right now,
> price/performance wise) and use DDRAM instead of RDRAM. For the kind
> of work you will be doing on it, you don't need a Quadro or FireGL
> card - a cheap GeForce 3 or 4 will do. I recommend something with
> 64MB, though, which is still very inexpensive. You base system isn't
> bad, but I can't really understand the value relationship without some
> hard numbers on the machines you are specifying.
>
> However, if you really want to save some money, I could easily
> recommend moving to the Athlon CPU on the nVidia nForce2 motherboard
> platform using DDRAM. That should allow you to up the video card to
> GF4/128MB status.
>
> Whatever you do, MAKE SURE you have at least 512MB in the system.
>
> Matt
> mstachoni@bhhtait.com
> mstachoni@comcast.net
>
>
>
> On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 06:21:55 -0800, "Terry Scanlon"
> wrote:
>
> >We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
> >budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and
getting
> >a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:
> >
> >Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
> >-$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
> >+$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb
> >
> >Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
> >hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
> >routines can be processor intensive as well.
> >
> >Terry Scanlon
> >
>

[Anonymous]

"Matt Stachoni" wrote in message
news:h0tevug3r6rdjltso07ioj7oeb8ahbjtu0@4ax.com...
> Terry,
>
> If you are set on staying with the P4 platform, I recommend upping the
> CPU to 2.53GHz (it seems to be a real sweet spot right now,
> price/performance wise) and use DDRAM instead of RDRAM. For the kind
> of work you will be doing on it, you don't need a Quadro or FireGL
> card - a cheap GeForce 3 or 4 will do. I recommend something with
> 64MB, though, which is still very inexpensive. You base system isn't
> bad, but I can't really understand the value relationship without some
> hard numbers on the machines you are specifying.
>
> However, if you really want to save some money, I could easily
> recommend moving to the Athlon CPU on the nVidia nForce2 motherboard
> platform using DDRAM. That should allow you to up the video card to
> GF4/128MB status.
>
> Whatever you do, MAKE SURE you have at least 512MB in the system.
>
> Matt

Thanks to everyone who has responded. I intentionally left out system
information in an attempt to avoid distraction on other issues (such as
RAM).

These are Dell workstations (340,350, or 450 series). We need them quick,
so we won't be customizing outside their standard options.

...and yes, we are getting 512mb RAM.

Terry Scanlon

[Anonymous]

Recently I was building a 2.0 GHz P4 using an Asus motherboard. The case had
not arrived, so I set it up on the bench using a 300 watt supply. The thing
wouldn't even boot. The Asus post reporter was giving all sorts vocal
messages. The one I remember was "memory parity error". The case I bought
had a 350 w ps. When it arrived, I put everything in and it runs like a
champ. For me, 350 w is min, 400 w is better.

- Tom

"Jim Mims" wrote in message
news:C11EEE57976081179E72338370BC9463@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> Matt, hopefully you'll have the time to comment on my computer parts list.
> In particular, would you go ahead and get the >300w power supply?
>
> - Jim

[Anonymous]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002 09:39:57 -0800, "Jim Mims"
wrote:

>Matt, hopefully you'll have the time to comment on my computer parts list.
>In particular, would you go ahead and get the >300w power supply?

Yup, I'd go for a power supply that's in the 350-450W range, depending
on whatever else is in the system. I'll check out the above post (been
away from a PC with the newsgroups on them for a week).

Matt
mstachoni@bhhtait.com
mstachoni@comcast.net

[Anonymous]

Quadro card should be very good for the presentation and basic CAD work.
Never try Fire GL yet.
"Terry Scanlon" wrote in message
news:D7482150C6F3E44074E68517B9F5ADA9@in.WebX.maYIadrTaRb...
> We are ordering some new workstations. Like many of you, we are on a
> budget. I am interested on opinions about sacrificing CPU speed and
getting
> a better graphics card. Here are some scenarios:
>
> Base: 2.26Ghz P4, ATI Radeon VE 32mb
> -$60: 2.20Ghz P4, Quadro2 EX 32mb
> +$50: 2.00Ghz Xeon P4, Fire GL E1 64mb
>
> Our work consists of Civil 2d CAD, sometimes with lots of presentation
> hatching, or digital orthophoto backgrounds. Some of the civil add on
> routines can be processor intensive as well.
>
> Terry Scanlon
>
>