I wandered by the nearest Best Buytoday and talked to ’em about what would be the best computer for my CAD needs. Of what they had on hand, their suggestion was an “all-in-one” computer (basically a 23-inch monitor with all the computery goodies embedded within it, leaving just a keyboard and a mouse… no tower) with an I5 processor, 6 Gb of RAM and a graphics card of some type.
My own antique has an AMD Sempron 3000+ processor with 1.59 GHz and 1.00 BB of RAM, dating from ca. 2004. I’m a little vague on the understanding of the specifics, but it certainly sounds like the “all-in-one” would be a substantial improvement. Small problem, though: $960.
Yikes.
It would be nice to have the faster, more capable computer, and the screen is about twice the size of the one I have now. But that’s out of my budget. Can anyone who actually knows a thing or two about the needs of a CAD computer confirm that this would or would not be a good choice?