Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

I really do suggest ecollegepc.com I was bored so I priced one out that would suit your needs to get a price, and I got it for $932.

2800+ Athlon 64 CPU Retail Box with Fan
Gigabyte GA-K8VT800 (VIA K8T800, Serial ATA Raid, Sound, LAN 8XAGP)
512MB Ultra-Fast PC3200 DDR400 Memory
512MB Ultra-Fast PC3200 DDR400 Memory*
80GB 7200RPM ATA100
52X Mitsumi CDROM
128MB ATI Radeon 9600SE 8X AGP TV/DVI
Microsoft Windows XP Home
17" .27 DPI White Monitor
350watt Raidmax 228 Black Mid Tower ATX (4 5.25, 4 3.5 bays)
56K V.92 & 10/100 Ethernet Card
Motherboard has onboard sound
1.44 Floppy Drive
Standard White PS2 Keyboard
Standard White Scroll Mouse
Standard 1 year parts and labor

*Thats 2 chips of 512mb, so you're getting 1gb.

Seriously, don't just dismiss it becasue it isn't a huge brand. They have a pretty good deal. And it's a great processor.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

And if you wait long enough, you can get the Japanese Earth Simulator (fastest super computer in the world) in a PDA for $10 (on eBay). It's almost always pointless to wait to buy technology stuff. Buy it when you need it. It's going to drop in price consistently, but that doesn't mean it makes sense to keep delaying your purchase.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

As everyone has been saying, don't go too cheap on the RAM, especially if you go with a P4 or P3. I currently have 640 MB in mine, and Inventor 7 Pro works just fine. A gig would be nicer but 512 wouldn't give you any serious problems. Just don't make the mistake that I did and get one with less than 512, or you will be VERY frustrated.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

I would definately second this, my friends and I have all went this route, comes with the same warranty, the case and everything are as clean as new. Usually includes free shipping and ships immediately since it is already built. Add in a refurbed monitor and you are right back in your price range.

When most people think of refurbed they think of some worked over computer that has been on a Best Buy shelf getting smacked by 10,000 people. It has been my luck at Dell that I don't even think mine ever made it out of the box. My coworkers also bought 4 Laptops and had similar experiences.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

I have used AutoCad for Windows, and I learned much about how it demands resources. Autocad doesn't demand very much from the CPU. A Pentium III is quite happy with it. However AutoCad hearts RAM. I'd recommend 512MB RAM for low and medium end work, and more for massive designs. The Athlon XP will be excellent for AutoCad, while the Athlon64 and the Pentium 4 will be even more so. Also, fast hard drives are good, as they speed up everything in general.

The system I had used AutoCAD 2004 on was a Pentium 4 2.0GHz (256K L2), with 512MB of PC800 RDRAM, a GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB, a Seagate Barracuda IV SCSI, and Windows 2000. Not a particularly common type of system, but it was one of the most stable and smooth systems I have ever used. I would never have built such a system as RDRAM was amongst the worst memories ever...

Anyway, if you intend to use this computer just for AutoCAD, then a minimal set of specifications will do just fine. However if you have other tasks you intend to use the system for, you should consider those also. One of the recent HP machines, such as the one linked above, will be excellent for all-round usage.

Good luck drafting.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

I was also looking around for a computer for my team. Dell has a lot of fairly nice computers available for fairly good prices, new, on their refurb outlet, and on eBay. The biggest problem is that most of them have integrated graphics and no AGP slot. Bummer.

My PC has an Abit IS7 motherboard with a P4 2.4GHz runing XP Pro. I have 512mb of RAM and a 10,000 rpm SATA HD. I have a Geforce FX5200 for graphics. It runs Inventor (version 5 :() really nice and SolidWorks 2004 (:)) really nice too.

At Cal Poly Pomona, they run SolidWorks 2003 on P3 933s with 256mb of RAM and XP Pro. I'm not sure what the graphics is. It runs alright but I haven't made any large assemblies or anything on it.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

I run inventor 6 on my dell inspiron 5100 laptop, p4@2.4GHz and only a meager 256 ram. I'd say it runs fine, I don't really mind the lag. I've always had bad experiences with Dell, especially their laptops (their desktops are an improvement), aside from numerous problems with driver conflicts, awkward out-of-the-box configurations, and a bunch of other errors, the whole assembly costed me a hefty amount of money. In my opinion, custom build is the way to go, also check out parts at www.newegg.com, they have pretty low prices and a good selection of computer parts.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

Does anyone have any experience using PCI graphics cards? Especially with Inventor? Because say I got a Dell for inventor and there is no AGP slot. Will like a PCI Geforce be good? Does anyone do CADing with integrated graphics (on motherboard)? My old computer with integrated graphics ran inventor fine, but it would not show dimensions in sketches. Is there always wierd stuff like that if you do not have a good graphics card? Thanks.

Last, there has been no talk of the Celeron Processor here. The low cost makes them somewhat attractive. But, I've heard lots of people that say they suck and to avoid them at all costs unless the computer is just for web surfing or something. Has anyone tried inventor or anything on one? I did video editing in Premiere on my old C700.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

Yeah, my team has toshiba laptops with celeron processors. Mainly, they're cheap (and also disapproved by many) because they don't feel as fast as the listed speed on the package. Inventor takes a very long time to load on one of these laptops, at the least try and get a low-end pentium 4, it'll be worth the extra few dollars.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

As for memory, I you shouldn't need more than 512 MB in order to do what you need to do with Inventor or AutoCAD (I have 640 on mine and am far from porblems with either (I'm running Inventor 8 Pro and AutoCAD 2005 (which FIRST just sent us)). Anything less than 512 is asking for trouble, as I found out last year when I became extremely frustrated with my 256MB computer in doing the simplest thigns in Inventor 7.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

The processer can even be as low as 733-900 Mhz, all that you (or I needed for a 3ds Max computer) really need is 1Gig of ram (even as little as 512mb will work), a nice video card, and if you plan on doing any audio/video sinc, a nice video card. I built the following for under $300 and it works fine for max (and unreal tournament 2004) .

pIII 733Mhz (overclocked)
1 Gb of RAM
256 MB Radeon 9600 Video Card AGP
SoundBlaster live 5.1 sound card
dolby 5.1 speakers
3com 10/100 fast ethernet
world connect 10/100 fast ethernet
invidea G-force 128mb video card AGP

now, remember I was on a budget and did most of my shopping on ebay, but I'm sure that if you already have windows XP, you can assemble a comp with a better processor for less than $750.

Re: A good, CHEAP PC for Autocad
 

With this comp, you qualify for the free beta of XP Pro 64 bit edition on MS's website. CAD should not have any problems with a 64 bit computer, but I'm not sure.

I just bought a computer very similar to this one for myself, haven't had a chance to test it yet, I'm waiting for my case to arrive.

Rosewill Value Series Black ATX Mid-Tower Super Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "R103A" -RETAIL
ASRock "775V88" VIA PT880 Chipset Motherboard for Intel LGA775 CPU -RETAIL
Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 630 3.0GHz 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache Processor w/ Hyper Threading Technology - Retail
2 WINTEC AMPO 184-pin 512MB DDR PC-3200, Model 35145588-P - OEM
Jetway ATI RADEON 9600XT Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "96XT-AD-128C" -RETAIL
Maxtor 40GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model 6E040L0, OEM Drive only
Rosewill BLACK 52X32X52 CDRW Drive, Model RR-521, Retail

Final price for this? $634.34 + shipping
Note: This is without a monitor. I recommend going to a local store to get one, as shipping would be very expensive for one. Its also without a floppy drive.. they aren't used much anymore IMO.
The processor and MB on this are pretty much cutting edge stuff. The computer won't dissapoint you, I think.
This is probably overkill for doing CAD work.. However, you probably wont need to buy another one for awhile.