New Dell Workstation - what options?

[GregHess]

What Acad programs are you using?

Faster processor = faster loading, saving, rendering.
Faster Video = faster viewports, faster animation previews.

I just configured a few 650's at work for GEIS analysis (think data sets in 1,000's of square miles)...here's what I did.

Upgrade the processors to Dual 2.8 Xeon's with 512k l2 cache.

Go with a Quadro FX 1000.

Any money left over (if its sufficent) bump the processors up to Dual 3.06 with 512k l2 cache or add ALOT of ram.

[SteveH]

Greg,
Thanks for the info.In reading your answer though I realized I left out a few important facts that at the time I didn't think mattered (now I see that I should have given this additional info). The base system that they are buying is dual processor Zeon 280's. What's weird is on Dell's site - the upgrade to a 2.8 Ghz with 1 MB of L3 cache is the same price as upgrading to a 3.06Ghz with 512 Cache. Which is th emost bang for the buck - more cache or faster processor?

[GregHess]

More processor. I'd go for megahertz over cache any day. (Unless it was shown the processor seriously benefited from more cache)

[Cman]

Originally posted by SteveH
Hello everyone,
As luck would have it - my company is willing to buy a new Dell 650, our standard for acad work. Because I also use Lightwave they are willing to upgrade some of the components if it doesn't cost too much. My question is - what should I try for faster processor or better video card? What is standard is dual 2.8 Ghz w/ 512k cache and 1 GB SDRAM, with ATI Fire GL X1 w/ 128 megs ram.

Dell offers up to 3.2Ghz and up to 2megs of L3 cache. I don't know if the differance in cache type or size is worth the money - or if going from 2.8Ghz up to 3.2 is worth the extra bucks.

Graphics card I could probably convince them to go with the nVidia Quadro FX100 w/ 128MB - but that's probaly as high as they would go. Is this a better card that the fire GL?

Thanks in advance - hardware is not my area of expertise so any help is appreciated. Oh - don't even bother with saying don't go with Dell - it's the company standard and no way I can talk them out of that!

Did u get the system?
Is it working okay?

I have a very similar system and for the life of me I swear it's slower than a single proc 800Mhz system we have!

Next week I'm going to turn off one processor in the 650 and see if it speeds it up.

What we have:
2 x 3Ghz Xeon
winxp sp1
2 gig ram
Quadro FX 1000 (53.03 drivers)

[GregHess]

Is Hyperthreading on or off? By default its usually disabled. (You have to enable it in the bios).

What application are you using to compare against your old system?

Its technically impossible for a 800 megahertz system to be faster then a dual 3.0, unless you installed a few thousand spyware packages, destroyed the os, got infected by hosts of viruses, ran multiple AV and software firewalls, or the system was physically damaged or crippled by a poor hardware choice. (Like getting 512 megs of ram for two processors).

If system performance is really crippling you...try shutting off EVERYTHING you can in task manager. End process for everything down the list, until the only things left won't let you shut them down.

Then run a program like lavasoft's adaware.

http://www.lavasoftusa.com

Remove everything it finds.

[Cman]

Originally posted by GregHess
[B]Is Hyperthreading on or off? By default its usually disabled. (You have to enable it in the bios).

On and off I get the same results.



What application are you using to compare against your old system?


I mostly work with Adobe PS and AE, and it's just interactive use that seems slower.

I will open the exact same QT file on both computers, both running QT6, and the 800Mhz will open before the 650.


Its technically impossible for a 800 megahertz system to be faster then a dual 3.0, unless you installed a few thousand spyware packages, destroyed the os, got infected by hosts of viruses, ran multiple AV and software firewalls, or the system was physically damaged or crippled by a poor hardware choice. (Like getting 512 megs of ram for two processors).

If system performance is really crippling you...try shutting off EVERYTHING you can in task manager. End process for everything down the list, until the only things left won't let you shut them down.


I know it's impossible for it to be faster - and when it's just rendering it's faster with LW scenes.

The OS was just reinstalled so it's near impossible for any viruses to be on there.

I honestly think it's just the Dell engineers or someone did something goofy.
As I said, I will turn off on proc in the Bios and see what happens...

Then I will do your suggestion of turning off everything that's not essential and see if it makes a difference.

[GregHess]

Ah i forgot its a dell.

Turn the Harddrive setting in the BIOS to PERFORMANCE.

Its set to "quiet" by default.

[Cman]

Originally posted by GregHess
Ah i forgot its a dell.

Turn the Harddrive setting in the BIOS to PERFORMANCE.

Its set to "quiet" by default.

Ok thanks - I will try it.

[percydaman]

why the bloody hell would dell set it to quiet as default? I can imagine what THEIR answer would be, but man thats goofy.

[GregHess]

Percy,

Its either been set to "quiet" or "auto" for every system I've ever come across (in the past year or so). Quiet basically spins the drive slower then its capable of spinning. 5400 rpm anyone?

[SteveH]

Guys,

Sorry I couldn't get back to my own thread until now! I ended up getting the Dell - dual 300 w/ 1 gig of Ram and a Quadro FX 1000. Overall pretty happy with it - but am very glad you guys gave me some system tweaks to try. Any system can be a little better! Thanks so much for th einfo.

steve

[Cman]

@SteveH - have you had any slowdown problems?

(sorry for the thread hijack.)

[SteveH]

Cman,

No - so far it's been much faster than my old system (although I had a VERY old system before). Probably a celeron would have been faster than what I had! ;-)
I'm going to try the bios tweaks you guys have suggested and see if it speeds it up any more though.


steve

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