Best Workstation Specs - Your Opinion?

Eric · December 6th, 2002

My boss has just recently come to me and mentioned that he'd like to upgrade my system to a high-end workstation (within reason I'm sure). I wanted to get everyone's opinion on what is the best all around system. I'll mainly be using it for:
AutoCAD2000
Autodesk VIZ4
Adobe Photoshop

He wants to be able to bring a client over to my desk and "walk-thru" the model, but I mainly just want something that will render quickly, as well as give me good interactivity when I'm modeling.

Thanks,
Eric

Greg Hess · December 6th, 2002

Low End....(These are by price)

Single 2800+ Athlon XP
Nforce2 Motherboard
1-2 Gigs of PC2700 or higher DDR (Must be bought in pairs)
WD800JB 80 Gig Special Edition
Geforce4 Ti 4200.

Midrange....

Dual Athlon 2400+ MP (Avail next week)
Asus or MSI Dual Mboard
1-3 gigs of Registered ECC DDR
WD800JB SE
GF4 or Quadro 700XL

Upper Range...

Dual 2.8 Xeon (533)
Supermicro E7505 Pacer MBoard
1-4 Gigs of Registered ECC DDR (Must be bought in pairs)
WD800JB or U160 SCSI system, with X15-36LP cheetah's. hehe.
Quadro 900XL

You might be able to build two of the Dual 2400+ MP systems for the price of the Dual xeon system.

[ December 06, 2002, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

richymcp · December 6th, 2002

Howdy partner!! Well if you want some good advice check out this retail site http://www.armari.co.uk/ (uk site) and if you want some good reviews and bench marks tests then check out http://www.xbitlabs.com/.

Personally I'd go for duel Xeon 2.8's at least a gig of RAM and a PNY quadra 4 980 XLG Pro 3D 128MB AGP video card, try saying that with a mouthfull of chips!!

All the best

Richard

Dave Buchhofer · December 10th, 2002

I see you mention 1-3 gigs of ram.. I was under the impression that Viz and even Windows can only take advantage of 2gigs at the moment?

Curious..

Dave.

Greg Hess · December 10th, 2002

The maximum amount of allocated ram per process is 2 gigabytes.

If your undergoing a multithreaded process (aka both cpu's are in use) you can allocate up to 4 gigs of ram. (Though many boards don't support 4 gigs of ram...)

One of the big reasons for the push towards 64 bit, is everyone is tired of not being able to have 64 gigs for a single process. LOL.

December 6th, 2002	#1 (permalink)
Eric Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Denton, TX Age: 32 Posts: 385 Name: Eric Adams	My boss has just recently come to me and mentioned that he'd like to upgrade my system to a high-end workstation (within reason I'm sure). I wanted to get everyone's opinion on what is the best all around system. I'll mainly be using it for: AutoCAD2000 Autodesk VIZ4 Adobe Photoshop He wants to be able to bring a client over to my desk and "walk-thru" the model, but I mainly just want something that will render quickly, as well as give me good interactivity when I'm modeling. Thanks, Eric __________________ Eric Adams http://particlerealities.blogspot.com/

December 10th, 2002	#4 (permalink)
Dave Buchhofer Senior Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Philadelphia Posts: 278 Name: Dave Buchhofer	I see you mention 1-3 gigs of ram.. I was under the impression that Viz and even Windows can only take advantage of 2gigs at the moment? Curious.. Dave. __________________ Dave. TD / EwingCole DMG

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December 6th, 2002	#2 (permalink)
Greg Hess Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: University of Maryland Age: 30 Posts: 1,012 Name: Greg Hess	Low End....(These are by price) Single 2800+ Athlon XP Nforce2 Motherboard 1-2 Gigs of PC2700 or higher DDR (Must be bought in pairs) WD800JB 80 Gig Special Edition Geforce4 Ti 4200. Midrange.... Dual Athlon 2400+ MP (Avail next week) Asus or MSI Dual Mboard 1-3 gigs of Registered ECC DDR WD800JB SE GF4 or Quadro 700XL Upper Range... Dual 2.8 Xeon (533) Supermicro E7505 Pacer MBoard 1-4 Gigs of Registered ECC DDR (Must be bought in pairs) WD800JB or U160 SCSI system, with X15-36LP cheetah's. hehe. Quadro 900XL You might be able to build two of the Dual 2400+ MP systems for the price of the Dual xeon system. [ December 06, 2002, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: Greg Hess ]

December 6th, 2002	#3 (permalink)
richymcp Junior Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: London, UK Age: 38 Posts: 6 Name: Richard Buckley	Howdy partner!! Well if you want some good advice check out this retail site http://www.armari.co.uk/ (uk site) and if you want some good reviews and bench marks tests then check out http://www.xbitlabs.com/. Personally I'd go for duel Xeon 2.8's at least a gig of RAM and a PNY quadra 4 980 XLG Pro 3D 128MB AGP video card, try saying that with a mouthfull of chips!! All the best Richard

December 10th, 2002	#5 (permalink)
Greg Hess Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: University of Maryland Age: 30 Posts: 1,012 Name: Greg Hess	The maximum amount of allocated ram per process is 2 gigabytes. If your undergoing a multithreaded process (aka both cpu's are in use) you can allocate up to 4 gigs of ram. (Though many boards don't support 4 gigs of ram...) One of the big reasons for the push towards 64 bit, is everyone is tired of not being able to have 64 gigs for a single process. LOL.

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