[WANT TO BUY] CPU, GPU, and RAM for AutoCAD

Hey everyone,

I’m looking to swap out an old office workstation here at the firm. It’s an aging Dell system running a Pentium 4 3.0 with 3GB of DDR2 and a GeForce card with integrated cooling—which, frankly, is absolute junk at this point. These parts have definitely reached the end of their useful life.

Our workflow relies heavily on AutoCAD and similar design software, so we often run two programs simultaneously, which tends to drag the entire system down to a crawl.

Here’s what we’re thinking about keeping:
- The mid-tower case. It’s about seven years old now; I’m not entirely sure if it makes sense to ditch it since it's still in pretty good shape, but I'm open to ideas.
- The CORSAIR VS450 power supply. It’s relatively new, so we’ll stick with that.
- The DVD drive and the HDD are fairly recent, so those should stay too.

Since I haven't stayed deeply immersed in hardware specs lately, I could really use some solid recommendations for:
- Processor
- Motherboard
- Case, assuming you think a replacement is actually necessary.
- RAM
- Graphics card

Any advice or specific build suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

And how much cash are we talking about here? 🙂

Larry Ortiz5 said:And how much cash are we talking about here? 🙂

My bad, I completely forgot to mention 🙂

Honestly, whatever I end up picking is going to be a massive upgrade over the relic I'm currently running. I'm not entirely sure where market prices are sitting these days—is it realistic to aim for a build somewhere around $833? I could stretch the budget a bit if it makes sense, though I'd definitely prefer to keep it under 🙂
if possible.

Best,

The i5 is obviously the more powerful processor here, though if you go with the i3, you could probably squeeze in an SSD instead.

1 x Intel Core i5-4440 Processor (3.10GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL9 Ballistix Sport, 1.35V, bl
1 x ASRock H97-PRO4, s1150, Intel ® H97, 4 x DDR3, 1 x PCI Express

$815

1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL9 Ballistix Sport, 1.35V, bl
1 x Intel Core i3-4130 Processor, 3.40GHz
1 x Kingston SSD 120GB HyperX Fury, 2.5", SATA 3 6G
1 x Asrock H97M PRO4, Intel 1150 Socket H97M PRO4 chipset mATX

$834

velvetsurfer87 said:My bad, I completely forgot to mention 🙂

Honestly, whatever I end up picking is going to be a massive upgrade over the relic I'm currently running. I'm not entirely sure where market prices are sitting these days—is it realistic to aim for a build somewhere around $833? I could stretch the budget a bit if it makes sense, though I'd definitely prefer to keep it under 🙂
if possible.

Best,

What's your workload in AutoCAD?
Doing heavy 3D rendering?
Just basic 3D modeling?

If not, you definitely don't need an i5.🙂
1 x Asrock FM2A88M EXTREME4+, FM2,FM2+, AMD A88X (Bolton-D4), DDR3
1 x AMD Trinity A8-Series x4 5600 3.60GHz 4cores, FM2
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL9 Ballistix Sport, 1.35V, bl
1 x Kingston SSD 120GB HyperX Fury, 2.5", SATA 3 6G
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 ,hladnjak, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm

$776

It's a decent quad Core with integrated graphics, 8GB RAM, and an SSD. It covers everything for 2D work and light AutoCAD 3D stuff. It'll handle any standard office tasks you throw at it too.🙂

Robert Rodriguez2 said:What's your workload in AutoCAD?
Doing heavy 3D rendering?
Just basic 3D modeling?

If not, you definitely don't need an i5.🙂
1 x Asrock FM2A88M EXTREME4+, FM2,FM2+, AMD A88X (Bolton-D4), DDR3
1 x AMD Trinity A8-Series x4 5600 3.60GHz 4cores, FM2
1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Crucial, 1600MHz CL9 Ballistix Sport, 1.35V, bl
1 x Kingston SSD 120GB HyperX Fury, 2.5", SATA 3 6G
1 x Spire Kepler Rev.2 ,hladnjak, 1156/775/FM1, 96.5×51×125 mm ,92mm

$776

It's a decent quad Core with integrated graphics, 8GB RAM, and an SSD. It covers everything for 2D work and light AutoCAD 3D stuff. It'll handle any standard office tasks you throw at it too.🙂

We don't actually use 3D for our projects—we stick strictly to 2D. We do run some 3D simulations in other software, but those are much more straightforward, and this configuration should handle them just fine.

I feel like I've completely lost the thread here. I don't see a dedicated graphics card listed anywhere; is the graphics being handled by the processor itself? If so, is that integrated chip actually going to be powerful enough to keep things running smoothly?

velvetsurfer87 said:We don't actually use 3D for our projects—we stick strictly to 2D. We do run some 3D simulations in other software, but those are much more straightforward, and this configuration should handle them just fine.

I feel like I've completely lost the thread here. I don't see a dedicated graphics card listed anywhere; is the graphics being handled by the processor itself? If so, is that integrated chip actually going to be powerful enough to keep things running smoothly?

In both the Intel and AMD builds, the graphics are built into the CPU. It should be plenty for basic 3D simulations. 🙂

Robert Rodriguez2 said:In both the Intel and AMD builds, the graphics are built into the CPU. It should be plenty for basic 3D simulations. 🙂

Would I actually notice a difference if I went with everything you suggested but swapped out the CPU for this

procesor AMD A10 x4 6800 k box, Black edition, s. FM2, 4.1GHz, 4MB cache, GPU 8670D, quad Core

or is that just throwing money down the drain?

Also, is it true that these processors actually require a brand new cooler??

Not really worth it. I'd just go with 2x4GB RAM instead, since APUs basically live and die by dual channel speeds and memory bandwidth.
And yeah, you definitely need one. Mine was running crazy hot with the stock cooler and sounded like a jet engine taking off.

fadedorca66 said:Not really worth it. I'd just go with 2x4GB RAM instead, since APUs basically live and die by dual channel speeds and memory bandwidth.
And yeah, you definitely need one. Mine was running crazy hot with the stock cooler and sounded like a jet engine taking off.

Thanks to everyone for the help. I'm heading out to pick up the parts this afternoon and then I'll get to building.😁