Can these Specs be better???

[Les Therrien]

My current computer system has been upgraded many times so this time around I think it's time for an all new computer again. I was talking to my tech and this is what I'm looking at. Please tell me what you think and let me know if there's any areas I could improve on.

Part of the reason for an all new system is to prepare for the someday upcoming Windows Vista. So a 64 bit computer it will be.

Intel Core2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz (possibly X6800-2.93GHz)
4 GB RAM (later to be expandable to 8Gigs after the release of Vista)
ATI Radeon x1400 (or higher - how much is overkill???)
250GB HD (7200RPM)
Win XP Pro & R9.1

Now I know that currently Windows does not take advantage of the 4Gigs of RAM. It maxs out at 3.25 or so. In the rendering benchmark thread, this seems to be a problem with clay_hickling's computer!? Should I max out at 2Gigs and upgrade later???

Any help would be greatly appreciated so I can get this ordered and get back up to speed.

[funkman]

Part of the reason for an all new system is to prepare for the someday upcoming Windows Vista. So a 64 bit computer it will be.

I have win64. The only regret I have is that I didn't employ a dual boot operating system which would have allowed a choice of startup in xp or xp64. I would be running revit in xp, the others in xp64. Eveything else works fine in xp64. I have also 4gb of ram.

[Les Therrien]

Are you saying that Revit not stable in the Win64 environment?

[funkman]

Are you saying that Revit not stable in the Win64 environment?

No not at all - revit is totally fine on my computer. I have been using it now for over a year. In fact the benchmark test results shows I was around 3rd or 4th at the time even with RAID5 slowing it down. The only problem is the display of thumbnails in explorer which doesn't work - the latest I heard is that the factory is working on a fix.

I use Leonid's thumbnail explorer now which he provided a fix for x64 in only a day or two. You would think that Revit could do it even faster, but until more x64 systems infiltrate the market, I don't think they look at it seriously.

HTH

[Les Therrien]

Great thanks!
So I'll stick with building the 64bit system with 4Gigs of RAM.

This may be a dumb question but, what is Raid?
I've heard this term many times. Even my tech has mentioned it before. But he is a computer science wiz and sometimes the conversations are way beyond me!

[funkman]

no worries mate. I actually learn't all my limited knowledge from Irusun who I think posted this link regarding Raid. It can get very involved, but does make sense. Have a coffee and read.

RAID - CLICK HERE

In a dash, there is more than just one hard drive depending on your chosen raid configuration, and if one hard drive happens to die, it allows you to replace the drive without losing any information as it rebuilds the lost data from the other drive/s.

[Les Therrien]

thanks Funkman!

So back to the thread title. Because there's been little response, I'll assume that they're good.

[Wes Macaulay]

They're not good; they're very good. That CPU is the sweet spot of the Core 2 lineup: good value and performance. And the ATI cards will serve you well. That box will eat most other computers' breakfast

[Les Therrien]

Thanks Wes.

That's all I needed to hear.

[Les Therrien]

So this is what I'm looking at specifically spec. wise. Can anyone see anything here that is conflicting with Revit????


Intel Core2 Duo E6700 2.67GHz
Asus P5B-E main board
Apacer 4GB RAM (1x4) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) memory
ATI X1600 512M Video PCI-E x16 Dual output
250GB HD (7200RPM)
Win XP Pro. 64Bit Edition & Revit 9.1
Front & Read mount USB ports
DVD Writer x16 Lightscribe
CD writer x52
Western Digital 250G SATA2 16M 7200rpm Hard drive x2 Raid 0 Stripping Black Mid Tower front USB & sound with light, side vent. 650W Power Supply 24pin Sony 1.44M floppy Case fan XP Pro 64 bit License and CD

Western Digital 320G hard drive in external Enclosure