Win XP 64 bit Dual Processors, worth it?

[tmalinski]

I have SolidWorks Office Premium with Cosmos and PDM. I am starting to use cosmos for assembly analysis and it is very slow on my current system, a 3.8Gh Zeon with 4 GB ram Win XP 32 bit Nvidia Quadro FX 3450/4000

I have been given a budget for a new PC that affords me a high end system. I was wondering if a leap into SW 64bit with an Win XP64 bit system with DUAL 3.2 zeon quad core processors, 16gb ram, and NVIDIA FX5600 will give me a significant boost, and is it worth the money, or maybe there is a better solution. Unfortunately I can't have a system custom built. I'm pretty much forced to buy a Dell machine (company politics) I have several Dells and they work fine. So I was looking at a T7400 64bit customized as stated above.

Any help is appreciated, we don't have an IT guy that knows this stuff.

Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec 670, Xeon 3.8,2GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 3450/4000 SDI
SWorks Premium 2008 SP 3.1 & PDMWorks

 

[ctopher]

Yes, for running Cosmos you will see a significant difference in speed. I once ran an assy with approx 8 parts on a 32-bit 2gb system, ran for several hours and I couldn't use any other application. Ran the same assy one a similar system you listed...finished in less than 30 minutes.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 06/08
ctopher's home (updated Jul 13, 2008)

 

[JMirisola]

Just seconding Chris' comment...you'll definitely see an improvement.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWP, Certified DriveWorks AE

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/jeffs_blog

 

[tmalinski]

Thanks guys, Would dual quad-core processors vs dual Duo-core processors make an actual difference? the cost of quad vs duo is about $500.00 for each if I go with dual processors. Sorry if these are dumb questions, but I'm just trying to compare advertised performance vs actual performance. I would think the answer to this depends on what applications I run and how many at the same time. I would typically be running SW/Cosmos - AutoCad - Excel and Outlook at the same time.
Thanks for your help
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec 670, Xeon 3.8,2GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 3450/4000 SDI
SWorks Premium 2008 SP 3.1 & PDMWorks

 

[ctopher]

If you are going to be doing a lot of FEA, I would go with the quad-core. The extra $500 and the speed savings is worth it IMO.

Chris
SolidWorks/PDMWorks 08 3.1
AutoCAD 06/08
ctopher's home (updated Jul 13, 2008)

 

[GRF]

I have a 64bit with 8 gb ram and 1 dual core processor, Dell Dimension M6300, simulation time 1:59. Ran the same simulation on a 2 quad core with 32gb ram, Dell top of the line model workstation, and it took 1:32 minutes, roughly a 23% reduction in time. This was a displacement simulation in linear mode with large displacement turned on, ~400k nodes and ~1.4 million degrees of freedom.

The more nodes and degrees of freedom the more you will benifit from the increased processors. I was watching the CPU usage on the quad core and there were only certain points where all the processors would be loaded. When doing convergence calculations all the cores would be loaded up, but when the software was determining the next iteration only 1 core would be working.

I trid to run this on a 32bit 2 dual core with 4 gb or ram and SW crashed. It did not give me the usual memory error it just flat out crashed. I will try it again tonight and see if there is a difference in the speed.

64bit will not gain you any speed it will only allow you to load up on more memory. There are some head aches with 64bit but nothing to do with SW. My IT department does not support 64bit so I am kind of on my own on somethings. I have run into some applications that will not run on 64bit so try to hold onto your 32bit system if you can.

 

[AnnaWood]

Tom,

I would also go with x64 Vista as opposed to x64 XP for the OS. There are very favorable reports on the SW forum about x64 Vista compared to x64 XP.

Cheers,

Anna Wood
SW2008 SP4.0, Windows Vista SP1
IBM ThinkPad T61p, T7800, FX570M, 4 gigs of RAM

http://designsmarter.typepad.com/solidmuse

http://www.phxswug.com

 

[GRF]

Hold onto the 32bit in addition to the 64bit that is.

 

[tmalinski]

Thanks ctopher, GRF, and AnnaWood
Based on some of your replies it sounds like 64bit with dual quad-core is the way to go.
If money was no object it also sounds like setting up 64bit a FEA system parallel to my regular workstation would ward off any non-SolidWorks potential issues, and I could let it chug away on its own.

AnnaWood, If it were me I would give Vista a try, but our outside IT guy who services many companies in the CT area is suggesting to our upper managers to stay away from Vista as long as we can. Problem is I suspect that at some point in the future SolidWorks will not be supported on XP. Does anybody have any info or estimated cut-off date on that?
Thanks to all,
Tom

Tom Malinski

http://www.okayind.com/

Dell Prec 670, Xeon 3.8,2GB Ram, Nvidia Quadra FX 3450/4000 SDI
SWorks Premium 2008 SP 3.1 & PDMWorks

 

[GRF]

Update on the time for FEA.

32 bit, 2 dual core xeon 5080 processor (3.73GH) with 4 GB ram computation time 7:32 (almost a full workday) (3 yr old Dell 490 workstation)

64 bit, 1 dual core x9000 (2.8gh) with 8 GB ram computation time 1:59, 1/4 of a work day (4 month old Dell Precision M6300)

64 bit, 2 quad core 32GB ram 1:32. (This is not my workstation it belongs to another group so I do not have the rest of the specs. If anyone really wants them I can probably get them and post them next week) I can tell you it is only a month or so old and it comes in Dell's big workstation platform, T7400. This thing is the size of a small appartment.

Vista vs XP, at home, non opengl card I can not rund SW 2008 on vista, very unstable. On the same computer with XP installed SW runs stable.