'First time build' - Low Budget system for 3ds max & Autocad

You're welcome, good luck with the build.

 

just one more question, will 64 bit vista work with all of this hardware, and is 64 bit backward compatible with any existing 32 software i might have?

 

a) yes, b) depends what software you have, most should be fine, but be wary of software that uses its own device drivers.

 

64 Bit Vista works like a charm. 32bit apps work perfectly and 64bit apps are faster than 32bit apps. It's a win win situation.

 

ok, thanks for the help

 

No Problem.

Post back when you're done.

 

will i need to buy any additional fans?

 

Potentially, it depends.

 

...again i have no experience of this, but would it be possible to overclock the q6600 with ths stock cooler & 380w psu?

 

Yeah. Probably to like 3Ghz.

 

Yeah as long as you're not using a graphics card with two power connectors you'll be fine, Unless you have a silly number of hard disks, your maximum AC load will be around 330W with a Quad at 3Ghz, so only about 270W DC, plenty of room. The Earthwatts PSUs are still pretty quiet at that figure, in fact I didn't realise until when I looked recently just how quiet the Earthwatts units are.

 

I'm buying the hd3850 like you suggested, i take it this one doesn't have two power connecters right?

also, what difference does 512mb and 256mb make on a graphics card?

 

Very little at low resolutions like 1280x1024, quite substantial beyond that point. An HD3850 and Quad core will be fine, they use remarkably little power.

 

would i benefit from using one of those firegl workstation cards for cad/3dsmax? as i won't be doing alot of gaming.

is slightly over budget but would this be any better than the hd3850, and also compatible with the suggested setup?

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=680828

 

I'll be honest, Workstation GPUs aren't really my area, I don't know how powerful they are.

 

oh right, i'm trying to research them now with no joy. It seems like they are mainly for cad and desktop cards are for gaming??

would you know if it was compatible with the motherboard & psu?

 

That's correct. I see no reason why it wouldn't be compatible with your PSU and motherboard.

 

ok, i'll see if i can find out anything else about it. However, I always got the impression that the processor and the ram were the main thing to concentrate on when 3d rendering/animation.

 

I suppose i will have a similar setup to this user if i use the firegl v3600:

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/684023


...my only concern is that alot of people are using 450w, 500w, 650w psu's etc. Are they just being over-cautious or should i be going for a higher wattage also?

 

high end workstation cards uses a lot of power. the v3600 requires a 350w power supply. but if you step up to the v8600, that's when you'll need 650w or higher.