Core2Duo, Xeon, i7 ??? 32/64Bit ??? 1

[PCSControls]

Does anyone have any recomendations on a preferred processor and 32/64 bit OS ? I'm picking out a new workstation for and am looking for some suggestions of real users..
Thanks

 

[AnnaWood]

Xeon 3500 or Xeon 5500 series CPU's if buying an OEM Workstation. If building your own look at a Core i7 system. These are built on Intel's lastest Nehalem architecture 45nm cpu technology.

From Dell you are looking at a T3500, T5500 or T7500 workstations.

From HP you will be looking at the Z400, Z600 or Z800

From Lenovo you will look at the S20 or the D20.

The Xeon 3500 series is for single socket motherboards. The X5500 series will work in a dual socket motherboard.

You will want to get the highest clockspeed cpu of these series you can afford. Then go for a SW approved video card, RAM and hard drive.

SolidWorks is cpu bound and benefits most from a fast cpu.

If you do a lot of rendering then a dual socket Xeon system will be pricey but will be the fastest as rendering speed scales pretty much directly with the number of cores.

If you use core SolidWorks the most then a Core i7 homebuilt or a Xeon single socket system will give you good value.

For some system benchmarks see my blog,

http://www.solidmuse.com.

In the right sidebar are links to five becnhmarks, with the files to try yourself and google spreadhseets with results.

Cheers,



Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2009 SP3.0, Windows 7 RC1

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[AnnaWood]

Also I would go with the Vista x64 operating system and plan to upgrade to Windows 7 x64 when it comes out on October 22nd.

SW2010 SP1 will officialy support Windows 7. Many of us already are using SW on Windows 7 systems with a lot of success.

Windows XP x32 and x64 bit will not be a supported operating system starting with SW2011.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
Anna Built Workstation, Core i7 EE965, FirePro V8700, 12 gigs of RAM, OCZ Vertex 120 Gig SSD
SW2009 SP3.0, Windows 7 RC1

http://www.solidmuse.com

http://www.phxswug.com