Hardware, the usual question(s).......

[pgump]

I'm currently running SolidWorks 2001 on an ancient 800MHz Dell 420. I might be given the green light to upgrade and should have a bout $5k to spend on new hardware. This is what I'm looking at.
Xi-Computer:
Core2 Extreme Quad QX6850 3.0 GHz w/ 1333fsb
4Gig ddr2 @1066
nVidia FX 4600
150GB 10K rpm sata drive
Windows XP pro

Where would you tweak things? Is the quad core overkill? I run many aps in the background. Just trying to build a system that will last for a while.
Thanks in advance, Pete

 

[Theophilus]

You might opt for a faster processor with less cores to get more performance out of SolidWorks. The extra cores really come in handy when rendering (or especially rendering animations)--and if you run lots of stuff concurrently.

I'm not sure if you'll get very good use out of that fourth gig of RAM with XP Pro, but you certainly don't want to start with Vista (yet).

Also, from a data protection standpoint, I run two hard drives. Important files from each drive back up to the other drive overnight in shifts (data files from D to C, program/application data from C to D, etc.). I don't like mirrored drives for other reasons. Also, one of the reasons I use two drives is in case Windows fails. Install a new drive, format it, and then retrieve my files from the failed windows drive and I'm ready to roll (after the hours of reinstalling all my stuff, of course).

Xi does a good job with customer support and computer builds--I've had three of their systems.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[Heckler]

Maybe Windows XP pro 64

Heckler
Sr. Mechanical Engineer
SWx 2007 SP 4.0 & Pro/E 2001
o
_`\(,_
(_)/ (_)

This post contains no political overtones or undertones for that matter and in no way represents the poster's political agenda.

 

[StefanHamminga]

Well, if you want to spend that 5000 bucks, this is what I would get:

l Xi® MTower™ PCIe Workstation (Base Configuration)
l Intel® Core®2 Duo E6850 OverClocked Silent Water Cooling @+-3.30GHz-1333FSB 4096KB L2 Cache Dual-Core VT EM64T (req.680i MoBo)
l 4096MB DDR2 800MHz PC2-6400 4x1024 Dual Rank Interleave
l nVidia® Quadro FX 4600 768MB DDR3 PCIe 2x DVI Dual Head SLI Capable
l 24" 24A DCL® Wide LCD 2ms. 4000:1 DVI 1920x1200NR Speakers
l 150GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor X NCQ 16MB Cache <9ms
l Optional 150GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor X NCQ 16MB Cache <9ms
l Optional 150GB 10000RPM SATA 150MB/s WD Raptor X NCQ 16MB Cache <9ms
l HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected
l RAIDMode 1 Redundancy/Mirroring RAID (IDE or SCSI Ctrl.Requires 2x identical HD)
l DVD+RW/DL/+R-R LightScribe™ Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 16x w/SW-Media
l AC'97 Codec On-Board Sound
l Network connection accordingly to motherboard selected
l Logitech® Cordless Desktop® MX™ 5000 Laser w/BlueTooth® Keyb.+ Mouse
l No mouse
l Genuine Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional-64 CD-ROM w/manuals/act.reg.
l File System: NTFS File System selected
l Multi I.O. Card reader Internal.7in1 USB 2.0
l Nvidia® nForce 680i SLI 3xPCIe 16x DDR2 800 to 1200-2x1Gb Ethernet-6xSATA3Gb-RAID 0/1/5-Firewire1394-8CH Digital Audio
l 600W OCZ StealthXStream™ Quiet 12cm BB Fan PowerWhisper™ UL
l Total of 4 Years System HW Warranty w/Express Advance Parts Replacement, P&L. FOB Xi
l Xi® MTower™ Alum.2x12cm Quiet Fans-Front Grid-2x Front USB+1394- MatrixVX™ VD3000BWA Tt™ -4x 5 1/4" 6x 3 1/2"

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums

 

[pgump]

Is overclocking reliable vs the speed gain?
What about the faster 4Gig ram? worth the extra money?
I'm going to buy the monitor sererate

 

[Theophilus]

Stefan tends to have systems that benchmark great performance for the fewest bucks. You might want to learn about overclocking and water cooling if you go that direction, but it should work well if you keep your chip cool.

With a separate monitor, the system at Xi is simply less money.

I'm not sure about the fast/slow RAM. I get the feeling there's a large price difference between little performance gain with that stuff, but don't know.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[StefanHamminga]

well, normally I would not recommend overclocking, but I know there is a lot of headroom in these chips and they (XI) do the tweaking & warranty stuff for you.

Personally, for 5K I would buy something completely different (think vapochill)...

I don't see a lot of problems with overclocking, as those cpu's are all the same, most are just speed binned (eg, best chips from a wafer will end up as top chips, lesser performing chips are binned as low-end products). Thing is, when the yields on the top chips are to high they just sell them as lower spec. XI just speed bins them once more...

For some reason XI lists the faster 1066MHz mem as not compatible with the E6850, so I took next fastest. The 680i board is a keeper, even if you don't overclock, because of the nice network chips.

I see I accidentaly listed 3 raptors, if you skip the monitor you might as well go RAID 10 with 4 of them, you get a little less drive capacity than RAID 5 (300GB), but way more speed.

Stefan Hamminga
EngIT Solutions
CSWP/Mechanical designer
Searching Eng-Tips forums