I’m looking for a Mac desktop, I’m a second year Architecture student so need something that’s going to manage Autocad/ Photoshop/ 3D modelling software without any hiccups.

Budget, as you can imagine isn’t massive which is why i thought i’d ask on here, i know a lot of you use Macs for work so have experience of what models have worked well over the past few years, £400 would be the max, ideally more towards the 300 mark but feel free to tell me I’m way off target for something worth having.

I have a decent Samsung LED monitor if that helps.

Thanks in advance!

3/400 quid? Buy a pc.

PC it’s what all the autocad users are using…
one of these would be decent 😉
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/10/aldis-2000-medion-gaming-pc-is-actually-pretty-good-value/

300 quid won’t buy you an iPhone, never mind an iMac

The only mac you would get anywhere near is a mac mini. Probably go for a PC at that price.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-21-5-12-1-iMac-2-5GHz-Core-i5-Quad-Core-4GB-500GB-El-Captian-/371752231477?_trksid=p2141725.m3641.l6368

This not going to be up to the job?

You would probably get a base spec refurb Mac Mini for that price (4% Quidco cashback available at the moment too). Almost certainly underpowered for what you want though. (The top spec Mac Mini is a beast but you’re looking at £1k)

PC for autocad

Don’t be that guy.

Also the number of cores is irrelevant as AUtcad does not use more than one. So go larger rather than multiple. Graphics is the other critical component hence the gaming PC mentioned above.

This not going to be up to the job?

from the ad

Intel Core i5 2nd Gen.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cpu-hierarchy,4312.html
that puts it in the ball park of the CPU I’m looking at replacing after 5/6 years running with 12gb of ram and all that….
A modern windows laptop is better specced for the price

This not going to be up to the job?

not sure what the requirements are for ‘3D modelling software without any hiccups.’ A gut feel would be no, it’s not going to cut it. Assuming you’ll be wanting to render some fairly detailed architectural models, you’ll need a reasonably robust discrete graphics card.

The feedback of that seller isn’t exactly glowing. You might just get the keyboard.

Not many architectural practices still run macOS. The majority of the software is all PC based now – Autodesk, Bentley etc.
In practice you’ll also end up using Excel a lot, so you might as well use msOffice products as well.

avoid apple anyhow, it’s turned into a fashion company.

Cheers for the responses so far, my knowledge of this stuff is stuck in the core 2 duo days so all insight is good. To clarify by ‘3D modelling’ at the minute that entails Sketch up but may include 3DS Max for example in the future. Our first year purposely avoided computer work so I’m only now discovering/learning to use what I’ll need over the next few years.

Sketch up but may include 3DS Max for example in the future.

Get a decent PC, you will get something decent for the cash that was from this decade at least 😉 decent processor and GPU, take a look at the toms hardware chart for CPU (the generation makes a big difference over the 3/5/7

This is the spec that my last PI student built up to return for PII this September, although of course he might just be gaming on it.

Fractal Design Node 804 Micro-ATX Case – Black Window
Asus Xonar DGX 5.1 PCI-Express Sound Card with built in Headphone Amp
Asus Maximus VIII Gene Intel Z170 (Socket 1151) DDR4 Micro ATX Motherboard
Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2x8GB) DDR4 PC4-24000C15 3000MHz Dual Channel Kit – Black
Samsung 250GB 850 EVO SSD 2.5″ SATA 6Gbps 32 Layer 3D V-NAND Solid State Drive
Seagate 1TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD
Intel Core i7-6700K 4.0GHz (Skylake) Socket LGA1151 Processor
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 ARMOR OC 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

Mac will need extra software to run AutoCAD. Aren’t most Architects now on Revit software?

honestly you could probably stick a graphics card in this for £50 and have a good start
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-3650-desktop/pd?oc=cd65014&model_id=inspiron-3650-desktop

Most architecture students seem to have skills in Rhino & SketchUp, but not in Revit/ Bentley/ etc.

aP – Member
Most architecture students seem to have skills in Rhino & SketchUp, but not in Revit/ Bentley/ etc.

Bit of a tangent but what software skills do you find practices are looking for the most from students & graduates?

Bit of a tangent but what software skills do you find practices are looking for the most from students & graduates?

knowing a few it’s creativity and competence. Software is software if you understand what you are doing it’s not a problem.

knowing a few it’s creativity and competence. Software is software if you understand what you are doing it’s not a problem.

That’s usually the issue. You don’t need to learn how to use the software, anyone can do that, you need to learn how to design

Just this minute come out of a meeting with a big practice and amongst the discussion betwixt “designers” ranged from whats Revit? to, what protocol do we use going forward? How deep do the BIM models have to go?

Theres a chasm of understanding between those who get it and those who refuse too.

If you’ve an eye to the future. Revit ftw.

I wouldn’t think a part 1 student would know enough about the industry to be able to get any benefit out of using Revit although most larger practices are now using it. They will use it alongside AutoCAD. Small practices with just a couple of people won’t get any benefit out of Revit.

Competence is a good point – we had a Part 1 lass working for us. Not only had she never looked at the Building Regulations, she’d never even heard of them…. She lasted a week before she didn’t turn up on Monday morning.

Theres a chasm of understanding between those who get it and those who refuse too

Too true.

Part 1 and 2 students that come to us tend to be familiar with revit and sketchup. and photoshop. As above though, they need to demonstrate that they can design and draw regardless of the software. That doesn’t mean just knowing the regs either.

oh, and Revit is pretty hungry as far as computer specs go.

Thanks all, glad I didn’t rush in to this one.

Mac will need extra software to run AutoCAD.

no – AutoCad is available for mac as well.

Graphics cards seem to be the thing with macs. Check what the software requires. I’m on Vectorworks and the latest version requires a graphics card which is only available in the 27incher. As far as I know the cards are not user changeable.

You would probably get a base spec refurb Mac Mini for that price (4% Quidco cashback available at the moment too). Almost certainly underpowered for what you want though. (The top spec Mac Mini is a beast but you’re looking at £1k)

My Mini was one of the last 2010 models the dealer had left, I had an extra couple of gig RAM installed for free, the optical drive taken out and a second HDD installed in the bay, giving me 1.1Tb of storage, and a BT keyboard with Magic Trackpad, the whole lot cost me £680 in 2011.
My 2005 17″ PowerBook, with 1Gb of RAM, cost me £2500…

avoid apple anyhow, it’s turned into a fashion company.

Only to those who care about such crap.

Nearly all architectural practices are moving towards 3rd parametric software, such as revit. Most of our graduates don’t know how to use autocad, only revit.

And revit doesn’t do macs

bringing it back on track….
You want to run the software that is on your course, other learning other stuff may be great if you hve the spare time.
If you work somewhere they will provide the hardware so sorted.