Hardware Setup Q?

[tweist]

I appologise for my lack of technical knowledge on this matter, but I was hoping to get some educated opinions on the following...

To give you an idea of our current situation, we are updating 11x17 drawings daily (minimum of 15 per day) each will have to be printed. These drawings are integrated with 50-85 MB images which need to be rendered prior to working within the document as well as every print. The result is every print taking between 10 and 20 minutes to process… during which time the printing computer gets locked down due to the processing effort.

This update and printing process will be an continuous ongoing effort for many months to come...

Currently this is being done on a Laptop... Core2Duo 2.2GHz with 2GB of ram.

We are looking to purchase a desktop for our ACAD station ('09 LT) as well as up the memory on our Ricoh printer to resolve this issue.

The systems that have been quoted for us from our local dealer are as follows:

Optiplex, 4 GB Ram, Intel Quad Core(2.4ghz), RAID 0, Office Pro, 19" LCD 1 $1,553.42

Precision, 4 GB Ram, 2 x Intel QC Xeon ((2) 2.0 quad cores), RAID 0 SAS, Off. Pro, 19" LCD 1 $2,821.33





Can anyone give me some opinions or info on the difference between these systems, again... i am not super tech savy so i am attempting to get a value/performance idea. And how much improvemnet we may see from jumping from our current laptop setup.

Thank you for your time.. i know this has been very long winded!!

[tweist]

AutoCAD Workstation

Dell Precision Workstation T7400 - 32bit
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5405 (2.00GHz,2X6M L2,1333)
T620
[223-4707]
1
Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista® Business Bonus-Windows® XP Professional loaded
XP3VBDP
[467-4318]
11
2nd Processor (Must match speed selection above)
Quad Core Intel® Xeon® Processor E5405 (2.00GHz,2X6M L2,1333)
PR20QC
[311-8072]
2
Memory
4GB, DDR2 SDRAM FBD Memory, 667MHz, ECC (4 DIMMS)
4G4E6
[311-7681]
3
Keyboard
USB Entry Quietkey, No Hot Keys
U
[310-7949]
4
Monitors
Dell 19 inch UltraSharp™ 1907FPV Flat Panel, adjustable stand, VGA/DVI
1907FPV
[320-4976]
5
Graphic Cards
256MB PCIe x16 nVidia NVS 290, Dual Monitor DVI Capable
NV290
[320-5864]
6
Boot Hard Drive
73GB SAS Hard Drive, 1 inch (15,000 rpm)
73SS15
[341-5238]
8
Hard Drive Configuration
C18 All SAS drives, RAID 0, 2 drive total configuration
SASR02
[341-5386]
9
Floppy Drive and Media Card Reader Options
No Floppy Drive
NFD
[341-3414]
10
Mouse
Dell USB 2-Button Mechanical Mouse with Scroll
ELD
[310-7959]
12
DVD, and Read-Write Devices
16X DVD+/-RW w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™ and Roxio Creator™ Dell Ed
DVRW16
[313-5709][420-7980][420-8857]
16
Speakers
Internal Chassis Speaker,Dell
INTSPK
[313-5938]
18
Resource DVD
Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers
RDVD
[313-5674]
21
Productivity Software
Microsoft® Office 2007 Professional and Adobe Acrobat 8 STD
WS27PR
[410-1099][420-6712]
22
2nd Hard Drive
73GB SAS Hard Drive, 1 inch (15,000 rpm)
73S15A
[341-5364]
23

[tweist]

AutoCAD PC
Module
Description
Product Code
Sku
Id
OptiPlex 755 Minitower
Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (2.40GHz, 8M, 1066MHz FSB)
7524TQ
[223-1202]
1
Operating System(s)
Genuine Windows Vista® Business Bonus-Windows® XP Professional loaded
XP3VBDP
[467-0229]
11
File System
NTFS File System for all Operating Systems
NTFS
[420-3699]
2
Memory
4GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM,667MHz, (2 DIMM)
4G2N62
[311-7492]
3
Keyboard
Dell USB Keyboard, No Hot Keys
EUSB
[310-8010]
4
Monitors
Dell 19 inch UltraSharp™ 1907FPV Flat Panel, Adjustable Stand, VGA/DVI
1907FPV
[320-4976]
5
Video Card
256MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro, Single Monitor (1 DVI/1 TV-out), full height
256DVIF
[320-5739]
6
Boot Hard Drives
160GB RAID 0 (2x80GB) SATA 3.0Gb/s and 8MB DataBurst Cache™
160R0
[341-6049]
8
Floppy Drive and Media Reader
No Floppy Drive
NFD
[341-3909]
10
Mouse
Dell USB 2-Button Optical Mouse with Scroll, Black
USBOBLK
[310-9627]
12
Basic Systems Management Mode
ASF Basic Hardware Enabled Systems Management
BCSM
[310-9492]
15
Removable Media Storage Devices
16X DVD+/-RW SATA, Roxio Creator™ CyberlinkPowerDVD™
DRM16
[313-5426][420-7963][420-8856]
16

[ReMark]

What OS will you be running? XP or Vista?

You're determined to stick with LT and not go full-blown AutoCAD?

What are the specs on the hard drive (size and speed(in rpm))?

Most importantly, what are the specs on the graphics card? Manufacturer and model would be helpful.

[ReMark]

Wow, no sooner did I post my question than you answered them. Boy, that was quick!

[tweist]

I realised not enough info was given.. please see above... sorry about that.

We would prefer to stick with LT as the drawings we work with are very simple in nature... basically working on Platt maps.

[tweist]

:) :) i just appreciate the help, thanks for looking this over... much appreciated...

any reccomendations you can give would be appreciated... it looks like our computer broker is dell specific...

[ReMark]

Well I would at least consider getting a quote from a non-Dell specific dealer just as an comparison. I've used Xi Computers for the past few years. I think another forum member has recommended a couple of the newer HP workstations.