New PC's...Need some help...quickly...Please! 1

[deek05]

I just found out we are getting new PC's. Below is what they are ordering. I'm going to ask to bump up the RAM and we get us some video cards. Anything else we should request to change?

Base Unit:
OptiPlex GX270,2.80GHz,Pentium4,1M Cache,Gigabit NIC,Small Minitower,800 Front Side Bus (221-6151)

Memory:
512MB, Non-ECC,333MHz DDR 2x256,Dell OptiPlex (311-2864)

Video Card:
Integrated Video - Intel DVMT,GX260/GX270 (320-0428)

Hard Drive:
40GB EIDE, 7200 RPM, ATA/100 Hard Drive, GX260 (340-8889)

Operating System:
Windows XP Professional

 

[Heckler]

Seagate Hard drives and increase to 80 GB - storage space is cheap take advantage of it. I would partition it and use one drive for data and the other for programs. Or if you have additional funds get two hard drives but two hard drives is mute if you store data on a server.

I would also get a good video card. I'm not sure SWx will run on those integrated cards. I would do some research on that....FAQ section has something on Video Cards

Best Regards,

Heckler

 

[SBaugh]

I hope your going with a nice Intel CPU, not one of those knockoff cheap CPU's made by intel or another company?

No SW will not run worth a hoot on an intergrated card. Get one of the FX Quadro series cards.

faq559-986

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

- This was made when SW2004 was the latest.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376

 

[MadMango]

Bump up the memory to at least 1gb, and hope that you can upgrade the integrated video to a dedicated graphics card. Some motherboards that Dell choses to use (for cost reasons) may not be easily configured to use a graphics card.

[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?

 

[Theophilus]

What's up with Intel lately anyway? Nothing. That's the whole problem. AMD is a much better deal, but Dell doesn't seem to like them. 64-bit systems are a lot of bang for the buck.

Follow Heckler's advice. A 40Gb drive is not nearly enough, but you should separate program files from data files. I'd recommend two SATA drives (not using the RAID config, but keeping the drives independent).

Be very careful about the motherboard issue. If you can't upgrade the graphics card, or if your AGP slot speaks slowly, you'll get nothing from this computer system concerning SolidWorks. (Sounds like someone forgot to do their homework before specifying the systems.) Check the system requirements at the SolidWorks site for video cards and other things. This is critical and cannot be ignored or you will see nothing on your screen (except, maybe blue). The motherboard also vitally affects how quickly each component transfers data to other components (a major benefit of the 64-bit systems--architecture).

I'm sorry if I seem critical--just seems like the process is a tad backward in this case. These things are very important to get hammered out before ordering or you might have a lot of nothing on your hands.

Jeff Mowry
Industrial Designhaus, LLC

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

 

[mariner729]

That Dell PC is exactly the same as our IT guys bought for us without asking along with Windows XP SP2, our Dell PC has no AGP slot which has been mentioned in an earlier thread. We are running SW04 sp4.1 which runs ok with small parts/assemblies but very slow with anything larger. The only video card that will fit is a ATI Radeon X300 with 264MB ram which is arriving next week.

 

[SBaugh]

If you don't have an AGP slot then look at getting one of those new PCI Express cards (FX series)

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

faq731-376