Computer suggestions...

[ErikG]

Well it ihas a built in Geforce4 MX, 128 MB VGA card, so it wouldn't be a total loss would it? I hope not...

Time to finish up, and go home, Tomorrow I'll sail this years last sail, on saturday she'll be up on the ground for the winter. So afterwards I'll spend even more time on "the net"...

Erik

[Jeff]

When will Jeff add an automatic spellchecker to the forum you think?

If you use Internet Explorer as your browser you can use a free add-on such as IESpell from http://www.iespell.com/

I don't think too many people worry about it though. Hope you have a good sail! Of course we're always glad to have you spend more time on the forums in the cold weather too

[edneu]

Everyone told you about Mr. Ludd. I was trying to express that compared to the Mac you are used to the Windows interface is a bit less elegant. In my little corner of the world we use "Luddite" somewhat incorrectly to refer to our fondness for things rusty and crude, like old british motorcycles, tractors, steam engines, Atomic 4s, and large hammers.

I was taught that AUTOCAD was optimized for the Pentimum 4, or the XEON chips. It will work on any of the AMD/clone chips of similar specs however.

I agree that a video card like Open-GL card with at least 64Mb of Video Memory, will be so efficient you will never have time to do anything else, like go sailing.

Cheers

[jesseh]

Get the fastest you can afford. A computer by itself is fairly cheap, it's everything else that you need to support what you are using it for that will cost you a lot. The programs you say you will be running are math intensive.

Memory is cheap and more can be added a couple paychecks after you buy it. Same with a second and bigger harddrive.

Get the best, fastest, baddest video card you can possibly get. I can't overstate that. Most often it is the video card that is the bottleneck on percieved and actual performance. From scrolling text on the screen, to rotating models smoothly, to playing games. See what the software you will be using recomends, then get better than that. In fact, I would research this first and build a computer around it. These days there are versions within versions (agp version is a good example). The new amd64 boards support agp, but not the older versions. A notch in the agp slot makes sure of that.

LCD vs CRT?
I personally would stay away from LCD. I have worked in computer lab environments for several years now and have not had good experience with them. Last year on one workstation I went through 4 of them. In the last 5 years I have only had 3 CRTs go bad and even then they were still usable (blurry or off color) whereas the flicker and instability of the LCDs was so bad they were not usable or stopped working all together. Not only that, LCD tires your eyes faster and can be somewhat directional throwing your perception of the color off. The are more power friendly, lighter, and take up space. but to me the cool factor does not make up for either the price, reliability, or usability factors.

If you can afford it, get a second monitor, most high end video cards support two and the difference in the amount of workspace you have is amazing. I can't live without it.

I would recomend Windows XP over any other version of Windows. Windows 2k is fine, but XP is an improvement on that and is based on the nt kernel. Check what version of XP (or win2k3) you need as different versions support different limits on memory and number of processors you can use.

Jesse
Software Engineer

[Jeff]

Re: LCD vs. CRT:

What brand of LCD's are you working with?

Maybe I just got lucky, but in my limited experience with a ViewSonic LCD, I love it because it doesn't flicker, at all. It is also much easier on my eyes than my old 21" CRT or newer 17" Sony CRT because 1.) The LCD doesn't flicker (flicker I thought was a product of CRT's refresh from top to bottom at 70 or 75 or 80 Hz, whereas an LCD does not 'scan' from top to bottom at all, and 2.) my LCD is sharper and perfectly sharp across the whole monitor area. Especially now that I've changed from the analog to the digital DVI input, the LCD is noticably sharper. It's also over 3 years old now and still has no problems that I'm aware of except for one bad pixel that doesn't bother me too much. I have worked on a Dell laptop where I hated the LCD in comparison. But my desktop LCD is a world of difference from that. I do agree with the color comment though - especially yellows show as a bit warmer on my LCD than on a CRT, but I can live with it as it's so much easier on my eyes when I work with it for hours on end.

[jesseh]

Originally posted by Jeff
Re: LCD vs. CRT:

What brand of LCD's are you working with?

.

Not flicker as in scan flicker, but something in the hardware actually failing causing the monitor to flick off briefly, click, and shutter, much like a CRT trying to go into a video mode it can't support, however this was while running the standard settings from the manufacturer and without trying to change anything. I don't remember all the brands, but the last one was a viewsonic.