civil 3d and ideal hardware

[rakachitra]

Gentlemen,

I would like to discuss about the ideal hardware for civil 3d. My 2gb dual core, 2 gb RAM, 128 video card, desktop seems incapable of handling more than 5 km road project without a crash.

I received a detailed 1 m LIDAR contour. I have clipped to RoW size to minimize the file size, i have turn off the surface display, yet crash happens.

Further surface data of bigger than 200 hectare is so crash friendly.

Any suggestion?

[ReMark]

Are you considering making changes to your present hardware or buying an all new computer?

If changing present setup then the two obvious changes would be to the graphics board and adding more system memory.

What OS are you running?

What is the size (GB) and speed (rpm) of your hard drive? How much "free space" do you have?

What type of video card are you using? PCIe? Manufacturer and model?

[rustysilo]

I would go by Autodesk specs at minimum:
AutoCAD Civil 3D 2009 Recommended System Requirements

AutoCAD® Civil 3D® Recommended Configuration (excluding server components used with project management capabilities):

Intel® Pentium® 4 (3 GHz or higher); AMD Athlon™; multiple processors supported, dual-core supported
32-bit only: Microsoft® Windows Vista® Ultimate/Business/Enterprise, Microsoft® Windows XP (SP2)Note: Windows XP 64 and Windows Vista 64 are supported in 32-bit compatibility mode only

3 GB RAM
5 GB free disk space for installation
1280x1024 display with true color, 1600x1200 or greater recommended (OpenGL® accelerator with full OGL ICD support not required)
MS-mouse compliant
Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.0 (SP1 or later)
DVD drive

[rakachitra]

Are you considering making changes to your present hardware or buying an all new computer?

If changing present setup then the two obvious changes would be to the graphics board and adding more system memory.

What OS are you running?

What is the size (GB) and speed (rpm) of your hard drive? How much "free space" do you have?

What type of video card are you using? PCIe? Manufacturer and model?

ReMark,

I am considering a workstation. I read a book by Harry O. Ward which suggests a server class workstation with Xeon processors and 8 GB RAM. The investment would be skyrocket, but i can take the crash no more.

What about this? Do you have recommendation if i decide to buy a new computer?

Thanks.

[rakachitra]

rusty,

thanks for the input. i will consider it.

best regards,

[ReMark]

Check online at CADalyst Magazine as they just ran an article, in the May issue, about quad core workstations. Prices ranged from $2,795 to just over $5,499 (US). They looked at computers from Xi, HP, Polywell and Velocity Micro. Whatever you get for a new system pay particular attention to the graphics card and what AutoDesk is recommending these days for 3D work. You may also wish to go with a 10,000 rpm SATA II drive (Velocity Raptor by Western Digital). They just came out with a 300GB drive and also have a 150GB version.