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Cadalyst Labs examines four desktop systems and finds that professional 2D/3D CAD power is well within the reach of money-minded users.
It's been nearly four years since Cadalyst Labs conducted a roundup review of CAD workstations. For our previous roundup (November 2008), we focused on budget-friendly systems, setting a price ceiling of $2,500. Our stand-alone First Look reviews typically evaluate workstations costing much more: For the 13 systems we have reviewed during the past two years, the average cost was $3,772, with prices ranging from $2,060 to $5,673.
We know that many Cadalyst readers spend considerably less than $3,772 on a new workstation. In fact, in a poll posted on Cadalyst.com in spring 2012, more than 40% of respondents indicated that their current workstation cost $2,000 or less. (See complete poll results on page 9 of this issue.) We also hear a lot lately from hardware developers about the increasing affordability of professional workstations - but what do you really get for a low price? We decided to find out, asking major workstation developers to configure the best 2D/3D CAD workstation possible for $2,000 or less.
Review Guidelines
We provided minimal guidelines to the vendors, knowing that a price point of only $2,000 would require them to make some tough choices. After all, it might be easy to configure the fastest workstation if you have lots of money to spend on a powerful processor, high-end graphics card, and maxed-out RAM. But what makes the cut when you are on a tight budget? We wanted to know what each workstation vendor would choose to support a 2D/3D CAD user on a budget.
Our requirements included the following:
* desktop (not mobile) system;
* certified for AutoCAD and optimized for full 2D functionality, with support for light 3D modeling;
* loaded with Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit;
* standard warranty should fully cover an overclocked processor, if applicable;
* available for purchase as configured and as priced through the fall of 2012; and
* priced at $2,000 or less (not including a monitor or shipping charges).
Four companies submitted systems according to our criteria. Our checklist for evaluating the workstations emphasized value (price vs. performance); configuration (expandability, storage, power supply, and the like); warranty; and return...