Older system and video card question

[Denis01]

I'm relaunching a small, 1 person architecture practice and I'm brand new to Revit and AutoCad Architecture (I'm from the old, manual drafting school). I just purchased the 2009 Revit Suite and will be taking the Revit camp in a few weeks in Little Rock. I'll be loading the software on a (c.2004) HP d330 desk top (2.67 G Hz Pentium 4 SP2, 2.3 gb of ram and a 320 gb hard drive. I plan to upgrade the standard video card with an NVIDIA e-GeForce 8600 GT/1gb with dual DVI. Does anyone happen to know if the motherboard and processor will handle this video card, and will Revit 2009 run on this configuration?

I haven't yet loaded the software but am excited to be getting into this and want to get onto the learning curve. I'll eventually get a new machine, probably a laptop, but with just plunking down big bucks for the software, I'll need to figure out what to get for a system, as well as get a some cash flowing again before spend another chunk of $$$.

[iankids]

Hi Dryfly,

Welcome aboard.

There is a wealth of info on the hardware section of the forum.

My guess is that Revit will run OK. The specs on my box are a little newer and slightly better than yours and it runs fine - although I did upgrade the ram to 4gig. This version of Revit seems to me to be far more Ram hungry than 2008.

The video card is the one thing I would look at very carefully as this is the one piece of hardware which, based on the number of posts, causes more grief than anything else. Have check through the numerous posts on video cards & check if it is one ones recommended for use with Open GL.

Having made the change to Revit almost a year ago, there are two things which stand out from the past twelve months.
One, I under estimated what a big learning curve it was to become efficient and two, I now constantly ask myself why I didn't make the change years ago!!

Cheers,

Ian

[Denis01]

Thanks for the reply, iankids.

I realized that i probably posted this question in the hardware section after I sent it. Ironically, i ordered 2 more gig of ram right after i posted the question. That will take things to 4 gb which is the max for this system.

I'll check the hardware forum and see if anyone has any thoughts on the 8600 GT card.

//Denis http://forums.augi.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
Smile

[iru69]

Dryfly, a couple of things...

I believe your computer uses an AGP slot for the video card. I'm not aware of a 8600 AGP card.

2 GB is fine for running Revit on a system that old and for just getting started. Any Revit model that's big enough to require more than 2 GB of system ram is going to bring your ancient computer to its knees anyway.

Here is my advice. Cancel the order on the RAM. Don't buy a new video card. Don't spend any money upgrading that computer. Your wasting your money.

A ~$1,000 will get you into a "starter" workstation class computer. If you're really in a tight spot, even a ~$500 Dell/HP home computer will run rings around your old computer.

p.s. - Good luck with revit!

[twiceroadsfool]

I would go ahead with the RAM upgrade, and the Video card too.

At home i have a p4 3.0 with 4 gigs of ram (only shwos 3.25), and its fine in Revit. I run 2009, and ive opened some of our very large models on it. One was 250 MB, and while it was slow, it wasnt terrible to work on.

But i also agree with IRU, that you might want to consider the ROI on buying more parts for that computer. While mine works fine, i wont spend any more money upgrading it. Replacing it is just too easy...