Seeking advice on what computer to buy for ArchiCAD 12

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I'm a network administrator for a customer who has previously been running AutoCAD 2002, and is finally taking the step to draw in 3D. They are about to purchase ArchiCAD 12 and 4-5 new computers at the same time. A good opportunity to look over their IT platform on the client-side.

The budget has been decided, which means so has most of the platform: We're going to run MS Windows and MS Office on an HP xw4600 Workstation with 4Gb RAM, two disks in a RAID-0 set, and an Nvidia Quadro graphics board. The machines will probably be in use for 3 to 5 years, possibly running ArchiCAD 12 without future version upgrades during their lifetime (don't know how much cash the future holds). So I come here seeking advice on only a few remaining issues.

ArchiCAD performance:
1) Is there a difference in ArchiCAD 12 performance between an Intel Core 2 Quad machine and an Intel Core 2 Duo machine that have otherwise identical hardware?
2) Is there a difference in ArchiCAD 12 performance between a Vista machine and an XP machine that have identical hardware?
3) Is there a difference in ArchiCAD 12 performance between a Vista 64-bit machine and a Vista 32-bit machine that have otherwise identical hardware?
4) Nvidia Quadro FX3700 with 512Mb - Would it be enough, or should I get an even more powerful board? And how well are Nvidia's Quadro drivers doing these days?

Other concerns:
1) What would be a suitable display type for an ArchiCAD user? I've suggested 24-inch widescreen displays at 1920 by 1200 pixels. Would that be a good choice? What other factors should I look at when picking out a display?
2) What would be a suitable pointing device - I'm thinking Logitech MX Revolution Laser mouse. Good idea?
3) Artlantis - is it worth the extra investment? How does it perform in the different hardware configurations described above?

If you have any experience regarding these issues, please share your thoughts. I hope I've been detailed enough to inspire insightful and concise answers!

[henrypootel]

Thanks Henry, that was very useful. I'm still not sure about 64-bit. You haven't tested it at all? Since some apps are faster on 64-bit Windows than on 32-bit, and vice versa, I'm hoping to find someone who has tested ArchiCAD 12 in real life on both platforms on the same hardware.

I have only ever run 64-bit Windows on my hardware, so I don't know how well 32-bit would perform. However, given the fact that I have 4Gb of RAM, I think that being able to actually use that outweighs any potential slight increase in speed. Besides, even if your application runs faster in 32-bit, what do you do when they run out of memory?
Also, I don't believe that XP is a viable option for a business computer of the specification you are looking at. So long as you give Vista what it wants(lots of RAM, multiple cores), then it runs very fast. Boot time on my machine is about 30 seconds at the moment.
Worth noting too, is that after having just booted up and running only Outlook and Firefox, RAM usage is sitting at 1.9Gb, so anything less than 4Gb is going to seriously cripple you in Vista.
So considering that your hardware will run it very nicely, the only other thing holding you back(possibly) from Vista x64 is Drivers. This is the same problem as with XP x64. If you have older hardware(like large format printers/plotters) then you may have trouble hunting down drivers for them. If this is the case, then you need to either opt for 32-bit until drivers come out(doubtful) or you replace the old hardware, or run 64-bit on all the machines, and then run XP-32 or the like on a dedicated Print/plot server.
As for ArchiCAD itself on 64-bit, as I mentioned, I can't comment on the speed versus 32-bit because I haven't tried it, but I can say that I haven't seen a Heap-zone, or 'Not enough Memory' error for a long time.

[Anonymous]

OK, thanks.

I would appreciate it if someone who has had some experience in the matter would post.

[Djordje]

This might be useful in your quest:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=25408

HTH,