mgajewski Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Hi, I intend to buy a new computer in March 2007. Id appreciate advice what configuration would work for fast IronCAD modeling and rendering and Photoshop work. I am reasonably knowledgeable about computers but not a highly technical person so please keep the wording and concepts simple Also is it possible to get a pretty good set up for the above for about $3000? (computer only, I already have a nice LCD monitor). If $3000 is not enough, how much should I budget? Is getting two processors worthwhile? Are there any preconfigured computers that would do a good job? Thanks! Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Try to use the $3000 to buy a nice Windows PC Workstation (Dell or IBM, maybe) for IronCAD and an Apple Mac Pro for Photoshop, might be within your budget if you buy slightly used or refurbished. That should give you the best of both worlds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cary OConnor Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Photoshop can take up a lot of the processor if you are heavily using it. So I would get a multiple processor and mulitple drives for swap. Cary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 ... and an Apple Mac Pro for Photoshop... 16347[/snapback] As much as I really love my Mac and wouldn't give it up for anything (but a newer Mac) - in my experience, Photoshop runs exactly the same on a Mac or a PC. But it does use up a LOT of memory (& doesn't give it up until you exit the program.) Extra drive "scratch" space also really comes in handy. I suggest you buy as much RAM as you can afford - 4GB would be a reasonable amount, if you are a power-user in both IronCAD & Photoshop. Both programs run happier if they have lots of RAM (especially if you need to use them at the same time.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Admin Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Thanks Mike, that is the real world advice this thread needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mgajewski Posted November 20, 2006 Author Share Posted November 20, 2006 How much does the processor speed really matter? And the graphics card? Mind I won't ICAD and Photoshop open simultaneoulsly... Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Twining Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 It depends on the complexity of your model. I'm of the opinion you get as fast as you can afford (for the processor), but as Cary stated: go for the dual processor (or dual core). While IronCAD will only be able to utilize one at a time, for those instances where you have a computationally intensive task (like updating a detailed view), you can still be productive with your computer doing other things, like browsing the IC forums for example. Photoshop, on the other hand, WILL be able to take advantage of both processors (or cores). Same thing goes for the video card. Assuming you are NOT going to be too upset if your video games don't run as well as you like, you should go for a CAD card (like the Nvidia Quadro series). It'll have much better on-board 3d computation, but a little slower "coloring" (which is not a problem when CADding). For what its worth, as of IC 9, you can not use more than 128M of video memory (correct me if I am wrong here), not to say that will not change in the upcomming releases. And as already mentioned, DON'T try to save your money on the memory. Get as much as you can and as fast as you can. Anything you can do to prevent swapping to the pagefile will save you time and hair. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Per-Arne Almeflo Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 (edited) I had a Raptor HDD on my previous computer, and I must say I miss it. It felt much faster and more responsive than my present HDD. I would go for one again if I had the possibility. If you need more storage memory, you can put the system and programs on the Raptor disk and store the working files on a second, larger drive. Edited November 23, 2006 by Per-Arne Almeflo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Just a question on the side: has anybody tried using a fast flash ram stick or card for the swap file? The read/write speeds are not necessarily faster than that of a HD, but the access certainly is... Beat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Twining Posted November 21, 2006 Share Posted November 21, 2006 Beat- I was under the impression that the swap file had to reside on a fixed (i.e. non removable storage device) disk. I immagine you would get an immediate B.S.O.D. if you pulled a removable disk that was used for the swap file. Of corse, I may be making that all up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Ludin Posted November 23, 2006 Share Posted November 23, 2006 I have no idea whether you can get a Blurred Solidworks Ornamental Drawing by removing the swapfile HD. It certainly sounds plausible. You might want to give it a try Also, the results is probably different whether you remove a Windows page file disk or a Photoshop scratch file disk. Cheers, Beat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest IronKevin10.0 Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 Slightly unrelated: I installed Ubuntu Live Linux at home this weekend, it boots and runs the OS completely from CD and swaps to the hard drive. Performance was amazing, not exactly sure how they do it I'm interested in getting IronCAD running under a Linux Windows Emulator (at HOME) but of course that would leave me unsupported!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Twining Posted November 27, 2006 Share Posted November 27, 2006 (edited) Oh no... IK10.0 is loose again... Edited November 27, 2006 by Mike Twining Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Gower Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 As Mike said - in my experience, Photoshop runs exactly the same on a Mac or a PC One thing to consider - if you add a 3D controller. Will it work with the Mac? I've heard a 3D Connexion works great with Photoshop and I think you could try a free demo, but I don't think it works on the Mac (for photoshop)? It does work with IC though and that might make a case for running only Windows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Allen Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 I see from the Support section of the the 3D Connexion website that their Space Navigator has a Mac OS-X driver. Their other products all seem to have Unix & Linux drivers, which (hypothetically) should work for OS-X (since OS-X is basically a version of Unix.) When I switched to a Mac at home, all of my peripherals transferred without problem. I was also pleasantly surprised at the volume of freeware drivers, utilities & programs available for OS-X - many of which were written for Unix/Linux, but would install & run perfectly in OS-X (look for *.pkg files.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Gower Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Photoshop is not officially supported anymore (on the list of supported apps for 3Dconnextion), but they still offer the plug-in for photoshop. You can find the plug-ins under Download Drivers --> Choose Device --> Operating Systems --> choose Archives instead of OS -->. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wkoppler Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 We want to buy two new CAD - computers in march, too. If you would have free choice between Dell Precision 490 Xeon with Core Duo, Core Quadro, Dual Processor or Quadro Processor which one would you prefer? We work very often simultaneous with two or three Cad programs, and I had Dual Processor machines many years before. I don't want to miss the ability to work with an other program, then it's busy with a difficult task. Does make a Quadro brain sense? Which one is the recommended operating system for the future with IC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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