Time to upgrade? CAd Workstation

[chaznsc]

Hello,
I run IT "interference" LOL for a small engineering company. We have about 20 boxes on a MS SBS server network. We run AutoCAD and Microstation. We are considering going to Windows 7 64 bit to take advantage of more RAM, processor cores, etc.

I have a pair 2006 era machines with Xeon 3.0ghz processors that we use primarily for drafting. (The machines are DELL Precision 670 workstations if that helps) I think they are single core processors however. The motherboard can accept as much as 16gb of ram accoring to the Crucial scanning application.

Due to the economy we have been out of the business of new PC's and quite a bit of processor history has gone by me, so I am playing catch up. My question is would it be worth a 6 gig ram upgrade and a fresh install of 54 bit Win 7 or should be just bit it and buy a new box? I figure I could upgrade for less than $600 a box.

I didn't realize until today the Xeon processor line has been around for a while now. I think its still being produced, but in multi-core processors.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Harvey]

The first place to check would be with the manufacturers' the requirements for their software. They may also have forums discussing performance issues for various hardware combinations.

Older versions of their software, designed for older machines, may benefit only slightly from increased horsepower, but you should check the specs for newer versions and ask your staff whether they would be more productive with a newer version. Then, you'll know what you need to do the job, and you can come back here to check with the geeks and bargain hunters for the best and most cost effective way to get there.

 

[chaznsc]

Here are the min recommendations. I'm leaning towards the 64 bit OS, although I don't know what kind of turmoil it will involve with office peripherals.

For 32-Bit AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011

• Windows® 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (32-bit); Windows Vista® Enterprise (SP1 or SP2, 32-bit); or Windows® XP Professional (SP3, 32-bit).
• Intel® Pentium® 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3.0 GHz or faster; or Intel or AMD dual core processor, 2.0 GHz or faster.
• 4 GB RAM minimum recommended.
• 7 GB disk space with 2 GB free after installation.
• 1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter (true color) 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card. 1,600 x 1,200 or greater recommended. Multiple monitors are supported.
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later.
• DVD drive.

For 64-Bit AutoCAD Civil 3D 2011

• Windows 7 Enterprise, Ultimate, Professional, or Home Premium (64-bit); Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, Ultimate (SP1 or SP2, 64-bit); or Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2, 64-bit).
• AMD Athlon 64, AMD Opteron, Intel® Xeon with Intel® EM64T support, Intel® Pentium® 4 with Intel EM64T support.
• 4 GB RAM minimum(8 GB recommended).
• 7 GB disk space with 2 GB free after installation.
• 1,280 x 1,024 true color video display adapter (true color) 128 MB or greater, Pixel Shader 3.0 or greater, Direct3D®-capable workstation-class graphics card. 1,600 x 1,200 or greater recommended. Multiple monitors are supported.
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later.
• DVD drive.

Notes:

• Microsoft® Windows® 7 is recommended.
• Microsoft® Windows Vista® offers better memory management over Microsoft® Windows® XP.
• 64-bit operating systems are recommended over 32-bit operating systems because of the larger amount of available memory for applications.

 

[Harvey]

The good news is, they don't list any incompatibilities with either Intel or AMD CPU's. As long as you don't need blazing gaming frame rates, PCI-e vid cards with 512 MB - 1 GB of RAM are inexpensive commodities, as are quad core CPU's from both.

You'll want to know if the software is designed for multi-threading to take advantage of the mult cores.

I know Autocad files can be huge so more RAM will speed things because it will avoid disk swapping when the software has a large memory footprint and/or has to keep a number of files open at once. More video RAM also will help when the display has to jump between large files and working with 3-D and animated views.

The good news is, incredible horsepower is relatively cheap. The machines you want will probably not be that expensive per machine.

 

[CLite]

chaznsc,

Ask your drafters if they are doing 3D models (some drafters are stuck in the old days still punching out worthless 2D models). If they are doing 3D models and they are large models then you will want a workstation-class video card with 1GB RAM. If they are for some reason still stuck doing 2D models, or only doing basic 3D models then a regular gaming card with 512MB of RAM is probably sufficient. You are SOL though if the card fails, whereas a workstation-class video card usually comes with a buttload of tech support.

 

[chaznsc]

Autodesk products only access multiple cores during 2d regens and Ray rendering. Autocad almost never regens so this isn't an issue for us. In the OLD days, regens were bloody.

Here is what AutoDesk has to say:

Issue

You are using a computer with a multi-core processor, and you have noticed that the acad.exe process does not use 100% of your available CPU resources. You want to know if AutoCAD supports multi-core processors.


Solution

AutoCAD only supports multi-core technology in a couple of very specific areas of the product, including:

• 2D regeneration
• MentalRay rendering

In order to fully benefit from multi-core processors, you need to use multi-threaded software and AutoCAD is predominatley a single-threaded application.
A CPU-intensive operation that uses 100% of the resources of a single-core processor will only use a maximum of 50% of the CPU for that same operation on a dual-core computer, and only 6% of each CPU on a 16-core computer.

************************************************
The folks over at XiComputers have sent me the following spec on a machine, which is around $1,950.00 shipped with no monitor: (I'd appreciate your opinion) Im considering going to 8gb on the RAM. I have always been a fan of lots of ram and a fast drive rather than some tricked out processor.
************************************************
00013 Xi® MTower™ PCIe Workstation (Base Configuration) $1,119.00
01637 Intel® Core™ i7 930 2.80GHz 8MB Shared L3 Cache 1x4.8GT/s QPI Quad-Core VT EM64T $99.00
02197 6144MB DDR3 @1333MHz 3x2048 Triple Rank Interleave w/Heat Spread (Core i7 MoBo only) $199.00
04347 nVidia® Quadro FX 1800 768MB DDR3 PCIe 2x DVI Dual Link $415.00
05015 No Monitor ($140.00)
03124 320GB 7200RPM WD SATAII 300MB/s 16MB Cache 9ms avg. seek Incl. w/ Base
17012 HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected Incl. w/ Base
06061 DVD+RW/DL/+R-R/CD-RW Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 18x w/Software-media $49.00
09007 On-Board sound as per selected motherboard specifications Incl. w/ Base
12001 Network connection accordingly to motherboard selected Incl. w/ Base
13001 Logitech® Deluxe Black Windows Keyboard Incl. w/ Base
14010 Logitech® 2+ Wheel Mouse Black Optical Incl. w/ Base
16084 Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional Edition 64Bit on DVD (32Bit avail. on request) $59.00
20090 Resource CD - contains Diagnostic links & Drivers Incl. w/ Base
20091 Quick Reference Guide and @Xi Computer Manual (PDF) Incl. w/ Base
22210 EVGA® X58 SLI® Micro -Intel® X58-2xPCIe 16x-Triple Channel DDR3 1333-1600+-1Gb Ethernet-6xSATA3Gb RAID 0/1/10/5-1394-Digital Audio-8CH-S/PDIF-Free Eleet-2xSLI/CrossFire $69.00
44031 650W Corsair® TX Series Ultra-Quiet BB 12cm Fan 80%+efficiency 99% APFC UL Incl. w/ Base
18001 Standard Xi Warranty w/Express Advance Parts Replacement, One Year on System, Mfg. on Monitor Incl. w/ Base
27137 Xi® MTower™ CM-Centurion™ 2x12cm (Up to 8 opt.) Quiet Fans -Front Grid-2x Front USB+1394+-9x 5 1/4"

 

[chaznsc]

chaznsc,

Ask your drafters if they are doing 3D models (some drafters are stuck in the old days still punching out worthless 2D models). If they are doing 3D models and they are large models then you will want a workstation-class video card with 1GB RAM. If they are for some reason still stuck doing 2D models, or only doing basic 3D models then a regular gaming card with 512MB of RAM is probably sufficient. You are SOL though if the card fails, whereas a workstation-class video card usually comes with a buttload of tech support.

Id probably go with a higher end ATI card. We don't do much 3d, but thats going to change soon. We are a Civil firm, so we aren't rendering buildings, or intricate parts.

This is all good information for me, thank you for the input.

 

[mfenn]

************************************************
The folks over at XiComputers have sent me the following spec on a machine, which is around $1,950.00 shipped with no monitor: (I'd appreciate your opinion) Im considering going to 8gb on the RAM. I have always been a fan of lots of ram and a fast drive rather than some tricked out processor.
************************************************
00013 Xi® MTower™ PCIe Workstation (Base Configuration) $1,119.00
01637 Intel® Core™ i7 930 2.80GHz 8MB Shared L3 Cache 1x4.8GT/s QPI Quad-Core VT EM64T $99.00
02197 6144MB DDR3 @1333MHz 3x2048 Triple Rank Interleave w/Heat Spread (Core i7 MoBo only) $199.00
04347 nVidia® Quadro FX 1800 768MB DDR3 PCIe 2x DVI Dual Link $415.00
05015 No Monitor ($140.00)
03124 320GB 7200RPM WD SATAII 300MB/s 16MB Cache 9ms avg. seek Incl. w/ Base
17012 HD Ctrl. According To Motherboard and HD Type Selected Incl. w/ Base
06061 DVD+RW/DL/+R-R/CD-RW Double Media 4.7/8.5GB 18x w/Software-media $49.00
09007 On-Board sound as per selected motherboard specifications Incl. w/ Base
12001 Network connection accordingly to motherboard selected Incl. w/ Base
13001 Logitech® Deluxe Black Windows Keyboard Incl. w/ Base
14010 Logitech® 2+ Wheel Mouse Black Optical Incl. w/ Base
16084 Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional Edition 64Bit on DVD (32Bit avail. on request) $59.00
20090 Resource CD - contains Diagnostic links & Drivers Incl. w/ Base
20091 Quick Reference Guide and @Xi Computer Manual (PDF) Incl. w/ Base
22210 EVGA® X58 SLI® Micro -Intel® X58-2xPCIe 16x-Triple Channel DDR3 1333-1600+-1Gb Ethernet-6xSATA3Gb RAID 0/1/10/5-1394-Digital Audio-8CH-S/PDIF-Free Eleet-2xSLI/CrossFire $69.00
44031 650W Corsair® TX Series Ultra-Quiet BB 12cm Fan 80%+efficiency 99% APFC UL Incl. w/ Base
18001 Standard Xi Warranty w/Express Advance Parts Replacement, One Year on System, Mfg. on Monitor Incl. w/ Base
27137 Xi® MTower™ CM-Centurion™ 2x12cm (Up to 8 opt.) Quiet Fans -Front Grid-2x Front USB+1394+-9x 5 1/4"

That's a little high. I specced out a similar machine at Dell for $1850. If you are ordering a few, they might give you a break as well.

 

[chaznsc]

That's a little high. I specced out a similar machine at Dell for $1850. If you are ordering a few, they might give you a break as well.

Hey,
I will have to check Dell again.

 

[chaznsc]

What do you think of the XPS Studio 9000 line? Its the only line I could find the i7 processor in. This is $1700.00

PROCESSORSIntel® Core™ i7-920 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz)edit

OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
WARRANTY AND SERVICE2 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
Service blurb goes here.MEMORY12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
VIDEO CARDATI Radeon™ HD 5770 1GB GDDR5
MONITOR24.0" Dell ST2410 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
OPTICAL DRIVE16X DVD+/-RW Drive
SPEAKERSAY410 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
SOUND CARDIntegrated 7.1 Channel Audio
WIRELESSDell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card
KEYBOARDDell Studio Consumer Multimedia Keyboard
MOUSEDell Studio Optical Mouse
MODEMNo Modem Option

 

[mfenn]

FYI, the machine I priced out was a Precision T3500. They use Xeons, so I just picked the one equivalent to the i7 930 (pro-tip: the single-socket, lower-end Xeons are identical to the desktop chips, they just have a different designation).

 

[chaznsc]

Can someone compare the system above with this precision for me? The XPS is a little more robust in its offering, is it "cheap" architecture?

BASE Dell Precision T5500 Workstation
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, English

PROCESSORS Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5503, 2.0GHz,4M L3, 4.8GT/s

POWER SUPPLY Precision T5500 Power Supply, C2 Motherboard

CHASSIS CONFIGURATION Mini-Tower Chassis Configuration

MEMORY 6GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1333MHz, ECC (6 DIMMS)

WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD On-Site Service

VIDEO CARD 1GB ATI FirePro V4800, Triple MON, 2 DP & 1 DVI

OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010

RAID CONFIGURATION C1 All SATA or SSD drives, Non-RAID, 1 drive total configuration

HARD DRIVE INTERNAL CONTROLLER Integrated Intel chipset SATA 3.0Gb/s controller

HARD DRIVE 320GB SATA 3.0Gb/s with NCQ and 16MB DataBurst Cache™

OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™/Roxio Creator™, No Media

MONITOR No Monitor

FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive and No Media Card Readerhttp://javascript&#37;3Cb></b>:to_page_mod(1, 10, _Action);

 

[heyheybooboo]

These days only in limited instances (i.e., primarily ECC RAMs and a 'workstation' video card with specific application accelerators) is there a substantial difference between a desktop and workstation.

Your best (and least expensive) move would be a fast dual core processor --- 2GHz won't cut it. SATA3---6.0Gb/s (and/or an SSD) is a must.

Instead of Dell you could pay a local to build to your specs (and still save a bunch of money and/or purchase twice the hardware) ... a good place to start:

Asus M4A88TD-V EVO SATA 6Gb/s - USB3: around $110

4Gb Crucial • ECC • DDR3-1333: $150'ish

Phenom 555BE / XFX Radeon HD 4670 1GB: $157

(For 2D line drawings the HD4670 should work 'just dandy')

That should get you well on your way ....




--

 

[mfenn]

Can someone compare the system above with this precision for me? The XPS is a little more robust in its offering, is it "cheap" architecture?

Not sure what you mean by "robust" or "cheap architecture".

Anyway, the difference between Studio XPS and Precision is that the Studio XPS line geared towards consumers whereas Precisions are geared towards professionals.

Yes, AutoCAD will work (generally) with a gaming card. Yes, AutoDesk will tell you to go pound sand if you try to get support for a rendering issue while using a gaming card.

The Studio XPS comes with a 1 year "basic" service plan which means you have to send the machine in for service. The Precision comes with a 3 year NBD (next business day) on-site service plan.

IMHO, for production use in a business environment, you can't afford not to go vendor-supported hardware and a good service plan. Sure, you can get by with systems that are cheaper up front. It's your ass on the line (and since you are the IT guy, I mean yours personally) when things go wrong and you don't have a solid contingency plan.

 

[chaznsc]

Not sure what you mean by "robust" or "cheap architecture".

Anyway, the difference between Studio XPS and Precision is that the Studio XPS line geared towards consumers whereas Precisions are geared towards professionals.

Yes, AutoCAD will work (generally) with a gaming card. Yes, AutoDesk will tell you to go pound sand if you try to get support for a rendering issue while using a gaming card.

The Studio XPS comes with a 1 year "basic" service plan which means you have to send the machine in for service. The Precision comes with a 3 year NBD (next business day) on-site service plan.

IMHO, for production use in a business environment, you can't afford not to go vendor-supported hardware and a good service plan. Sure, you can get by with systems that are cheaper up front. It's your ass on the line (and since you are the IT guy, I mean yours personally) when things go wrong and you don't have a solid contingency plan.

Hi again,
I appreciate your words. Im not wanting to cheap out on the system, we dont BUY that way here (luckily).

When I mean "cheap" architecture, I know all motherboards arent created equal and that just having a great set of RAM sticks isnt worth do-do if the MB is crummy or runs a slow bus speed. My understand is limited to what I can stick in the box rather than the motherboard or system architecture specs.

There arent as many vendors as there used to be and I dont see anyone pitching CAD workstations, not directly anyhow. The Precision I looked at last night was limited in processor choices and they have so many variants of each system its hard to just sit down and fit one out.

I will keep plugging along. If you have any more advice, I am all ears.

chaz

 

[mfenn]

Hi again,
I appreciate your words. Im not wanting to cheap out on the system, we dont BUY that way here (luckily).

When I mean "cheap" architecture, I know all motherboards arent created equal and that just having a great set of RAM sticks isnt worth do-do if the MB is crummy or runs a slow bus speed. My understand is limited to what I can stick in the box rather than the motherboard or system architecture specs.

There arent as many vendors as there used to be and I dont see anyone pitching CAD workstations, not directly anyhow. The Precision I looked at last night was limited in processor choices and they have so many variants of each system its hard to just sit down and fit one out.

I will keep plugging along. If you have any more advice, I am all ears.

chaz

The Precisions may use slightly higher quality components than the others, but the important thing is the warranty. If Dell if going to guarantee them for 3 years, then it is in their best interests to at least put decent parts in there. As far as performance goes, pretty much every X58 mobo with a given CPU and a given set of RAM is going to perform identically. There is just not much performance variation between mobos anymore. (1-2&#37; max).

Not sure how you got the bolded impression. The Precisions are some of the most customizable PCs Dell has. The T3500 alone has 10 choices of CPU and 23(!) choices of GPU. Maybe we aren't communicating something fundamental here.

 

[chaznsc]

Dell Precision T1500
Dell Precision T1500 Base for Intel H57 ChipseteditOperating System
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, EnglisheditProcessor
Quad Core Processor Core i7-880, 3.06GHz, 8MBedit1394 Controller
No 1394editMemory
8GB, DDR3 Non-ECC SDRAM Memory,1066MHz, 4X2GBedit

GRAPHICS OPTIONS

Graphics
1GB ATI FirePro V4800, Triple MON, 2 DP & 1 DVIeditAdapters
Noneedit

STORAGE OPTIONS

Hard Drive Configuration
C1 All SATA Hard Drives ,Non- RAID for 1 Hard DriveeditBoot Hard Drive
500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s,7200 RPM Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst Cache™edit2nd Hard Drive
NoneeditDVD and Read-Write Devices
16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™/Roxio Creator™, No MediaeditSystem Recovery
Dell Back-up and Recovery Manager for Windows 7editSecurity Features
NoneeditMedia Card Reader
No Media Card Readeredit

DISPLAY OPTIONS

Monitor
Dell G Series G2410 24in Wide Monitor with Height Adjustable Standedit2nd Monitor
Noneedit

 

[chaznsc]

The Precisions may use slightly higher quality components than the others, but the important thing is the warranty. If Dell if going to guarantee them for 3 years, then it is in their best interests to at least put decent parts in there. As far as performance goes, pretty much every X58 mobo with a given CPU and a given set of RAM is going to perform identically. There is just not much performance variation between mobos anymore. (1-2% max).

Not sure how you got the bolded impression. The Precisions are some of the most customizable PCs Dell has. The T3500 alone has 10 choices of CPU and 23(!) choices of GPU. Maybe we aren't communicating something fundamental here.

The t3500 only has the Xeon as a processor. Im not convinced we dont want to look at the i7 chip. The t1500 posted above has the i7 chip but was only available under the ENTERPRISE area. Is the t1500 a lesser machine than the t3500?

This is what I hate about DELL.......Of course, nothing they have is SATA 3 which someone here said was a MUST in their opinion.

 

[mfenn]

The t3500 only has the Xeon as a processor. Im not convinced we dont want to look at the i7 chip. The t1500 posted above has the i7 chip but was only available under the ENTERPRISE area. Is the t1500 a lesser machine than the t3500?

This is what I hate about DELL.......Of course, nothing they have is SATA 3 which someone here said was a MUST in their opinion.

First off, the T1500 is available from the Small & Medium Business section.

Anyway, I think I see the misunderstanding now. OK, time for some background on the way Intel and AMD design chips. When they design a chip, they don't say, "OK, this chip is going to be a consumer chip and this other completely different chip is going to be a server/workstation chip (aka Xeon)." They design one chip and then give it 2 brands, one for the consumer market and one for server/workstation market. The system you originally posted used a Core i7 930 which is a Bloomfield chip. The T3500 also uses Bloomfield chips for the quad-core options, they are just branded as Xeons. The Core i7 930 and Xeon W3530 are the exact same chip!

What does this mean to you? The Xeon vs. Core i7 distinction is irrelevant and you should buy the best chips for your current situation. You shouldn't arbitrarily limit yourself to only looking at Core i7's or only looking at Xeons.

Now, regarding the T1500 you specced out. It looks fine to me. It uses a Lynnfield chip, which is fine. The FirePro is also fine, assuming you know it will work well with AutoCAD.

If by SATA 3, you mean SATA 6Gb/s, then that is completely irrelevant if you're not looking at SSDs. Current HDD's can barely touch the throughput of the original SATA in a best-case scenario.

 

[chaznsc]

First off, the T1500 is available from the Small & Medium Business section.

Anyway, I think I see the misunderstanding now. OK, time for some background on the way Intel and AMD design chips. When they design a chip, they don't say, "OK, this chip is going to be a consumer chip and this other completely different chip is going to be a server/workstation chip (aka Xeon)." They design one chip and then give it 2 brands, one for the consumer market and one for server/workstation market. The system you originally posted used a Core i7 930 which is a Bloomfield chip. The T3500 also uses Bloomfield chips for the quad-core options, they are just branded as Xeons. The Core i7 930 and Xeon W3530 are the exact same chip!

What does this mean to you? The Xeon vs. Core i7 distinction is irrelevant and you should buy the best chips for your current situation. You shouldn't arbitrarily limit yourself to only looking at Core i7's or only looking at Xeons.

Now, regarding the T1500 you specced out. It looks fine to me. It uses a Lynnfield chip, which is fine. The FirePro is also fine, assuming you know it will work well with AutoCAD.

If by SATA 3, you mean SATA 6Gb/s, then that is completely irrelevant if you're not looking at SSDs. Current HDD's can barely touch the throughput of the original SATA in a best-case scenario.

Well, damn, my wife is right, I'm an idiot LOL. Thanks for the mini-school on the chip wars. I have seen so much of the i7 advertised lately that I figured it was the latest (and best) chip out there.

 

[mfenn]

Well, damn, my wife is right, I'm an idiot LOL. Thanks for the mini-school on the chip wars. I have seen so much of the i7 advertised lately that I figured it was the latest (and best) chip out there.

Yep, no problem.

EDIT: Some additional info: Intel's Xeon brand has been around a long time and encompasses a wide range of architectures. Generally speaking, the big vendors will always be selling the latest and greatest, but I find this Wikipedia page to be invaluable when decoding Xeon model numbers.

 

[mav451]

chaznsc,

Ask your drafters if they are doing 3D models (some drafters are stuck in the old days still punching out worthless 2D models). If they are doing 3D models and they are large models then you will want a workstation-class video card with 1GB RAM. If they are for some reason still stuck doing 2D models, or only doing basic 3D models then a regular gaming card with 512MB of RAM is probably sufficient. You are SOL though if the card fails, whereas a workstation-class video card usually comes with a buttload of tech support.

I'm gonna build on this. The civil industry is in a transitional phase between old 2D models and 3D models. Assuming you want to keep with the jones, everything will be in 3D sooner (rather than later). I.e. subconsultants/architects will soon be sending Revit models, and no longer flat 2D files.

I tried running ACAD Civil 3D on the Presler/4GB machine I have at work...eh not so hot. That said, any machine nowadays would be Core2 or higher derivative, which is world's better. I see you spec'ed a i7 machine...yeah that will be more than plenty, but if cost is a concern, any Nehalem derivative (i.e. i3/i5) would probably work just as well.

IMO AutoDesk is silly for now multi-threading more, but that's for another thread.

 

[chaznsc]

I'm gonna build on this. The civil industry is in a transitional phase between old 2D models and 3D models. Assuming you want to keep with the jones, everything will be in 3D sooner (rather than later). I.e. subconsultants/architects will soon be sending Revit models, and no longer flat 2D files.

I tried running ACAD Civil 3D on the Presler/4GB machine I have at work...eh not so hot. That said, any machine nowadays would be Core2 or higher derivative, which is world's better. I see you spec'ed a i7 machine...yeah that will be more than plenty, but if cost is a concern, any Nehalem derivative (i.e. i3/i5) would probably work just as well.

IMO AutoDesk is silly for now multi-threading more, but that's for another thread.

In looking at the Txxx Precisions, which one seems the likely candidate from what you described above, which I completely agree with. We are in transition from 2d to 3d.

Dell has an option for a DISPLAY ADAPTER to VGA? Does that mean the video card port is not vga ready?

 

[mfenn]

In looking at the Txxx Precisions, which one seems the likely candidate from what you described above, which I completely agree with. We are in transition from 2d to 3d.

Dell has an option for a DISPLAY ADAPTER to VGA? Does that mean the video card port is not vga ready?

Yeah, the new cards come with DVI and DisplayPort, you'll need an adapter to convert to VGA.

 

[Sp12]

Just a note, some of the Xeons are 32nm while I7s are 45. Xeons are also typically guaranteed for commercial use, while i7s aren't.

Additionally, Xeons support ECC memory.