Whats the hot hardware setup??

I'm running SW2003 SP4. With an Intell 800mhz, Asus mother board,
Matrox Parahelia 128mb video card, 785mb ram.

My question is this.

I'm working on what i consider a small assembly (61 parts, 20 unique,
many inplace mates). Assembly is working fine. In my drawing file it
would take about 7 - 10 sec. to change from one tab to another. I have
5 tabs (at this time), quite a number of cross sections and details.
Does this time sound about right? I do change from one tab to another
quite oftin, so this is slowing me down.

Our company has just started using Solidworks. We produce woodwork
cabinets and millwork. We will be doing larger assemblies then this in
the vary near future.

Will a processor upgrade help?? Thinking about getting into a P4
(3.06GB)? That would require motherboard, processor, memory. ect.

Any thoughts out there??

Thanks
Kevin

 

a newer, faster computer will definitely help. it'll be like night and day.
section views REALLY slow things down.

make sure you get a quadro card with the new machine.

 

If your company allows, build your own AMD computer. Thousands less than a
workstation and comparable performance. Get lots o' memory too. At least 1
Gig. Even if you dont use it all today, you will tomorrow.

Also, look for a motherboard with dual-channel RAM. Thats a small boost in
performance as well.

If I was to build an affordable workstation today, I would buy:

ASUS A7N8X Motherboard
AMD 3000+ Processor
1 Gig RAM
nvidia Quadro Card

Priced out at Multiwave Direct: M/B, Processor, RAM bundle is $535
Quadro 4 980XGL Video card is $$600.

So thats a darn good system for roughly $1200

Thats my 2 cents on what I would get

Todd

 

One key to possible slowdowns is in your InPlace mates. Every rebuild
SolidWorks has to access data in multiple files to resolve geometry and
location between Parts with in-context relationships and InPlace mates,
and that takes time. The pros and cons of using in-context
relationships has been discussed quite a lot in this newsgroup (search
using groups.google.com for the term). The most common consensus is
that they are useful, but one should limit their use to only necessary
relationships and generally use them only while design is in flux.
There are exceptions, of course, but replacing InPlace mates with normal
constraints and eliminating non-necessary in-context relationships in
features and sketches is a cultivatable habit that I recommend.

'Spork'

 

Building your own is always my choice because you know exactly what
your getting and you can save a buck or two. Make sure you educate
yourself on the latest tech to make sure your buying the right stuff.
If your willing to spend some cash check out xicomputer.com or
alienware.com. Alienware focuses on gaming PC's, but they have a very
good reputation for high peformance reliable computers. Besides the
case and lights are pretty cool (no pun intended)!

 

Todd,

Is there a still price/performance advantage with the AMD? I haven't
researched it this detail, but from what I've heard the latest P4s now have
the same price/performance as the AMDs.


Perry

 

Any downside to running AMD? More fans to keep chip temps down to prevent
errors ?

Perry

 

I have never seen a downside. A long time ago there were some compatibility
issues, but those are all gone. I dont know that AMD runs hotter, but if
they do I think the extra $8 is still worth it. Intel does have a small
amount of edge over AMD, but personally I don't think the benchmarks that
back those claims up are that accurate.

A few months back I did a comparison between my workstation at work and the
computer I built at home.

If anyone would like the results just e-mail me. In my opinion, the results
(price/performance) are amazing.

About 1/5 the price for very comparable performance.

Todd

 

Do you mean building your own AMD vs. build your own Intel? Then yes thats
possible. I was comparing an IBM workstation with my home-built when I was
using the 1/5 price. But yes, the fact that Intel flopped with their
super-expensive RAM does help since they can use standard RAM now.

TT

 

(Kevin Scheeringa) wrote in message > Will a processor upgrade help?? Thinking about getting into a P4

Kevin, I'm extremely happy with a system I've had for about a month
and a half now. It is a self-built system, but I'm sure Dell has a
comparable system.

It is the new Canterwood Intel Chip (3.0Ghz) running on an ASUS
P4C800Deluxe with a 800Mhz Front Side Bus. I'm also using Serial
Drives with a Gig of 3200 DDR memory and Hyper-threading turned on.
For graphics I have the Nvidia QuadroFX 1000.
I had a few problems with the last driver for this card, but the
latest one works fine. Finally the case is a coolmaster aluminum with
4 cooling fans.

Using XP home edition, It is extremely fast on SWX both 2003 and 2004.

 

One recommendation given to me which I have not heard discussed is the use
of RAID to improve read/write speed. I might not regurgitate this correctly
but it was explained that at one "RAID level" two drives can be accessed
simultaneously giving a notable increase in performance. This is different
than the more commonly used RAID level which is used to mirror data for
backup (which is not a big deal for me because I have a separate method for
archiving). I was told tat it is very easy to get the OS to automatically
configure and manage the RAID system.

True or false? Significant difference or not? Has anyone done this?

Thanks,

JJ

processor upgrade help?? Thinking about getting into a P4

 

I've got a Promise 100 raid card that I'll sell you for a really good
price.

I wouldn't recommend using raid striping for CAD. Yes, it will
increase your file transfer rate, but you're really screwed if you
don't also have redundancy amd one of the two drives crashes. For
piece of mind, this means you need 4 drives, and also don't forget the
extra cooling in your case for those drives.

I've used RAID for about 4 years now for video editing, but recently
decided not to put it into my new PC. If you can get at 7200 RPM (or
even 10000) ultra DMA 133, you're getting really close to a Promise
RAID 100 controller in stripe mode.
I've got a 120 Gig Serial drive, (they have a really nice thin cable
interface and are a breeze to hook up). They theorically can run at
transfer rates of up to 133 megs per second!, but I doubt that mine
has done that yet.

The one nice thing about RAID stripe array, is the the transfer rate
is sustained no matter how full your disks get, this isn't true for
one Drive IDE or serial; the transfer rate will slow as the disk gets
more full.