[SOLVED] E3 1280 vs i3 6320 for AutoCAD

Dec 23, 2019
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Hi. A guy I know managed to get a free student license for CAD and wants to make use of it in his business. It is a photocopying business and a large amount of the revenue comes from people printing 2D architectural plans and sometimes 3D models for engineering. Anyway, he wants a computer that is equipped to edit these kinds of things. I offered to help him build one. He says the ratio of 2D plans to 3D models will be about 9:1 so I need help to build something that can handle 2D designs especially since this will be mainly worked with. As far as I understand, CAD is very single threaded so would it be advantageous to use an i3 6320 over a Xeon E3 1280 (Sandy Lake)? The i3 has better single threaded performance but the Xeon has better multithreaded performance so I am not sure if it would be worth it to put a Xeon in the machine if I can get away with an i3. I am also curious about RAM and GPU. How much RAM do you guys recommend? I am planning to go with 8GB DDR 1333MHz. I am also planning on using an R9 290 4GB for the GPU. I am also planning to use a 500GB HDD since as far as I understand, an SSD will only affect performance of opening applications/booting, etc. but not actual performance/usability in AutoCAD. I am trying to build something from parts I currently have on hand. I would like as much as possible to avoid buying more parts but if you guys think that the build as it is would be very cumbersome to use for AutoCAD maybe I can consider investing in 16GB of RAM, a new CPU, an SSD or a workstation graphics card like FirePro. Thanks.
 
Solution
Well anyway, Xeons are better for graphic design, and the i3 6100 has only 4 threads.
The Xeon has 4/8

For this work, 4/8 is better than 4/4.

rgd1101

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