Help with PC selection.

[Anonymous]

I am looking to buy a new PC and i do not know enough about them.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?prodid=11065696&cm_mmc=BCEmail_113-_-DellXPS600-_-30-_-Com...

Is this a good deal. The Dell site could not match it but I am not sure if it's fit for AC

[Karl Ottenstein]

Most of the specs on this machine look fine, Adalbert - but it is using the 'older' single core P4 processor... and it is running Windows Media Edition.

I've read somewhere that Media Edition is based on XP Pro, but I don't know where one ends and the other begins. You might be safer with Pro unless someone has info to share.

On the Dell site, you can get the new Pentium D dual core chips in both this XPS 600 and the 9100. You'd have to configure and compare. If getting a new machine, I'd definitely get one with dual core (essentially dual processor).

Note that right now the coupons aren't there, but typically each week there are discount coupons beyond Dell's web site coupons at www.techbargains.com. New coupons are posted every Sunday evening (as I recall).

Also, compare Dell's memory prices to www.crucial.com (Micron Tech). Typically, you save a lot of money configuring the Dell with some basic amount of memory and getting the desired memory from Crucial.

Hope that helps,
Karl

[Anonymous]

Thank you Karl, that is valuable info.

[Stephen Dolbee]

Albert,
Have you considered Dell's workstation (Precision 670). Their workstation prices have come down considerably over the past couple of years and you would have the option of upgrading to a second processor if desired. Also comes with the 3 year warr. Just a thought.

Steve

[Anonymous]

I'm going to Athon64 X2 Dual-Core system for the next PC pjoject.
The dual core Athlon X2's smoke the P4s in mulittasking, Photoshop work, and rendering tasks.
I did a side by side taste test and was impressed as hell by the Athon X2's.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I would consider buying 2 GB of RAM, depending on the size of projects you are working on.
I am working in both AC 9 and PM 9 open at the same time, working on a cca. 100000 sqft building in AC, plus with dozens of Layouts in PM, and I find 1 GB of RAM is not enough.
I will buy 1 GB RAM in the near future.

[Anonymous]

Thank you again
I certainly will install 2 GB of ram but what cote my eye was the price of this Cosco offer of $2500 the Dell site was $3500

is the dual core that good of the dual porocessor?

I work on large buildings 100,000 sq ft and up and do all my engineering and tenant work.

[Laszlo Nagy]

I am not completely familiar with the difference between dual core and dual processor, but dual processors have two processor cores in total, and dual core processors also have two processor cores in total. If the processor has two cores, it is probably more tightly integrated, but there are some resources (like cache) which the cores must share so one core can use less.
I suppose dual core is just about as good from a performance point of view as dual processor, since this seems to be the way Intel and AMD are going, with 4-core and 8-core processors planned for the future, which offer even more parallel execution of programs.

[Anonymous]

Will Archicad take advantage of threading?

What GS lists at http://www.graphisoft.com/support/archicad/system_requirements/ is a joke.
One must expect more and after all that site should list the most of what the software could take advantage

[Anonymous]

I willhave to chose between:


PC
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11031649&whse=BC&topnav=&cat=4349&hierPath=84*4349*

Dell XPS 600
(Media Center) CPU Only 3.4GHz 1GB 500GB DVDRW DVD
$300 Off Reflected in Price
NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI X16 MCP
256MB nVidia GeForce 6800
Audigy™2ZS Dolby® 5.1
3-Year Warranty
$2,199.99

Processor & Memory:

Intel® Pentium® 4 650 Processor at 3.4GHz
with Hyper-Threading Technology
NVIDIA® nForce4 SLI X16 MCP chipset
(2 full-bandwidth 16-lane PCI-Express allows future upgrades to dual GPUs)
800MHz Front Side Bus
2MB L2 cache
1 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 512MB) expandable to 2GB (4 DIMM slots)3
Drives:

500GB Serial-ATA RAID 0 (2 x 250GB) Hard Drive
16x DVD+/-RW - CD & DVD Burner with double layer write capability.4
16x DVD-ROM Drive
13 in 1 Digital Media Card Reader
Graphics & Video:

256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia™ GeForce™ 6800 Graphics
Dual TV Tuner with remote control (watch, play or record different sources simultaneously)
Communications:

56K PCI Data/Fax Modem
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet5
Audio:

Sound Blaster® AudigyTM2 ZS (D) Sound Card w/DVD Audio, Dolby® 5.1 capability, and IEEE 1394 (Firewire) port
Dell A425 Speakers with Subwoofer
Keyboard:

Dell® Wireless Keyboard
Dell® Wireless Optical Mouse
Expandability:

Expansion slots: 3 PCI slots, 1 PCIe x1 slot, 2 PCIe x16 (graphics) slots
4 DIMM slots. Memory installed in pairs for dual channel
Ports:
Video: 2 DVI and 1 S-video connectors
Two PS2 ports (mouse and keyboard)
Two IEEE 1394 ports (1 front, 1 back)
Eight USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 6 back)
Front mounted headphone jack
Audio: 7.1 channel out (3 jacks), line in and microphone
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet network connector
Internally Accessible: Single IDE Channel: 40-pin connector (two devices)
Chassis:


or
MAC
$2,849
Dual-core 2.3GHz PowerPC G5 processor
1.15GHz frontside bus per processor
1MB L2 cache per core
512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-4200)
250GB Serial ATA hard drive
16x SuperDrive (double-layer)
Three open PCI-Express expansion slots
NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT with 256MB GDDR SDRAM