AutoCad Arcitecture 2009 & Revit Architecture 2009 hardware suggestions

My father in law is an architect and is about to retire his old single core Pentium with 2GB RAM and a 256 NVdia graphics card because AutoCad Arcitecture 2009 & Revit Architecture 2009 run slow on the machine. Especially the rendering seems to take a long, long time.
Since I am the one looking for a new one for him I am wondering what to get (since I have zero experience with the program).

Is it better to get a really nice fast dual core with 4GB ram and a better graphics card (like a 512 one) and a nice 24 or 30 inch flat screen or a dual core with a little less graphic card, same memory, smaller monitor. Both come out to about the same price. I don't know if the program even takes advantage of the quad core architecture or if memory, fast HD and a good graphic's card are as important.
Any help would be appreciated.

thanks

claus

The better graphics card is good for on-screen work, orbit and so on but is largely irrelevant for rendering to file. That's all about processor speed and ram. I'd say get the fastest 2-core you can.

I'd go with the first option, but try to downgrade the vid card. It's not very important in the long run, but the faster CPU and RAM is always welcome. A bigger screen usually is as well.

If he's using Revit Architecture 2009, you may want to browse on over to the Revit forum and read what users have to say about that release. Apparently some are having problems with certain video cards.

Michael Evans
Togawa Smith Martin Residential, Inc.

I am thinking of buying a (slightly used) HP Pavilion a1230n, for home, to do AutoCAD, as well as my primary web/everything use computer. It has the following: 3700+ AMD Athion 64 processor, 1.0 GB Ram, 200 gig hard dr., Integrated ATI Radeon xpress 200 graphics (can get additional card for $90 from HP), CD ROM and CD Write, etc....

Will this perform (fast!) doing acad, fairly large drawings (10 -60 meg), w/ images ref'd in (tiff photobackgrounds, jpegs, etc), ...

I want something that will be fast enough that I won't have to sit around waiting for regens, etc. It is a good price.

Thank you!!

Ed.E.

short answer? No

that's based on the single Gb of ram, and integrated video. both are limitations on performance. Of course, your definition of 'fast' may vary from mine