my thoughts of minimum for autocad workstation:

cpu: p4 2.2ghz
ram: 512mb pc2700 ddr
mboard: i845e
video: FIRE GL Z1 or NVIDIA Quadro4 XGL ?
hdd: 60gig ata-133 or scsi ?
monitor 19inch
something else ?

tell me if it's right or wrong and which spec is better/cheaper in your opinion.

I haven't used AutoCad since R13 for windows and lot may very well changed. First off based on your video card specs I assume that Autocad supports OpenGL rendering just like 3D Studio Max. When I was using autocad in school it seemed like most of what we did was more 2D and therefore fast/complete rendering wasn't a big issue. This was primarily because we were doing architecture and not engineering type stuff. So I guess I just wanted to question whether or not you really need to fork over that much bread for a top notch OpenGL card. Hasn't Permedia made a card that supports the complete OpenGL spec for a number of years now? That may be cheaper. Also is there some reason a basic Geforce 2 MX type card wouldn't work? The other thing is no matter what I'm sure having a lot of RAM 1-2GB and a fast processor ~2GHZ will definetly be advisable.
Happy Cad'ing,
Christian Blackburn

As far as the HD goes I wouldn't bother paying up for SCSI. What in the hell would you need that for? If 512MB isn't sufficient and AutoCad will wind up using a swapfile then just get a more RAM like 2GB or more. I know the most an X86 CPU can handle is 4GB, but you'd also have to find a motherboard that will support that which to my knowledge would probably mean you'd have to get a Xeon processor. However, I wouldn't be at all suprised if 2GB wasn't more than sufficent. By the way you don't have an older verison of AutoCad you'd like to sell do you?
Good Luck Man,
Christian

Here at my home I run AutoCad 2002 on a P3-800 with 384Mb of Ram and a GeForce 2 GTS video card.

Let me tell you, as far as I am concerned, it all depend on what you are going to do with your cad workstation.

If it's for simple 2D drafting, my specs are more than enough. If your going for 3D or any heavy drawings, your specs are more than good, especially on the video card part. I run a 3D software (Solid Edge v12) at my work and my machine is a P4 1.6 with 1Gb of Ram and a GeForce3 card.

cad station im talking about will be used for industrial machinery designs, i believe 3d might be needed as well.

as i understand cpu+ram the most important in this case. Maybe i can as well go with Athlon XP instead of expensive P4 ?

Hi Wavex,
I strongly recommend getting an Intel processor for this type of work. Intel has always had a far superior floating point unit and has their own instructions called SSE that are much faster than AMD's. Intel also has better quality assurance on their CPUs and people get far fewer defective Intel CPUs than AMDS. Also Intel currently has an enormous share of the market, because of their speed/quality. One thing I will say for AMDs is their upgradability is much better, Intel wants you to buy a new motherboard every other weekend.

In my High School class were I learned AutoCad we also used 3D Studio R4 have you ever used that or a newer versions thereof?
Happy Shopping,
Christian

yup, i used 3dstudio r4 and max4

thanks for all feedback guys, i got clear picture now

Did you think about i850 /rimm combination?
If it's more expensive don't go for it 'cos i845e is a newer chipset.

Go for intel / intel combination, I do not recommend amd, sis or via.

Get a good mobo intel or abit, maybe asus and good ram I don't know which one is the best, cos they don't sell curcial here, but I heard infineon and goldstar are quite good.

I'd go for 1gb ram, you can still upgrade if it's not enough.

Good luck.

Hi Wavex,
Whatever quantity of ram you wind up getting I would be sure not to fill all your slots unless you're going to buy enough ram to max out your motherboard.
-Christian

A half decent games pc setup with either an ati radeon or geforce based card is more than powerful enough for 3d modelling