recommendations on a new computer

[Anonymous]

We are about to buy a new Dell computer. We need some help deciding on the graphics card and whether to go with a dual processor machine or a quad processor machine.

We have narrowed our choice down to a Dell Precision 690 with a 4 year onsite warrantee. This machine will be simultaneously running ArchiCAD, MS Outlook, MS word, Excel, Smart FTP, Internet Explorer and printing. Our data files are stored on a Network Attached Storage hard drive.

We will get the computer with two graphics cards so that we can run three 20" or 21" LCD monitors. We have tried the Matrox three monitor card but returned it because we were not happy with the performance. Our choices for graphics card from Dell are two 256MB PCIe x16 ATI FireGL V7200, dual monitor cards or two 256MB PCIe x16 nVidia Quadro FX 3500, dual monitor cards. The two nVidia cards would cost us about $600.00 for both cards versus the two ATI cards.

Is there any advantage to spending the extra money on the nVidia cards?

Our other choice is whether to buy a dual processor machine or a quad processor machine. Our choices are:
dual processor machine with Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processors 5150 2.66GHz, 4MB L2,1333

or a

quad processor machine with four Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processors 5120 1.86GHz, 4MB L2,1066
This system is about $500.00 more than the dual processor machine above.

or a


quad processor machine with four Dual Core Intel® Xeon® Processors 5140 2.33GHz, 4MB L2,1333
This system is about $1100.00 more than the dual processor machine above.

Is there a substantial advantage to spending more on a quad machine versus the dual machine listed above?

If we do go with a quad machine should we blow our budget and get the quad 2.33 machine?

Thank you for your input and advice.

Mahalo,
John

[Anonymous]

KeesW wrote:
We are also running XP Pro64 (to be changed to Vista 64 when we get AC11) because a 64 bit OS can make use of more than 2GB of RAM.

What sort of performance difference do you get from XP 32 bit to XP Pro64?

Also do you have to buy a 3rd party pdf writer as Anyumi as supplied for AC10 doesn't support XP Pro 64 (AC11 will have in built pdf writer)

[Anonymous]

After all of your help and input as well as some deliberation in the office we wound up buying a Dell Precision 690 Mini-Tower with two 5150 Dual Core Xeon Processors running at with 2.66GHz, 4MB L2 Cache 1333MHz and 4GB DDR2 ECC SDRAM Memory running at 667MHz.

We keep all of our data files on a networked harddrive so the only thing running on the system's hard drive are programs and the operating system which is WINDOWS XP PRO x64.

We are going to run three 22" LCD monitors so we had Dell install a nVidia Quadro FX3450 2X 256MB PCIe graphics card that can handle up to four monitors at once.

The deed is done, the system is ordered and we are looking forward to our new computer. If we experience anything unusual we will post the results here on the forum.

Thanks for your help.

Aloha,
John

[KeesW]

Maurice

Not much difference, according to Adam Pressley at ap@aaarchitect.com who has tested Archicad performance on several dozen computers. The big benefit is being able to use more RAM and this should pay dividents - if not now, probably in the future during the term of my lease. My computer was 50% faster than the latest, dual Xenon Mac but I don't know what components are responsible. It is usually a combination of bits.

I use CutePDF writer and this works fine with ArchiCad. I am having some minor problems with Quickbooks Premier, my accounting system, but I don't know if that is due to XP 64 or a conflict between that and Archicad 10.

[Anonymous]

KeesW wrote:
Maurice

Not much difference, according to Adam Pressley at ap@aaarchitect.com who has tested Archicad performance on several dozen computers. The big benefit is being able to use more RAM and this should pay dividents - if not now, probably in the future during the term of my lease. My computer was 50% faster than the latest, dual Xenon Mac but I don't know what components are responsible. It is usually a combination of bits.

I use CutePDF writer and this works fine with ArchiCad. I am having some minor problems with Quickbooks Premier, my accounting system, but I don't know if that is due to XP 64 or a conflict between that and Archicad 10.

Thanks for the update Kees.