how faster may i be with new workstations?

hi all.
i asked my engineers to watch at how much time they think we're
loosing due to old workstations.
actually, we're using compaq ap-200 workstations: piii-500, 256mb,
donnow-scsi-disk, gvx1, 100mbit f-ether.
files are located on a network server that we may never consider a
bottleneck.
our average 1st-level assembly is made of 300/400 parts and 70/80
subassemblies.
now, it takes 2 minutes to 2 minutes 30 seconds to open a big
assembly. it takes 1.10 to 1.40 minutes to save without mass
properties and up to 2.30/2.50 minutes to close+save with mass
properties.
with bigger assemblies, i.e. 500/600 parts, 90/100 assemblies, it's
taking 6 minutes 40 seconds to open it, 2.12 to save without mass
properties, 3 minutes close+save with mass properties and over half a
minute to rebuild/recalculate the whole assembly.

now the question is: should i buy new workstations *now*, how faster
would these operations be? network speed is not the bottleneck because
i'm keeping an eye on network traffic. we're experiencing just some
swap problems but also graphics is still quite good. i would buy new
workstations only after i'll be pretty sure we'll reduce *this* dead
times.

we still work with 2003sp5.1 + dbworks 2003spsomething.

thanks in advance.

 

Hello Gianni,

The step up to a modern system from what you are currently running
will be drastic.

CPU speeds are not only 6 times faster, but also run more efficiently.

The bus speeds are up to 800 MHz from 100 MHz in the piii.

RAM prices have plummented, while their performance has increased to
800MHz from 133MHz. Minimum is now considered 1GB.

New SATA technology, combined with RAID 0 configuration will give scsi
a run at a fraction of the cost.

Graphics cards have also taken advantage of all these advances.

All this can be had for 1/2 the cost of a piii when it was fresh
silicon.

The trend in software has been to pile on the code and let the
hardware handle the work. Nothing lean or efficient. This causes
enough problems on new machines and I'm sure yours are unbearable.

Good luck

 

All I can say is "OH MY GOD" !!!

I can't even believe you have the patience to wait for Solidworks to load,
let alone waiting for DBWorks to run as an add-in. 256Mb... I can't
believe it. COMPLETELY UNBEARABLE. Not to mention the OS crashes you must
suffer because you're surely not trying to run Windows NT or 2000 or Windows
XP but I suppose you could. I have a PIII that my 4 year old daughter uses
as her computer and that has Windows XP on it (we can't have Barbie.com
crashing now can we?).

Since you're running SW2003, get the 2003 benchmark from www.spec.org and
see what you come up with. The fastest systems are running the bench in
around 120 secs give or take. Your systems would probably be pushing twenty
minutes, as a guess.

The move to a modern system above 2Ghz with a new Quadro card and a gig of
ram would be as awakening as a cold shower and about one fifth the price of
SW itself.

- Eddy

 

Neither can I. I just bought a system like that for twelve
bucks at the Salvation Army store... and it works!

Upgrade... while you still have your sanity.

Mike Wilson

 

Damn Mike, I've got a basement full of that stuff I would have *given* you.
It all works too. Unless I happened to need a wheel chock or make-shift
hammer that day, and then it might just be missing a hard drive or
something. LOL

I just went through my stuff and bandsawed a couple old PIII systems apart.
I used a motherboard tray from one box and a drive cage from another to make
a nice test fixture for new motherboards, etc. Now when I want to test a
new board or card, etc. I can just go to the fixture, screw it down, and off
I go. No sense in digging around inside a case when you've got a shop full
of them to cut apart

- Eddy

 

tried to expand ram but couldn't find right type. "common"
ecc/non-ecc/registered/unregistered dimms can't fit in the compaq
workstations.

we use nt4sp6a

i'll try. thank you.

err... in italy hardware costs at least as twice --or far more-- than
in usa and this is the only reason i didn't change workstations
earlier.

thanks to all of you for your suggestions.

regards.

 

A suitable machine for 530 Eu:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?C31A14567

(French, sorry), no screen, no software...

Can be widely improved for not that much money:

700Eu, Athlon XP 3000+ - ASUS A7V8X-X - 512 Mo DDR PC2700 - 120 Go 7200
trs/min 8 Mo cache - GeForce FX5200 128 Mo :
http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3FA12567

There must be similar deals in Italy. (Sure there are a bunch here).

Taxes included...

 

See my posting "benchmark results" (last post Feb. 4). Compare my
results against what you see on your current workstations.

I don't know if this link will work or not:

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=...&oe=UTF-8&group=comp.cad.solidworks&start=150

 

never mind i absolutely didn't get offended
it was just to add some information about our actual configuration,
since i recognized i had forgot too much of it.

those were my first workstations and i was afraid --you know,
psicologic terrorism made sometimes by vars...-- not to be able to
configure the "right" pc's.

i think next workstations will be built using standard components.

this is the most important thing.

i'll let you know what i'll decide to buy, when i'll do it
(unfortunately i had to buy *now* 2 digital copiers because our 2
previous copiers went out-of-order in the same moment --damn...-- and
it wasn't convenient to repare them.

thank you again.

 

not bad, even if i'm not too keen on amd processors.

nevermind: i'm taking french lessons

regards.

 

One final addition Gianni... don't shy away from AMD. I've used them
exclusively for over two years and comparable Intels can't touch them. For
the same money you'll be faster, plain and simple. Please, no wars here,
the facts have been out for a few years. There is less difference now
between the top of the line Intel vs AMD but the difference is still in
favor of AMD. For some reason, SW runs faster on AMD, going back to 2001+
running on Athlon XP.

The new Athlon64 cpus can be had for under $500 US, all the way down to less
than $300 for the low-end version, and they smoke even the Xeon procs.

- Eddy

 

no wars, don't worry
the reason why i'm not too keen on amd cpus is that until few years
ago, there were bigger problems with software --err... expecially
microsoft's ones-- than with genuine intel processors.

since, unfortunately, software has many bugs and gives problems
everyday, i wanted to stay away at least from the ones related to
hardware compatibility.

but if you say that today there is no problem in running win+swx on
amd, there is no problem with them.
thank you for your suggestion.

cheers.

 

Good luck Gianni and keep us posted! You should have a great experience
running Solidworks and DBWorks after the upgrades, whichever way you go.

- Eddy