workstation life span

[nrenfro]

Our firm has spent the last year replacing all of our workstations one by one. Now that everyone is all on the same level I was wondering what kind of mileage I should plan for? My excitation is 3-4 years. What do you think high low, I have no clue?

most of the Workstations 2/3rds are...

IBM ThinkCentre
P4 2.8
1 gig of RAM
32 meg NvidiaGforce
40 gig hard drive

the rest are a little beefer.

So doc give it to me striate how long do I really have

[GuyR]

Depends on so many parameters. Revit performance improvements, how you use Revit etc. Processor performance.

Personally I'm budgeting on 18 months to 2 years going by my experiences to date.

Guy

[bclarch]

I think you will be OK for a couple of years, possibly three. The critical item will be rendering. Depending on how much rendering you do, you might have to dedicate one or two machines to that and upgrade them more frequently.

[gregcashen]

I would not bank on anything more than 3 years for sure. Even that is pushing it for me.

[hand471037]

A really good rule of thumb for things like this is to think of the age of your computer in 'computer years'. just like dogs have 'dog years', i.e. 3 (or is it 7? I forget) years to our human years.

Well, computers tend to have five. For example, a two year old computer is about the same as a ten year old car. It's gonna get you around fine, but not as fast as a new one would. A three year old computer? Well that's like a 15 year old car- and a four year old computer is like a 20 year old car, a '84 for example, and will only get you around if you don't have to go far or fast. ;)

So I'd say that two-to-three years is a good bet, with the people with more demanding needs (like rendering) possibly on a one-to-two year cycle.

This also is kinda why some people say that Apple computers are like BMW's; a four year old Mac is still a pretty good computer, if old, and still even has resell value. And sense even a five year old BMW can have more modern features than a new Chevy.... :)

[mlgatzke]

Jeffrey,

I would agree with your analogy of 5:1. However, after giving it some thought, I'd say it's more like the traditional 7:1. After all, a three year old computer would be more like a 21 year old car -- especially in the world of Revit and other 3D information modelers.

As an example: Three years ago I bought new computers for my computer lab at school. I bought, what was at the time, cutting edge technology (P4 1.5GHz, 512MB 800MHz Rambus, and FireGL video cards. These workstations operated through their assignments just fine. However, now, in their third year, they're beginning to show signs of their aging and limitations. This year I'm planning to buy dual 3GHz machines with 2GB of RAM and, probably, one of the NVidia cards.

Unlike our discussion comparing computer hardware to cars, computers age at more of an exponential rate. By this I mean that computers age with acceleration because hardware increases it's power AND software increases it's hardware power need. Unlike cars, where the cars get nicer and the economy/efficiency increases, but the roads still use the same technology and don't place any higher demands on the cars.

[nrenfro]

Thank you all very much this has been quite informative. I especially like the aging metaphors.. I have never thought of it that way, thanks for the new perspective.

[hand471037]

Mike, you're dead-on about the limit of comparing them to cars. It's just a handy example to use when people who might not follow computers closely ask how 'useful' an old computer might be. A 21 year old junker car (or worse, a 36 year old Dodge :) ) is fine for getting slowly 'round town, but wouldn't be anything you want to depend on for work. Also the 21 year old car can drive the same roads as the new car, but it can't go as fast as everyone else is going, won't keep up, and probably won't be as safe. :)

It's just a analogy, after all. :)

Also, from what I've heard here at my new gig from the other CAD folks is that the Nvidia drivers better support the 'breed' of OpenGL AutoDesk tends to use than the ATI's do. While I've never had issue, Revit did seem to like my old workstation's Nvidia better than my current ATI, and apparently the Inventor folks out there have had some big performance issues with the ATI cards... since you teach more than just Revit, just thought I give ya an FYI. ;)