I'm trying to build a computer only for my architecture office. We are going to use this computer to only do graphic work on programs such as autocad, 3dmax, photoshop and illustrator. I've been researching on which processor and graphics cards to buy, but because I am not computer savvy, I am pretty lost of what to get.

I have decided to purchase a nvidia quadro fx 3000 agp8x, and need a processor plus mother board that will "work well" with it. I looked up the athlon mp 2800, and it seems promising, but the tyan thunder motherboard does not support agp8x video cards.

Basically, I'm looking for a motherboard that has both agp8x and pci express, and can support some kind of dual processor (operton, xeon, or any processor that can handle cad calculations). All i know is that a processor that is 64bit is good, and has hyper-threading is good. But wut should I get? Money is not an issue. Well...money is always an issue, but not really in this case.

I would suggest a dual-dual-core Opteron system as in the Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895A2NRF), 2xOpteron 265-275 processors, a Quadro fx 3400 PCI-e graphics card, about 8 Gigs of Reg-ECC memory, a PC Power & Cooling 850SSI power supply and a nice big case to put it all in!

The small stuff like a Dual Layer DVD burner, and a hdd subsystem will be personal preference or just an upgrade to what you may have now. I would, starting from scratch, get some new SATAII disks, set them up in some kind of raid, and go from there. It's just a start, mind you, but this dog WILL hunt!!!

Flint

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2 X 250 "E" Opterons, S2895 A2NRF (K8WE) beta bios 1.01T
4 X(2x 512MB Matched) Corsair 3200 Reg ECC(TWINX1024RE-3200LLPT)
nVidia 6800GT, LSI 320-2X U320 Raid (512MB ram Onboard!!)
7 X 15,000 RPM U320 Drives, XP Pro SP2
PC Power & Cooling 850 SSI
IT WORKS!!! AND IT'S TYAN'S TECH SUPPORT THAT DID IT!!!!

If your looking for a pre-built system, check out Xi Computers' ">http://www.xicomputer.com they specalize in cad-type computers. I have ordered several dual opteron systems from them, for Autocad/Mechanical desktop/Inventor use. below are the specs of the last system ordered from them.

For fun, here are the prices I paid for this system at the time. Remember though, that the 250 was the top of the line at that point. If you have the time and the expertise, you can build an identical system for less (thats wat I ususlly do, mostly because I enjoy it.) If i remember correctly, I could have saved about $600 on this system buying the individual components and assembling it myself, but I didn't have the time to mess with it.

Xi MTower 64MP
Purchased On:
October 13, 2004

Xi MTower 64MP (base configuration) $1,329.00
Upgrades And Options:
2 x AMD® Opteron™ 250 64Bit 1024KB Cache 2 Way HyperTransport™ $1,811.00
3072MB DDR 400MHz PC3200 Registered ECC Interleave $683.00
nVidia® Quadro FX 700 128MB DDR2 AGP-8 Dual Head $637.00
No Monitor ($100.00)
74GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor 8MB Cache <9ms $168.00
Optional 74GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor 8MB Cache <9ms $228.00
3 Ware 8506-4 Four Channel SATA/150 RAID Ctrl. 2MBC Mode 5 & 4HD max $363.00
RAIDMode 5 RAID (SCSI or Proper IDE RAID Controller required) $0.00
DVD+RW/+R-R Plextor PX708A 40x24x40 ATAPI w/Software - media $181.00
IOMEGA ZIP Dr 250MB Int. ATAPI w/1 Cart. $99.00
On Board Sound AC 97 Codec $0.00
56K Modem int. V90SW Winmodem/Fax PCI $35.00
On board 1GB Ethernet (10/100/1000) on board LAN $0.00
Altec Lansing® AVS200W Multimedia 2 Piece Speaker System $23.00
Logitech® Deluxe Black Windows Keyboard $0.00
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical 4 button + Wheel $35.00
Windows® XP PRO Workstation CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg.** $99.00
Tyan® Thunder K8W S2885 AGP-Pro to 16GB 4+4 1GB Ethernet - SATA RAID Firewire 1394 - Codec AC97 $139.00
Standard Xi Warranty One Year on System, Mfg. on Monitor $0.00
Xi® MTower Aluminum Black Tool Free-Front USB-10 bays 420W-3xBB Fans. $0.00
Optional 74GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor 8MB Cache <9ms $228.00
Optional 74GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor 8MB Cache <9ms $228.00

Sub-Total: $6,186.00
Discounts: $185.58
After Discount: $6,000.42
CA Sales Tax : $0.00
Shipping: $79.18
Quantity: 1
Total: $6,079.60
Discounts: 3% - Repeat Customer.



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too many to list

QUOTE(Flintstone @ Jul 13 2005, 07:01 PM)I would suggest a dual-dual-core Opteron system as in the Tyan Thunder K8WE (S2895A2NRF), 2xOpteron 265-275 processors, a Quadro fx 3400 PCI-e graphics card, about 8 Gigs of Reg-ECC memory, a PC Power & Cooling 850SSI power supply and a nice big case to put it all in! 

The small stuff like a Dual Layer DVD burner, and a hdd subsystem will be personal preference or just an upgrade to what you may have now.  I would, starting from scratch, get some new SATAII disks, set them up in some kind of raid, and go from there.  It's just a start, mind you, but this dog WILL hunt!!!

Flint
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Yes I totally agree to that. Hyperthreading of the P4s or Xeons is nice, but it is kind of dualcore for "poor" people. If money is not that important get a dualcore 270 or 275 and the mentioned Tyan board plus the PCIe card.

One advice for the RAM: Try to get so called single rank modules, if you want to have 8 GB of RAM, which means 4 GB for each CPU, you can either use 2x 2GB(more expensive) oder 4x1 GB modules.
If you think that you might need more than 8 GB RAM in the future then use 2 GB modules. In that case, 2 RAM slots are populated at each CPU, 2 are empty.It does not matter which module you will buy, as there are no single rank modules available, just dual rank ones on the market. If you then later on in some time upgrade to, e.g. 16 GB RAM, you will have a small performance loss, because the Opteron memory controller can access 4 dual rank modules just in a slightly slower mode.

If you would buy 1 GB modules, try to avoid dual rank modules, there are some single rank available. They are a little bit harder to find, but you dont have any performance losses, and they are not more expensive, so try to get them.

A list of qualified RAM is available at the AMD website' ">http://www.amd.com/us-en/asset...egistered_DIMM_AVL.pdf I would prefer the Micron modules, which are probably also sold through its daughter company Crucial for ~$200. I wrote "probably" because I am not 100% sure, if Crucial sell the Micron single or dual rank modules or even mix this from time to time.

But well it is not that important, only nice to have.

Good luck,

Opteron

P.S: For more than 4 GB of RAM you need Win64. As long as the programs are still 32bit they cannot use more than 4 GB. Well you can run the program twice, so each instance can use its 4 GB, but better ask the companies if they are planning to release 64bit versions of their programs, soon.