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2006 Hardware Recommendations from Alibre Users

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tomf

New Member
2006 Hardware Recommendations from Alibre Users

It's time for my 5 year hardware upgrade. I'd really be interested in feedback from users on good and bad experiences with new hardware. Please include computer, processor (AMD, Pentium, dual core?), ram, video card, and any other relevant information to help users with successful upgrades.
 
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cclark440

Alibre Super User


I would have to concur with jwknecht. If you have waited this long, wait a little longer and see if the 64bit dream comes true.
 
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flyboydave

Member


Before you wait on 64 bit anything, you should really check out performance comparisons between 32bit xp and 64 bit xp. They're really not that huge of a jump, definitely not the 2x increase you might think. The big deal is that XP64 can address 128gb of ram and 16 terabytes of virtual memory, compared to 4gb of ram for XP32.

The real problem is that and kernel level drivers (video card, anti-virus apps, others) have to also be rewritten or they will not run at all. Been there, done that, took it all back to Fry's. Besides, even as cheap as ram is, I can't see myself loading up with more than 4gb of ram.

Depending on how much you want to spend, look at the new Intel Core 2 Duo, at least the E6600, 2.4ghz, 1066mhz FSB, and a 4mb L2 cache. I'd recommend at least 2gb of ram.

I'm not really due for an upgrade just yet, but the quad-core Xeon's are due out next year.
 
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Cameraman

Senior Member


I am bumping this post because we just had a machine die, so we are comparing the costs to repair and replace it. Based on a scan of the posts in this section, I have assembled the following description of what I hope would be a good configuration for Alibre Design (note: we are also running Autodesk Inventor suite - mostly Mechanical Desktop - on these machines, which is why I have listed a Quadro card):

- P4 or AMD 32-bit processor
- 1MB-2MB RAM
- nVidia card (perhaps Quadro NVS 285 w/ 128MB?)
- two SATA 3GB/s drives (one for OS & Apps, the other for swap file)

We are a Dell house, so you may recognize some of the specs above as being typical for Dell machines.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Regards,
Greg :D
 
swertel

swertel

Alibre Super User


Get the Intel or AMD dual core 64-bit processor, but install the 32-bit OS.

Start out with no less than 2GB memory.

The Quiadro NVS series is designed for 2D applications only - and has lately been focusing on text regen such as spreadsheet data. Get the Quadro FX 1000-series or better and 256 MB memory. You can get something with 512, but it probably overkill unless you have lots of windows open at the same time.
 
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Cameraman

Senior Member


Dang, thanks Scott ... I was working from a combination of documents (including a Dell quote) and didn't even pay attention to what I was typing (let alone research it) ... I just saw the "Quadro" and went with it. I will get a new quote.

Not sure if I can get the 64-bit processors approved ... machine speed is the least of our problems with Alibre right now, but once we get the local server package installed and operational I am hopeful that that will change.

Thanks again,
Greg :D
 
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jemmej

Senior Member


1. Almost all new processors from both AMD and Intel are fully compatiable with 64-bit extensions. They all run 32-bit applications and OS's just fine as well.

2. 64 bit is still a bit in the future. Recall the transition to a 32-bit Windows environment. It took at least 12 months before your mainstream applications were ported over from 16-bit land. The same will hold true this time around. The timetable has been shrunk somewhat because of Windows XP 64 but will not truly begin until Vista is released. Then you will see a mass migration to the 64-bit environment.

3. If you upgrade every 5 years you should definitely be focusing on a dual core chip from either Intel or AMD.

4. At least 2GB of memory. 4GB should keep up over your 5 year plan.

5. Don't spend too much on a video card unless you are doing other drafting/design work. Alibre is DirectX based and your typical mid-range video card will be more than sufficient.

6. Don't forget the productivity benefits of things such as dual monitors.

7. PLEASE make sure to get a 16MB cache hard drive. Hard drives are the LARGEST bottleneck of current computer systems. Do not skimp on hard drive cache.

Those are my two penneth worth...

Jim
 
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JordanCClark

Alibre Super User
Re:

flyboydave said:
Besides, even as cheap as ram is, I can't see myself loading up with more than 4gb of ram.
Click to expand...

A bit off topic, but I remember when Bill Gates said that we should never need any more than 640k of RAM... Yes, 640k! I never envisioned that I would need the 2gig of RAM that I use now. Quite an exponential jump in just around 20 years...

Anyway, I am in complete agreement with what Jim has just posted... right down to the 4GB RAM :)

Regards,

Jordan
 
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jtwhite

Member
Re:

jemmej said:
3. If you upgrade every 5 years you should definitely be focusing on a dual core chip from either Intel or AMD.
Click to expand...

Too bad that Alibre doesn't support multi-threading so it could use that dual core :(

I even had one of the guys at Alibre Assistant tell me to turn off Hyper-Threading since their system information tool was showing that I had two processors even though I knew it was a single CPU when I was having a lot of problems with Alibre throwing "can't access memory at xxxxxxxxh" errors. Their explanation was that Alibre "didn't play nice with Hyper-Threading". It didn't seem to make a lot of difference in performance or the number of errors.
 
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craneaero

Member
Hardware recommendation

If you want to be able to offer your services on-site at a clients premises, I would recommend the latest monster laptop from Acer - the 9800 series.
It comes in various configurations and costs less than you might think.

Mine is the 9802WKMi and has the following spec.
Intel® Core™ Duo processor T2300E 1.66GHz
20.1" WSXGA+ Widescreen TFT CrystalBrite 6-Lamp Display
120GB Hard Drive
1024MB DDR II RAM Memory
8X slot-load DVD Super-Multi Double Layer Drive
Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth
Built-in Hybrid TV tuner
Built-in 1.3 Megapixel Acer OrbiCam™
Built-in 5-in-1 Card Reader
NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7600 with up to 256 MB TurboCache™
8-cell Li-ion Battery
Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005

The 20.1" screen is fantastic and Alibre has no problems with XP Media Centre as far as I have seen. The graphics were so much better than my desktop, that I immediately had to buy a new card for it.

The only problem so far was finding a laptop bag. The only company making one that big is in the USA, and they wanted $100. I ended up buying an aluminium briefcase for £30 from Maplins (designed for carrying a DJ's turntable).

The only thing it is not suitable for us using on your lap, but as a portable workstation it is great. Other possible monsters are from Dell and Samsung.
 
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mrehmus

Senior Member
Faster disks

I recently lost my C drive so I moved up to the following drives:

C drive is a 150 gig 10K rpm SATA
Work drive is a pair of 37 gig 10K SATA running on a hardware RAID 0 card.

This has made a very large difference in the speed with which AD responds at all levels. My complex 2D drawings load and manipulate probably 4x faster than before. Now some of that is because the old 7200 rpm EIDE drives were very full. But this is noticably quicker.

Processor is still a 3.2 ghz P4 with 2 gigs of DDR400 memory on an ASUS P4C800E-Deluxe motherboard. 2 LCD screens, 21.3 and 17".

BTW, I had a source from big M tell me that memory access and the number of processor slots are part of the licensing setup on Vista (as it is on XP). So purchasing a 4 processor socket motherboard won't do you any good unless you run an upscale version (can you say server?) of XP or Vista. Same for the memory. 4 gigs is in in normal XP if you jump through some hoops. I think that goes for Vista as well.

Interestingly enough, big M counts a quad processor (4 processors on one pagckage) to be a single processor for licensing purposes (but hang on, they are trying to get that 'fixed'.
 
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k5man

Member


I just finished loading Alibre Pro on my shiny new Christmas computer. From there, the first thing I did was to load the single largest model I have. The model was imported from AutoCAD Inventor and has 4,994 parts, 134 of which are unique. Many of these are screws, nuts and washers and are hidden to help speed viewing.

My old machine would load this model but struggled to do anything with it. To interactively rotate the model on the screen was PAINFULLY slow. In all fairness, my old machine is a laptop with IGP and only 512 MB of RAM.

The new machine interactively rotates the model in near real time. There is just a hint of jerkyness to it that keeps it from appearing fluid. I have yet to do any real work with it but I have yet to find too many operations that the new machine can’t process in just a few seconds.

Vital stats on the machine are as follows:

Processor: Intel Core2 Duo E6600, 2.4 GHz
Main memory: Geil 2GB, DDR2 PC6400, 1.58 GHz
Main board: ASUS P5NSLI, nForce 570 chipset
Hard disk: Hitachi SATA-2, 320 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache
Video: Nvidia GeForce 7600GT, 256MB

It does experience periodic lock-ups which I have not yet been able to track down to a specific sub-system or driver. Hopefully, I’ll find the culprit sooner or later.

Happy New Year to all,
Karl
 
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