What is the Best System configuration for Working 120 MB Revit File

[balubharadwaj]

Hi

I need help in selcting the best system configuration for working in revit with 120MB Size

Thanks
Balu

[david_peterson]

Single workstation or are you talking office network/server?

First off the "Best" idea has been tossed around and you need to remember that it's only going to be the "Best" or 6mths or less.
That said, depending on what you are doing with your 120mb files, ie Rendering or modeling, you'd have 2 different choices. For both you'll need the 64 bit set-up, I'd suggest you bite the bullet and just get a set of 16GB of matched Ram. If you start with 8 and want to add more, you'll never have a truly matched set and may end up with errors.
Next if processor. 2 schools of thought. If you do more rendering, the quad core types will help with that. However they will have very little impact on modeling time. I'd still go for the quad if you plan to keep it for say 2 yrs. You never know when adesk will start to make better use of it.

[pdavis]

I think that is difficult to answer without knowing more about how your organization is creating models. I have seen 250MB models run fine on 4GB, 32-bit laptop with a Core 2 2.16GHz processor. Yet on that same workstation, I had a 72MB file that runs horrible because the team has not been very good about following modeling best practices. There are a ton of warnings, linked CAD files as well as some exploded CAD files that just killed the project.

The team spent a couple days working on Warnings and evaluating there DWG usage, the proiject file size dropped by a 1/3rd and it runs great.

As a general rule though, 64-bit OS with at least 8GB Ram, fast game card with 1GB of Ram has out performed the high-end Quadro's and they are cheaper. Then buy the fastest Hard Drive and processor you can afford.

[ben.mckay]

Ive always been told that the minimum RAM should be 20x the file size you will be working on. For example 20 x 120mb = 2400mb.
There will be many answers and opinions on this subject I guess it all depends on your budget.

Here are some ideas:

OS: Win 7 x64 (Great operating system)
Chip: Intel i5 or i7 (i7 920 is a fantastic chip, prob the only one i would choose at the moment) New intel i7 chips are out in feb if you can wait.
Ram: 6gig min on 1366 tri channel platform, 8gigs on 1156 dual channel platform (the 1156 runs both i5 & i7 but is dual channel ram. 1366 runs only i7 and is tri channel)
Graphics card: Depends on the money. Quadro if ya got some cash, normal gaming card if ya dont. Check in the forums for ones that work well with Revit
Hard disk: Solid state 128gig hard drive with an indilinix controler is the way to go. G.Skill falcons II are good drives. You will need a normal platter hard drive as well and the Samsung spin points are good ones.