Hardware question Processor vs. RAM 1

[Albion]

I have a couple of SolidWorks workstations that I am looking to upgrade but my budget has me torn between giving them 2gig of RAM instead of 1gig or dual processor instead of a single 3.2gig processor.

The question my designers have is whether or not it will make a different when running another piece of CAD software along with their current running copy of Solidworks. Right now when we look at Preformance monitor on their current 1gig/2.8gig machines we commonly see the processor burried at 98% but only 400meg of RAM in use. This would lead me to believe a second processor would be more important when wanting to start another instance of Solidworks or an instance of ProEngineer/AutoCAD. I just wanted to get all of your opinions before I made the decision.

Thanks.

-Al

 

[MadMango]

It really depends on what you are doing. SW is not designed to make use of dual processors, but I have seen instances using COMOSworks where both processors have activity, and where I can continue modeling items while running FEA in another session. I have dual 1.7 P4 with 1gb of memory.

[green]"But what... is it good for?"[/green]
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[Heckler]

Al,

Check out the FAQ section Madmango did a write up on system requirements which also has a link to SWx corp website.

Best Regards,

Heckler

 

[SBaugh]

FAQ559-986

http://www.scottjbaugh.com/Tips_Tricks/Hardware Recommendations.htm

thread559-107016

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[Albion]

Thanks for the input. I think the FAQ that Scott posted answered my question.

thanks VERY much.

-Al