What to focus on when upgrading a Dell R5400 Workstation

Hi

The company I work for flushed out some "old" computers when migrating from XP to Win 7.

I got my hands on a Dell R5400 workstation from 2008:

• Dual Xeon E5450 (12 MB, 3.0GHz, quad core)
  
• 4GB (2x2GB) FBD ECC PC2-5300 667MHz RAM
  
• Nvidia Quadro FX570 256MB
  
• Extender FX100 dual DVI
  

I have added a SSD (250GB) with Win 8.1 as systemdisk and a WD Green 2TB for storage.

The plan is to use it for Autocad, Arduino projects, CNC and so on.

So the questions:

Should I swap the GPU with the Quadro 600 I have in my Sandy Bridge computer? Or save money for a Quadro K2000?

How much RAM is performance wise and economical defensible? Aim for 8, 16, 32 or stay with 4 GB? (2x2GB about 20£, 4x4GB about 100$, 2x8GB about 150$ and 4x8GB about 300$; without import taxes and shipping)

/Ferronovum

I would put in the max amount of RAM the system can hold. Can the motherboard actually accommodate more than 12GB of RAM?

I would use the Quadro 600 rather than spend money on a new K2000.

Yes, the motherboard can accommodate 32 GB RAM. Its a server/workstation MB that uses Fully Buffered DIM with ECC. I might then go for 2x8GB and then save money for the additional 2x8GB. Sadly the 8GB sticks are a bit pricey.

16MB is a pretty good way to start off. My work computer has 12GB while my home computer is 8GB and I do a fair amount of 3D work.

Was going to point out how expensive ECC ram is Is this a rack workstation? Crucial is saying that it is.

As stated at the top: "Dell R5400 Workstation" and "4GB (2x2GB) FBD ECC PC2-5300 667MHz RAM". That should be enough clues that computer uses ECC memory

Does it matter if its a Tower workstation och Rack workstation when I have specified the memory it uses?

Yes its a rack workstation and I also got the extension. Just have to use a singel ethernet cable between the rack and where I will be sitting.

Yeah, ECC = Expensive memory But the workstation it self was free

I seriously think you need to lighten up a bit! I was only making a joke and asking a general question.

The very best of luck to you on it

I seriously think you need to lighten up a bit! I was only making a joke and asking a general question.

The very best of luck to you on it

Sorry, just a bit tired after this hell week. My laptop broke down earlier this week when i tried to prolong its life by installing a ssd. I hate IDE-drives. and yesterday I worked about 12 hours.

So I will swap the quadro cards and get a set of 2x8GB memorys or what I can afford at the moment.

It's cool, happens to us all I was asking about it being a rack as I was wondering what space you had free for the graphics card. I am not familiar with those and did not know if it was a 1U or a larger one. Maybe you can find some used ECC ram to help fill it up.

It's a 2U rack chassi. For more info: http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-r5400/pd

Sadly I don't have any ECC ram laying around at home...