Why Don't I buy a cheap PC, then upgrade parts?

[Anonymous]

I'm looking to buy a pc for basic 2d drawings for AutoCAD 2016.  My question is, why can't I buy a cheap PC ($150-$250) off of Craigslist, and upgrade the RAM, SSD, etc. as needed?  

For basic 2D drawings, wouldn't this be a good route instead of a $4k workstation?

Thanks!

[ennujozlagam]

Hello,

@Anonymous wrote

why can't I buy a cheap PC ($150-$250) off of Craigslist, and upgrade the RAM, SSD, etc. as needed?  

Because there are system requirements to run autodesk products. thanks

Click HERE

[Anonymous]

Yeah. I hear ya but couldn't I upgrade a basic pc to meet those
requirements?

[ennujozlagam]

@Anonymous yes you can, but you must check also how much you are going to spend to upgrade (the difference- could be the mother board is obselete aready and other parts...etc..etc..) rather than buying new one. thanks

[RobDraw]

You may only be able to upgrade only so far. Plus, older technology tends to be more expensive.

[Alfred.NESWADBA]

...and you should be very familiar with bios settings and drivers for the operating system, because just plugin another device does not mean it's running with the best performance (as long as you don't update all the settings to work well ... buying a complete workstation should have the optimum settings already done).

Just my 2c, - alfred -

[RobDraw]

Good one, especially with the recent major changes to Winduhs.

[pkolarik]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to buy a pc for basic 2d drawings for AutoCAD 2016.  My question is, why can't I buy a cheap PC ($150-$250) off of Craigslist, and upgrade the RAM, SSD, etc. as needed?  

For basic 2D drawings, wouldn't this be a good route instead of a $4k workstation?

Thanks!

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A $4k workstation most certainly isn't needed to run straight 2d autocad. We're running with workstations here that cost about $2500 each, and those are set up to run Revit (3d). (people in our office who haven't been upgraded yet are running Revit with substantially less computer power than that even)

With the right parts you can throw together a brand new pc that'll run 2d autocad just fine for under $1k. Spending, say, $250 on a crap computer and then another $500, or more, on parts you'd almost be there anyway

[pendean]

Why waste the time and effort sourcing parts that may or may not work with your cheapo PC when for a little bit more you get an all-new PC under warranty that's ready to go.

[TheCADnoob]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm looking to buy a pc for basic 2d drawings for AutoCAD 2016.  My question is, why can't I buy a cheap PC ($150-$250) off of Craigslist, and upgrade the RAM, SSD, etc. as needed?  

For basic 2D drawings, wouldn't this be a good route instead of a $4k workstation?

Thanks!

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There is nothing wrong with doing this except that you will inevitably be spending time and money fixing (as well as bringing up to specs) these bargain PCs. I have never bought a pre-built PC. Mine have always been Frankenstein sourced sourced PCs (well at least until this one,but this one was given to me) Trust me you will spend time  and money working on the computer which means you will not be working on CAD. If you have time to waste and and interest in computers, go for it. I learned a lot from dinking with crappy gear. But if you need to work and not waste time fixing things i would strongly recommend not going this route. 

In general you get what you pay for. Thats not to say that the most expensive PC is the best thing. If you wanted to piece a machine together I would buy a cheap craigslist PC for your peripherals (monitor, mouse, keyboard etc.) and just go some where like www.tigerdirect.com and buy a new box. You can get them fairly cheap without the peripherals. 

[jsanchezGUGSZ]

Just go to www.pricewatch.com and build a system that meets the required specs for around 1k or a little more... You can either go barebones desktop w/ no o/s or have them build you the whole thing.  That's what I've been doing for years.  Got case / mobo cpu from pricewatch.  Got a real nice deal on 16gig ram from slickdeals, and bought ssd from amazon.  Saved for another month and got the nvidia 1070 for a good price also.  In the end, it was only around $1300 that I spent.  

[JDMather]

I haven't seen the obvious stated -

If you don't know the answer to this question, that is, you have to ask the question - do you really have the experience to do the upgrade?

I recommend that you only do this as an experiment (not as an attempt to save money), otherwise purchase a finished system.

[jggerth]

I'm going to go against the conventional wisdom, and say Sure -- Go ahead.

Now, I'm making the assumption that you're not using Acad to make money -- so that if your home-brew refurbed PC is down for a few hours, or weeks, you'll still be able to eat, pay rent, etc.  As a leaning exercise in building PCs and getting to understand the complexities and interrelationships of complex systems, it sounds like a great idea.  If the goal is to save money and _make_ money with CAD, not so much.  Parts are not always interchangeable, and documentation on components is often limited, so you can probably expect to buy duplicate/alternate components until something works.