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bowen192
Inspiring
September 19, 2011
Question

Which computer?

  • September 19, 2011
  • 3 replies
  • 2148 views

Hello

My company have very nicely offeres to buy me a new computer. 

They have asked me for a spec, but having lost interest in specs when I ditched my 486, I'm not sure what to go for.

I run Framemaker, Autodesk Inventor, Autodesk Inventor Publisher and, Office 2010, a browser, Dropbox and am going to be purchasing Adobe Creative Suite sometime soon.

Any suggestions?

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    3 replies

    bowen192
    bowen192Author
    Inspiring
    September 19, 2011

    I didn't leave that much info, did I?

    It'll be a desktop for use in the work office.  Apart from what I have on my own Dropbox, everything will be accessed from the work server.

    Art, are you suggesting a RAID setup becuase of the speed of access to a remote server?

    Error7103, I never knew Autodesk had such a list, so I'll check that out now.  I already have my monitor, space mouse etc, so it's just the computer I'll be getting.

    EDIT: How fast processor do you think I'll need?

    Inspiring
    September 19, 2011

    I'm suggesting RAID because in general, it's more reliable and it protects local data well; it wouldn't have any effect on access times to a remote server because the speed of the network is your gating factor there.

    Yeah, you already have a monitor, but for serious work with any of the newer Frame revs (and I suspect CAD too) two monitors are pretty much standard. Get it now, while you can; it's a minor addition to a full system. Don't cut that particular corner....

    bowen192
    bowen192Author
    Inspiring
    September 19, 2011

    OK, I'll monitor up then.  It'll be like watching The Matrix.

    Will 2.8 GHz be fast enough, or will I need 3.2?

    Also, how many different types of graphic card are there?!  I think I'll go for a NVIDIA Quadro 1800.

    Bob_Niland
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    September 19, 2011

    Start with the list of workstations certified by Autodesk for use with Inventor. The key element there is the graphics. If you're considering a laptop, for example, it appears that AD has certified the Radeon integrated on current AMD A-series processors (which is way more than adequate for everything else you do). Beware of Intel integrated graphics.

    Dual-core at least (and Intel hypethreading doesn't count as a core in my book). Win7 Professional 64-bit. I'd get 8GB RAM.

    Next question: do you do any critical color work? That would affect a recommendation for monitor.

    Inspiring
    September 19, 2011

    Publishing and CAD are both very compute intensive, so I'd go with a workstation-class machine:

    • Probably an Intel I-7 processor or equivelent
    • Lots of RAM -- 8G at least
    • Dual monitors
    • RAID hard drive setup if possible
    • Size of the hard drive isn't too critical unless you're storing all your data/docs locally, which you shouldn't be. But most currently available drives are really big by previous standards, usually measured in tetrabytes.