I am a Computer Technology Teacher , and I teach CAD, Visual Basic, basic computer graphics (Photoshop) and video editing (Pinnacle Studio), as well as MS Office 2007. I love teaching CAD and am trying to learn as much as I can with what little spare time I have so that I can expand my course offerings from just teaching Revit (as a CAD I course), to include Inventor (as a CAD II course).
I am getting ready to load Revit Architecture 2011, 3ds Max 2011, and Inventor 2011 on my Dell XPS 600 with a 1033 FSB, 8GB RAM (8GB of is the max), 2 Seagate 7200 RPM Barracuda drives each w/ 32 MB Cache striped for RAID 1. The computer has a NVIDIA NForce4 motherboard (which NVIDIA no longer supports) but for which Windows 7 has drivers. I am running my system using Windows 7 Professional x64. I purchased the computer in January 2006.
Yes I know as a computer professional that 4 years is a long time to keep using a computer for someone like myself, and I realize that my computer is old, but I have 3 kids, a dog, a house, 2 car, etc. Last year I extended my XPS 600's usefulness by updating my cheap video card to a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800, and increased the memory from 4GB to 8GB and upgraded to a HP w2207 monitor.
The upgrades have helped, and the student Revit files I review, as well as the examples I create, range from 10 to 25GB, but a I am having a few minor issues with my XPS- a memory dump every now and then (I have wiped my hard drive and reinstalled only the essential programs, and then the semi-essential programs 1 at a time), and slow performance in Photoshop. Studio, and of course Revit 2010 (waiting for a view to regenerate can be annoying, let alone rendering).
Now that Revit makes use of more cores, and you can float the toolbar on a separate screen, do I upgrade to a solid state hard drive for my programs and use my current drives for content, or use my PC as a doorstop? (actually I'd let the kids have it)
If I buy a new computer, would you recommend an iCore processor in a higher-end desktop. or move to a workstation? What do you all think about a notebook workstation with a dock and 2 monitors- 1 large (22" - 24") main monitor + 1 19" monitor for floating the Revit toolbar and multitasking.
I appreciate your advice, and I recognize that I am not an Architect or Engineer like yourselves, but I would like to someday be able to design on the side for extra money if I become talented enough.
Your help is greatly appreciated, and I apologize for being long-winded, but I wanted to provide as much information as possible so that you wouldn't have to ask for more.