Topic: what computer are you using?

[FengK]

This is a question for those who are using C3D. After a couple of month of messing with C3D, we feel our computers need upgrade. This is what we have now and I'd like to know what you're using and whether you're happy with the performance. Thanks for your input!

[Dinosaur]

What kind of hard drive?

[FengK]

What kind of hard drive?

is this a question for me?

[Dinosaur]

Yes . . . the wrong hard drive can really bog down an otherwise excellent system.

[FengK]

Yes . . . the wrong hard drive can really bog down an otherwise excellent system.

Thanks for pointing that out! I was never aware of that. Anyway, this is what we have. If it is not good. What do you recommend?

[Dinosaur]

If you are having problems, I would start looking right there.  It is all about plate density when you want to milk out every ms possible.  You can go with larger capacity, higher rpm speed, or both.  I was using 150gb 10000 rpm WD Raptors in raid 0 in my last work station with good performance.  Other good choices that have since become available are the perpendicular writing Seagates and the new 2 1/2 inch desktop drives.  Any of those will give you the higher plate densities that will clear most bottlenecks.

[Mark]

C3D will bring this machine to its knees. *sigh*

> Mainboard : Dell Computer Corp. 0F1262
  > Chipset : Intel E7505
  > Processor : Intel Xeon @ 3066 MHz
  > Processor : Intel Xeon @ 3066 MHz
  > Physical Memory : 2048 MB (4 x 512 DDR-SDRAM )
  > Video Card : NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000
  > Hard Disk : SEAGATE (36 GB)
  > Hard Disk : SEAGATE (36 GB)
  > DVD-Rom Drive : JLMS DVD-ROM XJ-HD166
  > DVD-Rom Drive : _NEC DVD+RW ND-1100A
  > Monitor Type : Dell Computer DELL 2001FP - 20 inches
  > Monitor Type : Dell Computer DELL 2007FP - 20 inches
  > Network Card : Intel Corporation 82545EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper)
  > Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
  > DirectX : Version 9.0c  (July 2007)

[Dinosaur]

I would imagine so . . . see my comments above regarding hard disk(s).  Capacity is only one consideration and probably the least important (although you are likely deficient there as well).  Those sizes make the drives appear dated and perhaps even 5400 rpm which would really clog Civil 3D.

[Mark]

I would imagine so . . . see my comments above regarding hard disk(s).  Capacity is only one consideration and probably the least important (although you are likely deficient there as well).  Those sizes make the drives appear dated and perhaps even 5400 rpm which would really clog Civil 3D.

Those are Cheetah 10K SCSI disks.

[dfarris75]

Here's what I have. Straight from the Dell Refurbished Store.
DELL Precision T3400
This is the hard drive > http://www.provantage.com/western-digital-wd2500aajs~7WNDG2EQ.htm

[Dinosaur]

Those are Cheetah 10K SCSI disks.

OK - They are better than what I thought but What you are seeing is why I am not a fan of SCSI any more.  The small drive capacity is likely choking your virtual memory settings.  Those are very expensive gb's of storage compared to the drives I suggested as well.  Better than the standard 7200 IDE and SATA drives, but not worth the extra expense IMO.

[sinc]

My new one, which runs C3D quite well:

Core i7 940 (2.93GHz, 8MB L3)
Asus P6T Deluxe MOBO
3x2GB (6GB total) Corsair PC12800 Tri-Channel DDR3, 1600MHz
2x500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 in a RAID0
EVGA GeForce 9600GT - 1GB DDR3
Viewsonic VX2233WM 22" Widescreen LCD (1920x1080)
Vista Home Prem 64-bit OEM

With a case, power supply, and DVD burner, the total came to around $2200 last November.  (I ordered the parts and put it together.)  I think prices have dropped further, now.

[ChristopherF]

This is a question for those who are using C3D. After a couple of month of messing with C3D, we feel our computers need upgrade. This is what we have now and I'd like to know what you're using and whether you're happy with the performance. Thanks for your input!

Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
E8400 @ 3.00 GHz
2.99 GHz, 2.98 GB of RAM
With a http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=950b4d4b57cb0110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US hard drive

It's not too bad so far, running C3D 2008

[Jeff_M]

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 1720, Core2Duo T8300@2.40gHz, 4gb RAM, 240gb 2.5" 5400rpm HDD, nVidia GeForce 8600GT M 256mb video ram, Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Desktop: Intel Core2Quad Q9550@2.83gHz, 4gb RAM, Maxtor 500gb hdd @ 7200rpm, nVidia Quadro FX1500 256mb video ram, Vista Ultimate 64-bit

C3D2009 runs faster on the desktop, but is quite usable on the laptop.....my actual work time is probably split 60-40 between the 2 computers. I prefer the laptop display, just becasue it is so crisp! 1920x1200 on a 17" widescreen vs 1680x1050 on a 24"widescreen. That, and the fact I can sit in my comfy chair at home & watch some sports while I'm I'm working is another plus.

[FengK]

My new one, which runs C3D quite well:

sinc, Thanks for the spec. I suppose those part come with warranty? For $2200, it seems to be quite a good investment. And it comes with 22" LCD monitor too. How long you've been using it? Is it possible to add the RAM to 8GB, like 4x2GB?

[FengK]

Laptop: Dell Inspiron 1720, Core2Duo T8300@2.40gHz, 4gb RAM, 240gb 2.5" 5400rpm HDD, nVidia GeForce 8600GT M 256mb video ram, Vista Ultimate 32-bit

Desktop: Intel Core2Quad Q9550@2.83gHz, 4gb RAM, Maxtor 500gb hdd @ 7200rpm, nVidia Quadro FX1500 256mb video ram, Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Thanks Jeff. How much is your laptop and desktop? Btw, your link for Q9550@2.83gHz seems to be broken. It is recognized as an email address when I click on it. After I googled it, I went to this page http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041 and learned a little about it. Do you know if I can use it on a Gateway computer?

[sinc]

My new one, which runs C3D quite well:

sinc, Thanks for the spec. I suppose those part come with warranty? For $2200, it seems to be quite a good investment. And it comes with 22" LCD monitor too. How long you've been using it? Is it possible to add the RAM to 8GB, like 4x2GB?

Various parts come with different manufacturer's warranties.  For the most part, they're about a year.

As far as adding more RAM, that's actually something that had me a bit confused.  The MOBO documentation says that the MOBO can handle up to 12GB of RAM, but it can only support up to 6GB of the fast 1600MHz RAM.  So if I had gotten the next-slower speed of RAM, I could have gotten twice as much.  But with the "fast" RAM, the MOBO docs say it can only support 6GB.  And the MOBO docs further say that this is because of an "Intel spec", so it might not be a limitation on this particular MOBO, but a limitation on all Core i7 MOBOs.  I haven't figured out the details of that one yet.

And it's now Tri-Channel RAM, as opposed to the old Dual-Channel RAM.  This means we now get RAM in matched sets of 3 DIMMs (or whatever they're called now), instead of matched sets of 2 like with the older systems.  That's why I got 3x2GB.  (Just as before, you don't have to get matched sets, but it's a good idea.)  Then the system hits all three at the same time, speeding up memory access, kind of like what a RAID0 array does to hard drives.

[Jeff_M]

Thanks Jeff. How much is your laptop and desktop? Btw, your link for Q9550@2.83gHz seems to be broken. It is recognized as an email address when I click on it. After I googled it, I went to this page http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041 and learned a little about it. Do you know if I can use it on a Gateway computer?

That "link" was auto-added by the forum software...it saw the @ and figured I was providing an email address.

The laptop was ~$1800 a year ago. I bought the desktop as a package deal from another user here, mr. doggarncity , so I really don't know how much the pc cost.

As far as adding the components to a Gateway...I do not know the answer to that. If you can determine the Maunfacturer & Model of the current mobo, a search should be able to give you that info. I think Gateway uses the same parts we can buy, unlike Dell which uses a lot of parts made just for them.

[FengK]

Thanks again Jeff.

[FengK]

As far as adding more RAM, that's actually something that had me a bit confused.  The MOBO documentation says that the MOBO can handle up to 12GB of RAM, but it can only support up to 6GB of the fast 1600MHz RAM.  So if I had gotten the next-slower speed of RAM, I could have gotten twice as much.  But with the "fast" RAM, the MOBO docs say it can only support 6GB.  And the MOBO docs further say that this is because of an "Intel spec", so it might not be a limitation on this particular MOBO, but a limitation on all Core i7 MOBOs.  I haven't figured out the details of that one yet.

And it's now Tri-Channel RAM, as opposed to the old Dual-Channel RAM.  This means we now get RAM in matched sets of 3 DIMMs (or whatever they're called now), instead of matched sets of 2 like with the older systems.  That's why I got 3x2GB.  (Just as before, you don't have to get matched sets, but it's a good idea.)  Then the system hits all three at the same time, speeding up memory access, kind of like what a RAID0 array does to hard drives.

sinc, thanks for the detailed info on RAM. i'm very much intrigued. The only thing I don't really like is it seems to have these extra RAM, i'll have to be on Vista, correct? Btw, i don't like Office 2007 either.

[sinc]

I prefer Vista x64 to the other versions of Windows.  There were a couple of quirks to get used to, but overall, it's a distinct improvement over XP.  There are still driver issues with some printers, but as long as you don't have that problem, go with Vista x64 as your OS.

If you don't like Office 2007, there's always OpenOffice, which is almost identical to the older Office.  There are a couple of quirks with it - it throws more quote-marks into CSV files than Excel does, which may create an issue if you aren't expecting it.  And I like the way Excel pops up the little gliph that lets you change items after you paste, to "Values Only" or "Formatting Only", etc.  With Open Office's Calc program, you have to do "Paste Special..." and then check/uncheck the things you want to paste, which is not as nice.

Other than that, I generally don't notice much difference between OpenOffice and Office.