Forums >> Workflow & Implementation >> Hardware >> Worth upgrading or buy new?

Dgodfrey

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Joined: Mon, Jul 4, 2005
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broncos4life

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Joined: Thu, Nov 10, 2005
390 Posts

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ideaguy

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Joined: Tue, Jun 12, 2007
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I would not wait for Revit to get up to speed with Vista, go with a XP based 64 bit system. Vista won't work with most office programs anyways.

Get at least 3.5 gig of ram. Once you have your new CPU box, enabled the 3g switch, do a search and you will find how to do this.

Get a computer that the video card has its own memory on its board so that it is not robbing your ram. 

Get a network card that is Gigabite speed. 

Get a monitor that is wide screen and 21" min. Dual mointor setup say a smaller 17" non wide screen, next to the big one is really helpfull. 

Also on you new system this below was very helpful with our file saving and speed - our files are over 80,000 kb to 190,000 kb

Set up your virtual memory to use you ram and not your hard drive as much for the data swapping - go to system properties, open advanced tab, open preformance options tab, write down your existing settings. Set up virtual memory to custom - initial size - 4096, max size 10240 Your network is probally not helping, as you files get biggger and you have more users it can get really bogged down. Each of our work stations are directly wired to the server on cat 5e, no hubs in the way. Our network is all Gigabite cables, jacks, plugs, and hardware - just updated everything for Revit file sharing on our new Raid server.

Big Bucks $$$$ were invested - yikes there goes my bonus this year!!

Switching servers is a big deal for Revit!!  Be sure to get professional help - contact autodesk and get an IT person who really knows what they are doing and are expereinced with Cad based programs. We were the first to do this and it was really dicy at times. 

Good luck

My system is XP service pack 2 3.60 GHZ Xeon CPU 3.25 Gig Ram

chug a chug along fairly well ...   

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broncos4life

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Joined: Thu, Nov 10, 2005
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If you install XP x64 there is no need to have at least 3.5 gig which you shouldnt ever have anyway, 3.5 gig over 2 or 4 dimm wont work efficiently.  Go with XP x64 and put 4 gb or more of ram, there is no need on XP x64 to put a 3 gig switch on your computer because it is a 64 bit OS so there is no need.  Vista actually has very few problems with office programs anymore, but still XP x64 is the way to go because of user interface.  Building a 4+ gig computer with a good NIVIDIA video card, dual core CPU, and a decent hard drive wont run you over $1000 if even that now.  If you are planning ahead go with XP x64 not regular XP, it will be alot better in the long run.  3.25 gig isnt going to be very well used by XP, as a not if you put ram on a computer it should be able to be evenly spread across 1, 2, or all 4 dimms avaliable, never 3 dimms, and never unevenly as the computer wont use this effectivly at all, and your just wasting money.  Revit 2009 is roumered to be x64 but they may not be able to pull it off, x64 Revit will be released definatly by Revit 2010.  Mine as well get a 64 bit OS now which Revit runs better on anyway, and also be prepared for when it goes 64 bit.  Regular XP and any version of Vista is not the way to go right now.

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Dgodfrey

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Joined: Mon, Jul 4, 2005
137 Posts

Thanks for the replys. I was discussing this with our network guru and we have been monitoring the memory usage as well as VM size as the machine acts as if it is swapping out a lot. My VM is set for 2 gigs (double the ram) and the mem usage for revit rarely gets above 1/2 gig but the VM is approaching a gig. We thought maybe we have too much space allocated to VM and the system is using it over the RAM just cause it's there. I think i will change the swap file size to 1 1/2 gigs and see if i get any "out of memory" errors. I'm also getting an occasional CPU use of over 50% so i think maybe the 1.73 ghz processer is overworked too. I use 2 monitors now which is good and bad. I find that i have so many programs running that it's probably not helping but as one program is thinking, i work on another so overall, i've convinced myself i'm more efficient.

Great advise on the OS and video card. i will keep that in mind when i get the new system. I really like the laptop though so i may not be able to get everything. I will forward all this to the network guys as i never even considered that as a weak link. Thanks again.

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lunchtrayrider

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Joined: Sun, Jun 24, 2007
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I like scooters. and motorcycles.

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upgrading from 8.1 to 9.0

6

thinking about upgrading...need help!!

4

upgrading worksets to new revir version

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Is it worth the upgrade

4

cheapest way to buy Revit Architecture

3