Hardware recommendations

Wazzer · 24 Jun 2009, 01:29

Thanks for the reply guys

The problem is that the Lenovo notebooks with QuadroFX and 17inch screens are Massivly more expensive than the 15 inch notebooks. I mean they are about 4 times the price!!!
They tell me we just dont have the budget for one.

I am also concernd that the FireGL graphics card wont play nicely with sketchup

Does anyone have any experience of these cards with SketchUp?

I wont have access to one to run any tests on it until we order it and recieve it. This is obviously far too late if its no good.

The problem is I am being pushed into making a decsion very soon and i cant afford to make a mistake.

Cheers All

remus · 24 Jun 2009, 07:44

The only info i can find on it is the following:

@unknownuser said:

FireGL v3100 - 128MB; Windows XP sp3
Problems selecting and painting.
Shadows display incorrectly.
OpenGL version 6.14.10.7660
2D driver version 6.14.10.6822

Not looking good so far

Wazzer · 8 Jul 2009, 06:22

OK i think we may have a winner

I have resigned to the fact that i will not find a suitable Notebook with the performance i want within the budget the company has set so i have relented adn decided on a Desk Top
Please can you check out the specs of the following PC and let me know what you think, I quite like it.

Processor Intel Xeon W3570 Processor ( 3.20GHz 1333MHz 8MB )
Operating system Windows XP pro SP3
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 768MB
Total memory 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
Hard drive device 500GB 7200rpm

Cheers guys

Ben

Anssi · 9 Jul 2009, 11:45

@wazzer said:

Processor Intel Xeon W3570 Processor ( 3.20GHz 1333MHz 8MB )
Operating system Windows XP pro SP3
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800 768MB
Total memory 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
Hard drive device 500GB 7200rpm

Last week I tested a desktop with a four-core Xeon with a clockspeed of 2.53 GHz and the same video card that you are contemplating. IMO SU worked OK with it. Comparing to a 3.6 GHz P IV with a QFX 1300 card it was somewhat faster but not stratospherically. So you should be OK. Frankly, as things now stand, it is about the fastest system for SU that money can buy at the moment. The graphics card is not the most expensive one but I am not convinced that it should be.

Anssi

chango70 · 9 Jul 2009, 12:32

If you are only using SU then I strongly recommend against Quadro FX cards. The performance gain from optimzed openGL is marginal at best which doesn't justify the price difference. I have tested both Quadro FX 3700 and Geforce 9800 GT on my system (They are roughly equivalent hardware wise) and there is no difference in SU performance, however, Quadro is 6x the price. Don't fall for it. Quadro does play nicely with Rhino though thats why I stuck with it.

Wazzer · 10 Jul 2009, 05:56

HI Guys

Thanks for the responses.

The problem i have is that this is a company computer and they have to buy something "off the shelf" and it has to be from Lenovo.

So far the above specification is the best i can find for a reasonable outlay. If you guys know of a better spec lenovo Computer for a reasonable price please let m eknow as i am now Desparate!!!

Thanks again for the feed back

Ben

Anssi · 14 Jul 2009, 16:02

Hi Ben,

In fact I am in the same fix as you. Company policy limits our choice to a particular make. The model range that I have to choose from does not even carry the CPU that you chose, so we are settling to a somewhat slower clockrate and a more expensive video card instead.

However, as I said in my previous post, your choice is about the fastest desktop computer that you can get, and choosing a different make will not help, as adding a second CPU does nothing for SU. The Lenovo workstation I tested was a bit noisy, though. The modern Xeon processors are based on the same technology as the i7 range, and the new features really seem to help single-threaded apps work faster than with the Core2Duo-range CPUs.

Anssi

Khai · 14 Jul 2009, 16:13

One hardware addon I'm finding a joy to use with Sketchup is the Belkin N52te gamepad. it's basically a programmable keypad for the left hand. once setup it's lovely to use with SU

Wazzer · 16 Jul 2009, 07:38

Hi guys

Thanks for the feedback

Our IT manager has changed his mind again and I am now getting the Lenovo W700 DS Work station Note Book. And its actually been ordered!!

Will let you know how it runs when it arrives next week.

Thanks for the help guys

Ben

Gaieus · 22 Jul 2009, 17:29

Well, I finally join the hardware club now. Thinking about this desktop:

Processor: INTEL Core2 Duo E8400 3.00GHz
Memory: 4GbDDR3 1333Mhz
Video card: nVidia 9600GT / HTD I / 1Gb
(plus all the rest but the above are the essential).
I'll be using it with a 32 bit Windows XP (for the time being) so no "need" for much more RAM ATM for instance.

remus · 22 Jul 2009, 22:55

Thats quite a nice little setup youve got there gai looks envious

Gaieus · 23 Jul 2009, 10:07

Ah well, I really hope so. My laptop (I've been using for a year now but had got it from Mike so it's a rather old piece despite of its originally good specs) is really dying. It took about an hour and a half today to get it to start!
Also it keeps shutting down at the most unexpected moments (probably due to overheating) so forget about rendering for instance. I now put a big "family fan" against its back and also put it on "legs" so that the air stream can blow under its bottom...

Gaieus · 24 Jul 2009, 10:01

@jackson said:

Csaba, considering your laptop's current AND previous owners, could explain a lot!

Yes, indeed. I know I'll have to do the whole cleaning job, really. Once my new machine is up and running (hopefully some time early next week), I'll do it with the lappy. I just don't want to risk ending up with no computer at all as I have ongoing works (and of course, SCF ).

As for the reinstall; yeah, that will also happen. Although I think it was just about half a year or so when I last did it. However I'm afraid the lappy-lady is actually dying so I may even get it checked and if it's worth, maybe change a part or two.

Jackson · 24 Jul 2009, 13:54

Yikes! Silly question, but have you cleaned the inside of the laptop?

A quick guide for anyone who thinks they may need to do this:

Unplug the power cable and take out the battery.
Unscrew all the access panels on the underside, turn the laptop back right way up, open the screen/lid to 90° and stand it on its side. This is to create as many "holes" in the laptop chassis as possible so dust can be blown out effectively, even back out through the keyboard.
Using compressed air, blow a few extremely short bursts of air backwards through all the exhaust vents. This dislodges all the grunge which has accumulated on the leading edges of grilles, heatsinks and obstructions due to the constant one-directional air flow. Then do a couple of short bursts from the opposite direction (i.e. into the fan air intake) to ensure the dust you just blew backwards hasn't simply lodged somewhere else instead. Repeat this back-and-forth process a few times until you can't see any more dust coming out of either "end".

COMMON SENSE WARNING: Of course, if you're using an air compressor be very careful to limit the pressure and hold the nozzle back a few inches/cms from the actual vents as you can easily dislodge or damage components otherwise.

If you can get access to the fan, CPU and GPU heatsinks, a large soft watercolour paint brush is great for getting in the nooks and crannies to get them shiny again (not unlike archeology!). A couple of gentle blasts of compressed air after brushing and they'll be like new.

I do this at least 3 or 4 times a year and (even though I only use it at home) a cloud of extremely fine dust is inevitably emitted from my laptop's innards every time.

A well-insulated CPU (i.e. covered in a nice fur coat of lovely fluffy dust) and blocked pipes will overheat in seconds and blowing more air through it (with an extra fan for example) could just cause more dust to accumulate, exacerbating the problem. All the more so in a smokey atmosphere which, Csaba, considering your laptop's current AND previous owners, could explain a lot!

Re: the incredibly slow start-up, it really sounds like you need to do a full OS resintall.

Jackson · 24 Jul 2009, 13:58

@gaieus said:

Yes, indeed. I know I'll have to do the whole cleaning job, really. Once my new machine is up and running (hopefully some time early next week), I'll do it with the lappy. I just don't want to risk ending up with no computer at all as I have ongoing works (and of course, SCF ).

I would have thought that a frequently critically overheating PC would be putting your work at a much greater risk than blowing some air through it now and again.

johnsenior1973 · 29 Jul 2009, 18:48

Without looking back over this thread, it seems to me that most people on here are talking about higher end, $1,500+ machines.

How does SU run on the very cheapest, GMA laptops available for around $300/400?

The PC I have right now is nearly three years old, bottom of the range eMachines desktop - Pentium 4 3.06Ghz, 384mb RAM, ati radeon xpress 200. For me, I really haven't had any problem with SU and the speed is perfectly acceptable for me.

How would this $378 Acer laptop from Wal Mart compare to my present one? http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11068044 How would the 9 inch netbooks perform? http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=11319320

Gaieus · 30 Jul 2009, 07:02

My old machine I started using SU on was one with a Pentium 2.7 GHz processor, 512 Mb memory and a 128 Mb Ati Radeon X550 card. SU ran smoothly on it and I built models with more than 1.2 million poly's and 300.000 faces on it (surely by using layers often hidden and all).

This one rocks though.

pep75 · 14 Aug 2009, 12:55

Sorry guys...I'm breaking into this discussion...but has anyone experienced the diffenrence with SU and a SSD??? Does a SSD boost the performance of SU?

Thank you!!!

Anssi · 21 Aug 2009, 15:08

@pep75 said:

Sorry guys...I'm breaking into this discussion...but has anyone experienced the diffenrence with SU and a SSD??? Does a SSD boost the performance of SU?

Thank you!!!

I don't remember where (probably here) I picked it up, but I seem to know that OpenGL (the thing that drives the SU display) does not support multiple graphics cards, so SSD benefits only DirectX, that is mainly used by games.

Anssi

thomthom · 22 Aug 2009, 01:14

I had an 6800GT and an 8800GT installed. worked fine.