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I'm looking at socket 939 boards for our CAD guys.

I'm wondering if such a thing exists.

My requirements:

1. Stability
2. Compatibility
3. Extra PCI slots, (1) PCI-E slot
4. I would prefer an nVidia chipset. I do NOT trust VIA, too much bad blood there. (I'll even acknowledge that could be a nutty way of thinking, as VIA seems to be doning better lately - but I just won't go there.)

Things I don't want at all, because they don't matter or just annoy me:

1. SLI, only one slot please. There's NO need for SLI. (No games!)
2. A northbridge fan, I want a passive solution (I know I could mod this myself, but I'm trying to make a case for building myself being better then Dell and that''s an extra step, extra associated cost to replace all those with thse little Zalman jobbies, etc.
3. Integrated video
4. Extras that I don't need or care about
5. Overclocking features are irrevelant here, because there will be no overclocking.

I started looking for such a thing on Newegg and so far all I'm finding is NForce4 boards that are refurbished or have northbridge fans. Any recommendations?

I have no experience w/ Foxconn.
I thought they were a bottom end budget board maker.
That's the first thing that comes to mind when I consider requirement #1
Is this a misguided thought?

mongoosesRawesome wrote:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186086

That one has no PCIe x1 slot but 3 PCI slots.

The Asus A8N-VM (and CSM) has one PCIe x1 and 2 PCI slots. All 6100/6150 boards use passive cooling on the northbridge.

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

I have no experience w/ Foxconn.
I thought they were a bottom end budget board maker.
That's the first thing that comes to mind when I consider requirement #1
Is this a misguided thought?

Considering Foxconn is such a huge Conglomerate doing almost every kinds of OEM of the likes of others. Their stuff is pretty solid, after all they ship millions of the same stuff to OEMs too.

I wonder if the integrated video on the 6150 integrated video would be OK for say, AutoCAD 2007?

Flying Fox wrote:

Considering Foxconn is such a huge Conglomerate doing almost every kinds of OEM of the likes of others. Their stuff is pretty solid, after all they ship millions of the same stuff to OEMs too.

OK, so I'll go ahead and strike that concern then

As always with larger corporate buys, you do a prototype build inhouse first and test it out. Although you can't return this one, I bet the built box can be reused for something else if it isn't up to snuff for the CAD stuff.

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

I wonder if the integrated video on the 6150 integrated video would be OK for say, AutoCAD 2007?

System Requirements

System requirements for AutoCAD 2007 for users who are focusing on 2D drawing creation are as follows:
Intel® Pentium® IV processor recommended
Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home Edition (SP1 or SP2), Windows XP Tablet PC Edition (SP2), or Windows 2000 (SP3 or SP4)
512 MB RAM
750 MB free disk space for installation
1024x768 VGA display with true color
Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 (SP1 or higher)

System requirements for AutoCAD 2007 for users who are taking advantage of the new conceptual design capabilities are as follows:
Intel® processor 3.0 GHz or greater
Windows XP Professional (SP2)
2 GB RAM or greater
2 GB of disk space available, not including installation
1280x1024 32-bit color video display adapter (true color)
128 MB or greater, OpenGL®-capable workstation class graphics card.

Basically for 2D probably yes, 3D no.

Moving thread to SBA.

I would be tempted to try one and see, FroBozz. Our Computer Services folks at work configured 8 new workstations (from Dell) for AutoCAD 2007 using GeForce 6600GT with dual DVI to drive a pair of UltraSharp 2001FP monitors each. I'd let you know how that was working, but the CAD guys are afraid of the disruption that the software upgrade will cause, so the workstations are still sitting on the test shelving in Computer Services.

This one has 1 PCI-E 16x, 1 PCI-E 1x and 2x PCI old style slots.

http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=207

and I have bought this one, as it supports FX processors, the FX is apparently very similar to the Opteron S939, which I bought for it too. It's not really a downside that it is Micro-Atx, and it's still packed with everything you should need anyway. Passive cooled too. I admit, I haven't gotten around to building this machine yet, haven't had time due to other commitments, but it sounds a fine motherboard thats why i bought it.

Well, we went with Dells... (from my appropriation doc:)

Dell Precision 380 Tower workstation PC’s (specs listed below)
Pentium 4-660 3.6Ghz Dual-Core CPU’s with 2x1Meg of L1 cache (64bit capable)
19” Dell Ultrasharp 1907FP flat panel monitor w/ adjustable stand
2GB RAM of 667Mhz DDR2 DRAM (2x1GB sticks for dual channel performance benefits)
nVidia Quadro FX540 professional video card (PCI-E interface, 128MB RAM)
(2) 80 GB SATA-II 7200rpm hard drives in RAID1 (mirrored) configuration for redundancy
Integrated 10/100/1000 based network adapter
Dell USB 2 button optical mouse with scroll wheel, Dell mouse pad
Dell standard USB Optiplex keyboard
Combination CDRW/DVD optical drive/burner with software
Standard 3 year warranty
Integrated audio support (no speakers, all relevant users already have speakers)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional w/ SP2 integrated (with media)
Microsoft Office 2003 OEM with Adobe Acrobat

I think this is better in the long run anyway with the warranty and my many configurations I tried assembling with similar spec parts (both AMD and Intel CPU based) were not really significantly cheaper overall....Our company does get pretty significant discounts. Considering the warranty and the fact that these are "our huge company standard" configs (which goes a long way when trying to get stuff approved). At the end of the day, I decided not to pursue doing my own thing this time. Not my money. This will save me time, and in the long run they get the same performance (remember, no games - ever). If stuff breaks I can point the finger at Dell instead of myself as well...LOL

So don't send me any hate mail. I will always build my own boxes at home. Heh.. I appreciate everyone's input though!

Don't feel bad about it, I usually do the same for companies. Sometimes I will do custom builds if there is good money in it but otherwise transferring the blame is nice.

I can still transfer blame when I build them of course, I can always say it is Corsair’s problem and they are fixing it or whoever else but always blaming a single name (Dell, HP etc) seems to go over better.

You will be vary happy with the Quadro540FX. I have put together three workstations with that card for a drafting firm that uses AutoCAD 2007, and they definitly get the job done!

I hate Autocad. I hate Autodesk. Bastards.

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

So don't send me any hate mail. I will always build my own boxes at home.

Screw build your own, I will be happy to take one of those Dells.

PRIME1 wrote:

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

So don't send me any hate mail. I will always build my own boxes at home.

Screw build your own, I will be happy to take one of those Dells.

Agree, Dell PW380 or something. If its important and business. Then some homemade stuff simply dont cut it. What if you have a hardware failure, how many business days can you wait?

If you want an AMD based one, try HP or the like. But stay away from homemade on this front.

You might have gotten an AMD-based system from Hewlett-Packard for about the same price as the Dells.

Shintai wrote:

What if you have a hardware failure, how many business days can you wait?

If you know what you are doing you buy spares. You still have to wait for Dell or any other OEM to come out, that can sometimes take a long time. In fact I don't even wait for anyone to come out, you can get the system re-imaged and the employee working again before the guy ever arrives.

Even when you buy OEM you should buy extra.

Hardware failure is always a part of life and you should always have spares so that the machine is only down the amount of time it takes to walk over to it and replace the part. Not to mention you should have a system (or more) already running in production that is open for use so that the affected staff member can just use that one to get their work done.

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

Well, we went with Dells... (from my appropriation doc:)

Pentium 4-660 3.6Ghz Dual-Core CPU’s with 2x1Meg of L1 cache (64bit capable)

The 660 is *not* dual core. The 660 is 3.6GHz, HT, and single 2MB L2. There's a Pentium D 950 at 3.4, and some Pentium Extreme Expense at 3.46 and 3.73, but not 3.6.

FroBozz_Inc wrote:

I wonder if the integrated video on the 6150 integrated video would be OK for say, AutoCAD 2007?

Any CAD questtion is STRICTLY based on what you use CAD for. If you're not rendering then there is absolutely NO need for any extra graphics. 2d graphics don't need that much. 3D either unless you're applying substance to the model.

CAD = RAM! RAM! RAM! Especially if there are more than 2 CAD windows open at the same time.

A VIA chipset will be quite fine for a CAD machine. If its only work related and the user is not allowed to install anything else, Dell or other OEM's are not needed. There won't be much to sift through in case of a crash anways.

EDIT: Build your own systems. After the first year, you pay so much for mediocre service, you can do mediocre yourself. OEM's put so much crap on their systems the macgines actually run CAD slower.

They do put a lot of crap on them but you can wipe them when you get them or simply send the OEM a install image and they will do the work for you.

I haven't had too much of a problem with regards to service, you still have to deal with service when you build them yourself too. You can either deal with the place you bought the part from or you can deal with the part manufacturer.