DESIGN-TECHS

Some Basic Guidelines for General Business Technology purchasing:
· Buy business class operating systems:  If you purchase the home version you will spend a minimum of 15 to 30 additional minutes on setups and 1 to 2 hours over the course of a year in troubleshooting issues related to using the home version.
· Buy graphics cards from quality manufactures.  It is typical that the cooling fan or a capacitor will go out within the first year on a cheaply made graphics card.  The Good:  ATI, AMD, EVGA, PNY, XFX, DIAMOND.  The Bad: sapphire, powercolor, HIS.

Optimum CAD Workstation with current technology and certified components (meaning less crashes and errors in production environments). Recommended manufactures include HP, Lenovo, Dell, XI Computers and Polywell.  These PCs are best used by senior production level staff who require speed, efficiency and stability.  The initial higher cost would be returned by lowering down time and removing the downtime from your business overhead.  On a rating of 1 to 10 this configuration would be about a 8.5 to 9.  The multi-processor and higher end graphics cards would post even higher than this.  The price range is between $1500 and $3000 depending on manufacturer and warranties.  Using this configuration will give you a 55% increase in rendering times over the Core 2 Duo list below and a more fluid 3D motion in REVIT.  Additionally you should see about a 50% increase in AutoCAD speeds over the Core 2 Duo.
XEON W3520 Quad Core 2.66 GHz or higher (could also supplement this with a Core i7 920 or higher)
6GB RAM or higher
500GB  or higher hard drive
NVIDIA Quadro FX 580
DVD Writer
Windows 7 Professional x64

Value Line CAD PC with current bestselling components.  This system will give you the most bang for the buck and allow you to purchase from numerous manufacturers. Good all-around CAD PC with enough power to do Photoshop, illustrator, AutoCAD, SolidWorks and many others.    Recommended manufactures include HP, Lenovo, Dell, XI Computers, Polywell, Cyberpower PCs, Gateway, MicroExpress, Systemax, ACER, ASUS.  On a rating of 1 to 10 this would be a 6.5 to 7.5.  Note:  Revit will work with this configuration and will yield better results with the AMD Phenom II X4 955, 4GB RAM and a 1GB model of the graphics cards listed below.  Using this configuration will give you a 30% faster REVIT rendering time over the Core 2 Dou and a 15 to 25% increase in AutoCAD speeds.
AMD Phenom II X4 945 or higher OR Core 2 Duo E8400 (3GHz) or higher
2GB or Higher
500GB or higher
ATI – RADEON HD 2400 Series, HD 2900 XT Series, HD 3600 Series, HD 4600 Series, HD 4800 Series (these have been tested with AutoCAD and Windows 7)
DVD Writer
Windows 7 Professional

Z Series workstations are an extremley well engineered and designed line of workstations.  They are designed for architects, engineers, designers, audio and video engineers.  The basic differences bewteen the Z series workstations are primarily in expandability.

The Z400 at its maximum 24GB RAM, 4 Hard Drives, 3.33Ghz XEON Quad Core Processor, 1333 Bus Speeds, (2) FX1800 or (1) FX4800 Graphics Cards and up to 4 Displays
The Z600 – 24GB RAM, 4 Hard Drives, (2) 2.93GHz Xeon Quad Core Processors, 1333 Bus Speeds, (2) FX1800 or (1) FX4800 Graphics Cards and up to 8 2D Displays
The Z800 – 192GB RAM, 6 Hard Drives, (2) 3.33GHz Xeon Quad Core Processors, 1333 Bus Speeds (2) FX5800 Graphics Cards, up to 8 Displays
Note on Graphics Cards :  They have a great selection of graphics card specific to the 2D and 3D applications. If you are primarily using AutoCAD and Adobe products the NVIDIA NVS series is where you want to be and the NVIDIA FX Series is for 3D applications like REVIT, Solid Works, MAYA, MAXWELL, etc..

Here’s a quote for HP’s website
Three workstation lines to meet every customer need
The new HP Z Workstations offer next-generation Intel Xeon processor 5500 series with integrated memory controllers and Intel Turbo Boost Technology along with a new lineup of professional graphics solutions, built-in high-definition (HD) audio and an option for solid-state drives.

The HP Z800 Workstation is HP’s most powerful and expandable workstation for users working with applications such as 3-D animation, broadcast video, oil and gas discovery, and medical imaging. The HP Z800 has an all-new brushed aluminum industrial design with the modular internal design. The quad-core HP Z800 taps the new Intel QuickPath Technology to offer the most sophisticated input/output performance in any application scenario. It also comes with a liquid-cooling option.

The HP Z600 Workstation is designed with the environment in mind, offering high performance in a compact size for professionals in industries such as video production, finance and midrange CAD. Featuring the same brushed aluminum exterior, internal modular design and serviceability as the HP Z800 Workstation, the HP Z600 Workstation can accommodate up to eight displays.
The HP Z400 Workstation is a best-in-class entry-level workstation, offering top Intel processor performance at affordable prices for professionals working in video editing, photography, design and engineering. The HP Z400 is the first single-socket(3) workstation based on the Next-Generation Intel Microarchitecture (Nehalem) and can be built with the latest Intel Xeon processors.(4) The HP

Z400 Workstation also comes with a liquid-cooling option.
“The new Intel Xeon processor 5500 series and Intel QuickPath Technology blow the doors off of previous workstation performance benchmarks,” said Kirk Skaugen, vice president and general manager, Workstations and Servers, Intel. “HP has a unique ability to take our processors and highly tune them into digital workhorses. HP Workstation customers will love the intelligent performance, energy efficiency, and expandability that are enabled by the new Xeon processors.”

Having troubles selecting a processor or choosing the right PC.  Here’s a very simple explanation on Intel processor selection.  The current pecking order of processosr is as follows:  XEON, core i7, core i5, core i3.  The XEON and the Core i7 are very similar with the major differences being that the XEON has 3 channels for RAM and the Core i7 has 2.  The major differences between the Core i7 and i5 is hyper-threading.  The Core i7 has it and the i5 does not.  I haven’t reviewed the i3 yet, but I will be reporting soon.

Again here’s another simple explanation on selecting a processor for your applications.  It can be a little confusing and obviously you will need to mix and match your application recommendations together.

Solidworks works best with the XEON processor and benefits from multi-core processors, hyperthreading and 3 memory channels

AutoCAD works best with the XEON processor and benefits from the 3 memory channels, but does not benefit from muliti-cores or hyperthreading

REVIT works best with the XEON Processor and benefits from the 3 memory channels, but does not benefit from multi-cores or hyperthreading for designing purposes. Yet, it does benefit from it in rendering
Photoshop CS4 – works slightly better with the XEON 

Processor, benefits from multi-core processors and hyperthreading

Indesign CS4 – works slightly better with the XEON Processor, benefits from multi-core processors and hyperthreading

Maya – works best with the XEON processor and benefits from multi-core processors, and 3 memory channels

Maxwell – works best with the XEON processor and benefits from multi-core processors, hyperthreading and 3 memory channels

3D StudioMAX – works best with the XEON processor and benefits from multi-core processors, hyperthreading and 3 memory channels