Hardware recommendations
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I just did the same test against my friend's 2x Xeon Quad Mac Pro found out this rig is about 25% faster. Considering his cost around £2200 and mine around £1500. I'd say I had a deal.
Gaieus, yes i heard about the Pentium 4 multi threading. I heard for some reason they axed it on the Duo Core processors. Maybe it was too good value for money?
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I don't know. I'm just feeling lucky now
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The new i7 processor has hyperthreading again. If I understand right, it can also split a demanding task among multiple cores doing something like hyperthreading in reverse...
Anssi
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For the record, I have just had to retire my 600MHz Toshiba laptop from active service.
With its 128MB memory and 11GB harddrive running Windows 2000 and with an on-board video chip, it bravely powered SU6 through many a client presentation. (Granted, the model would often break up into wireframe if view changes were too rapid)
Now that I have shifted to SU7, and SU6 cannot open models made in version 6, when I tried to install SU7 on the old girl, I was met with the fatal message "Operating System not Supported".
So there you go. Progress. Still, she had to go sometime.
Although I am thinking that I could easily revert back to SU6 without really noticing, seeing that version 7 was hardly a quantum leap.
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well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?)
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I've started saving already
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@plot-paris said:
well, at least now you have an excuse to buy a monster! (may I suggest something like the 18.1" screen
Acer Aspire 8920, that weighs 4.8 kg and hardly deserves the title of 'laptop'?)[attachment=0:3anrpjzn]<!-- ia0 -->acer-aspire-8920.jpg<!-- ia0 -->[/attachment:3anrpjzn]
I am also looking for a laptop suitable for SU. You can buy cheaper and not so heavy Acer with same or probably better graphics card. It won't be 18" screen, but who wants to carry a 5kg and/or kill a flying-by bird with a swing of a screen.
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I do! I do!!! and as a matter of fact, I am writing this with the bespoken beast on my lap, listening to 'Air' by Johann Sebastian Bach from it's in-built 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound speaker system (with subwoofer - in a laptop!).
(and, admittedly, my shoulders are still sore from carying it during my travel from London to the south of Germany two days ago
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Jakob,
Does it make much noise? I have an older 17" Acer Aspire, and i am otherwise quite fond of it, but it churns away like a bulldozer (not quite but...). I envy my daughter's IMac-it has no fans at all!
Anssi
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it definitely has a fan running, especially when running renders of course. but I think it is not too loud - and for it's monstrous size appropriate
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Guys,
I've got this museum piece:
AMD Sempron 2400+
1,75 Ghz, 512 MB
ASUS Radeon 9600 128MBI'm looking to buy a new desktop because I can't run any large SU models.
What's the most important issue for 3d performance like SketchUp and Kerky?- Dual core? RAM? Or the videocard?
- Any suggestions?
Thanks, Ward
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For sketchup you want a fast clock speed (number of cores doesnt effect SU performance.) Good processors to look at are the intel core 2 duo and if your feeling up to a bit of overclocking, the intel core 2 quad. Youll also need a graphics card with decent openGL support, the quadro cards are generally pretty good for this, although a bit pricey.
For kerky you want lots of RAM and a processor with lots of cores, although youll need a 64 bit OS if you want to have more than 4GB of ram.
On balance, id say go with a core 2 quad processor and 4gb of ram. A pretty standard combination thats also pretty powerful.
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Thanks for the quick reply Remus!
Would this be any good?
Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
Geforce 9300 512mb
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
500GB 7200rpmAMD Phenom X3 8650+
Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
750GB 7200rpm -
The top setup looks good
Dont know enough about AMD to tell you whether the other choice of processor is a good one, though.With regards to the 8300 graphics card, it seems there have been a couple of minor issues with it and SU: http://groups.google.com/group/SketchUp/web/graphics-card-feedback?hl=en Probably worth investigating, just in case.
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If you can wait, I'd get the i7 Core mobile CPU laptops coming out later half of this year. The multi-threading almost halves your rendering times. Worth the wait I'd say.
If not I recommend http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you can build one with 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT graphics card for under £1000 pounds. I have one and the diffault setting makes sketchup lines look super SMOOTH! without anti-aliasing turned on! Incredable for presentations n walkthroughs.
I'd be honest with you PCSpecialist are not really the best quality as mine broke under a year (arguably not their fault as my GPU, the 8600M GT died and if you read internet forums this card is dying at a dispropotionate rate on all manufacturers laptops including Apple) but their service is incredable. They didn't ask any questions had it sent back and upgraded my chasis (Old Chasis had a 8600M GT which died) with new GPU all for free! Sent back to me in a week. So basically I got a free upgrade from them.
The 9600M GT gives amazing default display quality.
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@eduardonl said:
Thanks for the quick reply Remus!
Would this be any good?
Intel E5200 Core 2 Duo
Geforce 9300 512mb
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
500GB 7200rpmAMD Phenom X3 8650+
Geforce 8300 HDMI, DVI
4096mb / 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
750GB 7200rpmWhats your budget?
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Not a core i7 budget going by those specs
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No but getting a smaller Hardrive like 250GB and a better Graphics Card would be a good trade off. I only use 160HD on my laptop. Just dump all your work on a external HD. They are dirt cheap anyway.
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@plot-paris said:
I do! I do!!! and as a matter of fact, I am writing this with the bespoken beast on my lap, listening to 'Air' by Johann Sebastian Bach from it's in-built 5.1 Cinematic Surround Sound speaker system (with subwoofer - in a laptop!).
(and, admittedly, my shoulders are still sore from carying it during my travel from London to the south of Germany two days ago
)Which spec was this (ie processor and video card? - and how do you find it for performance with SU?
@unknownuser said:
If not I recommend http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk you can build one with 512MB Nvidia 9600M GT graphics card for under £1000 pounds.
I couldn't see any option for choice of graphics on their laptops!!!
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As a reference, my latest Unibody Mac managed 15.8 fps on the cube test. So yeah yours sounds like a beast.
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