Xeon

[robert.1.hall72202]

Im thinking about upgrading to a Xeon processor with about 2 gigs of ram.
I plan on running AutoCad 2005 and Catia (for customer supplied models).
Anybody have any experience with a Xeon???

[thomas.stright]

Im thinking about upgrading to a Xeon processor with about 2 gigs of ram.
I plan on running AutoCad 2005 and Catia (for customer supplied models).
Anybody have any experience with a Xeon???

I'm running several IntelliStation Z Pro 6866-41U workstations here. Bought them back in December of 01 if I remember right. They are Dual P3 866Mhz Xeons with 512MB of Ram, Running NT4

We have had zero problems with these systems at all. Currently we are running 2005, Cadpipe 7.02, Microstation V8. I beleive they cost around $10,200 each. Pricey but they are running circles around some of the new P4 3.4Ghz systems that we have now.

[Scott Hopkins]

I am not sure I understand the whole Xeon thing. They appear to run at much slower clock speeds but they are used in the super high-end systems. What exactly is the difference between a "workstation" using dual Xeon processors and a "desktop" using a single Pentium 4 processor? Can Revit take advantage of both processors in a dual Xeon system?

[SkiSouth]

Can Revit take advantage of both processors in a dual Xeon system?

Revit is a single processor program. Accurender is a multiple processor program. How they mixed the two I'll never understand , anyway. The Xeon has its history in the PII, where the memory cache on the CPU itself was incorporated and thus greatly increasing the processing speed, along with its ability to "live nicely" with multiple processors (the box I run has 4 Xeon PIII's 900's). However, with the advent of the "blade" P4 server, and now the 64 bit processing chips, this technology is getting old even faster(PII Xeon was introduced in 1998 ). A brief summary of the PII Xeon's advantages:

"So the faster L2 cache is the main reason why under certain conditions the Pentium II Xeon will perform faster than the Pentium II. However, there are quite a few more special things about Xeon. First of all it enables all the features of the good old Pentium Pro, including support for quad CPU systems and even 8 CPUs in one system in combination with 450NX and a special cluster controller. The cacheable memory limit lies not only by 4 GB, but it can address and cache up to 64 GB memory by using 36-bit memory address bus and the new PSE36 mode."

If you look at the performance processors spreadsheet here in the hardware section, you'll see that my box is no where near the top performer and its running 4 Xeons..