Your Dream Machine

[lindejos]

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you could purchase your dream workstation for CAD. What would you get?


Specifically: What kind and how much memory? Graphics Card? Processor? Peripherals thatYOU can't live without?

 

[executnr]

May not be a dream machine, but here is what I ordered Saturday:


Will be running Pro/E, Mechanica, and maybe someday a good CFD program.
Dell Precision 690 Mini-Tower
Dual Core Xeon Proc 5060 3.20GHz, 2X 2MB L2 Cache 1066MHz <?:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
2nd Processor,Dual Core Xeon Proc 5060,3.20GHz,2X2MB L2 Cache, 1066,
4GB, DDR2 ECC SDRAM Memory 667MHz, 4X1GB in Riser,
2 x Dell UltraSharp 1907FP Flat Panel
nVidia,Quadro FX 3450,256MB VGA or DVI,
80GB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200RPM HardDrive
WINDOWS XP PRO x64,
16X DVD+/-RW w/Cyberlink PowerDVD,
250GB SATA 3.0Gb/s, 7200RPM Additional HardDrive

Wayne
www.ksdesignllc.com

 

[lindejos]

I'm going with:


2X Xeon Dual Core 3.00 Ghz(woodcrest 64bitchipset)


4X 1GB 667MHz FBD Memory


2X 160GB SATA2 7200RPM HDD


DVDRW SATA 16x10x48


ATI PCIe Fire GL V7200 256MB Dual DVI Videocard


Windows XP 64


Hopefully it kicks butt, it has to last me a while

 

[Vesh]

What a pointless thread. Tempting though.

Intel Core 2 Extreme x6800
4x1GB RAM DDR2 1066
Quadro FX4500 Dual DVI
36GB Seagate Cheetah
500GB Seagate Barracuda


2 x Dell 24" Widescreen
Windows Vista 64

I unlike the other rich kids do not own the above machine nor am I even considering it.

 

[phoxeoy]

Anything that is not running Windows.

 

[Roger]

In March I purchased an HP Media Center from Sam's Club. $1850.


3.0 Ghz


1.5GB


300GB drive


DVD, etc. burner


ATI Radeon X1300 PRO graphics card


21" wide, flat panel w/2 speakers


WF2 runs great.


How much are your Dell's?

 

[design-engine]

Did anyone see this new Dell? Notice how it folds up and one can hold it.


<a href="%20http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/x%20psnb_m2010?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04%20" target="_blank" target="_blank">
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/x psnb_m2010?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04 </a>



I want a 20" laptop for my B-Day. I have the new m90 BTW and it rocks!



Edited by: design-engine

 

[btuman]

Hey Bart, Did you design that laptop?

 

[damormino]

Anything that is not running Windows.

I couldn't agree more. Moving from Windows to Linux was the best move we made.

We use Shuttle SN27P2's with Athlon FX62's, 4GB RAM, and fanless 7600GS graphics cards. These systems are extremely small and very quiet. Many people at our company say they are silent, but they actually emit about 40dBA@0.6m idle under normal conditions.

If you stick a Quadro card (with fan) the system performance increases by about 15%. The noise increases to about 44dBA - which is still very quiet.

Shuttle also has a SD37P2. This is the basically the same system, except it uses the newer Intel Core 2 instead of the AMD Athlon. It should perform about 10%-12% faster than our AMD systems. We intend to try these out soon.

It is real easy to try different systems out when you choose to use Linux, instead of Windows. And a year from now, when computers are even faster, quieter and cheaper, it is very easy to move the Engineers to these new systems and move their old systems to other office staff. The Engineers can always have the fastest, quietest, coolest systems and it is almost effortless to make this happen with Linux.

 

[MichailS]

I also don't want to be running Windows.

Windows 2000 has clunky memory management. Windows XP is no better but adds a bunch of useless crap. X64 seems to be just a test bench for Vista, which eats huge amounts of RAM for no reason, and besides - I'm fed up with Microsoft and don't want to give them any more money or support their platform by using it.

I'd guess this machine would fit my palate:

http://www.sun.com/desktop/workstation/ultra40/index.jsp

but in order to fit my dreams it also has to be infinitely faster. Any nanosecond I have to wait for my computer is one too many. Thus, I will never see a Dream Machine.
Edited by: MichailS

 

[phoxeoy]

Gee wiz, I thought I was alone in this X-windows campaign. Windows seems to be the OS for people who don't, don't want to or just lives in a bubble about using something that is better. I have a Sun Workstation running Solaris 10 that I use to run Pro/E. We also have PC's running XP with Pro/E on them. I have not tried Linux with Pro/E yet.

My dream system would have to be a Mac Pro maxed out. I do photo, animation, video and audio editing along with web development on the side. I find that Mac's do these kinds of thing a whole lot better. Plus, now that Mac has switched over to the Intel chips; you can run Windows on a Mac for those much needed but stupid Windows only applications.

It's really only a matter of time for the world to see what crap Windows is. It's already started.

 

[MichailS]

I think that engineers in general are more likely to approve of UNIX environments, and we are also more picky when it comes to performance.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of the engineers and workplaces I have ever encountered never allowed users to choose their tools. It is invariably the local IT department that decides, and they like to lift the phone and call their pals at Dell to send over another stupidly speced rig that they then ghost over Windows on. It makes their work so simple.

So if only there was a power shift from the IT department to the engineering department, I bet we would see more UNIX out there, as well as better chosen hardware and CAE software chosen by merit rather than contacts and bulk discounts.