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    Office Workstation Upgrade Time!

    It seems to me the most important upgrade would be towards the graphics card since that seems to benefit a larger percentage of work these computers will see (CAD, modeling work, adobe). Jumping to a 6 core xeon would largely benefit rendering, but I think that is on the smaller end of the usage...
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    Office Workstation Upgrade Time!

    Hi y'all, It is once again time for our office to try and upgrade our machines. We are a mid-level Architecture office that utilizes AutoCAD, Rhino3D + Rendering, and the Adobe Suite primarily. We use Dell Precisions because of their warranty. The build we have been quoted by our IT...
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    MSI Lightning GTX780 help needed

    Curious to know what temps you are seeing with your cards? I am a fellow FT02 owner and am considering a single Lightning.
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    2x 6959 2gb or 6990?

    Interesting.... I doubt I will sell the card though. I will most likely hand it down to one of my 'lesser' builds.
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    2x 6959 2gb or 6990?

    Thanks for the tip on the 6990 being a CF card - I had no idea! All in all it sounds like the 6950's may be the way to go, although the idea of 2x6970s is also intriguing. the Sapphire toxic just came back at newegg so I copped me one of them to tide me over, but I may wait to buy the...
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    2x 6959 2gb or 6990?

    Any performance benefits to using a single card vs CF in programs like 3d max/rhino?
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    2x 6959 2gb or 6990?

    Good advice, but I want to be ready as soon as BF3 launches. I'm extremely impatient.
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    2x 6959 2gb or 6990?

    Hello fellow Ananders, I cant decide! I have the budget for either option but I wouldn't mind saving money where I can. I will be pairing with a 2600K. Primarily used for gaming @1080p and rendering. I want to run Skyrim and BF3 at highest possible settings. Also - i would prefer a...
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    RAM - how much is enough?

    Wouldn't that be 2 per channel (3 channels total)? Regardless, according to this guy it seems that running 2 dual-ranked modules per channel is optimal:http://blogs.oracle.com/jnerl/entry/update_to_configuring_and_optimizing
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    RAM - how much is enough?

    Thanks Cerb + Fallengod: I'll make sure to add some more detail to the original post, but to clarify: - its a new system (march of 2011) - I work with very large models that show topographic detail for many city blocks. - I also work on large 'illustrative' photoshop site plans that are...
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    RAM - how much is enough?

    Hi all – memory related question here. I have a t5500, dual Xeon workstation that is in need of a ram upgrade. My question is how much ram will I actually be able to use before other components start to bottleneck the system? It is new dual E5620 system, with a quadro 4000 running...
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    Single-ear USB headset

    thanks corky; yes, i am aware of the limitations, but i simply hate wearing headphones. I find the game more immersive (realistic?) to have playback on the speakers and a separated channel for VOIP. The experience seems much more visceral to me. Are you aware of any usb headsets?
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    Single-ear USB headset

    im also in the same boat. I prefer to use a single ear headset for VOIP while blasting my speakers. I dont want to be completely inconsiderate so a noise canceling mic would be useful. Does anyone have any experience with a decent single-ear headset for gaming?
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    How is this gaming PC build?

    haha...ooh poor guy
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    Office needs new workstations

    thanks for weighing in guys. I completely agree about the RAM - I was pretty upset to see 6GB recommended. Hopefully we can upgrade ram on our own very soon.
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    Office needs new workstations

    To close the loop i thought i would post an update. We ended up ordering the T5500 with 2 E5620s, 6gb ram, and the GF 5000. I know that i will immediately be pushing for more ram - 6 seems to be pretty low. Thanks for everyone's input. It certainly helped shape the decision, but ultimately...
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    Office needs new workstations

    Yes, we are going with Dell mainly for their support - thats why we will probably need to go with their ram
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    Office needs new workstations

    just to chime in - it really depends on where/what field you're in. I could see 50K being average for a large firm, but i work in a relatively small firm, in a major city, where our operators are also full-time designers and we get paid less than that.
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    Office needs new workstations

    gsaldivar, while I completely agree with you - my superiors do not. It's taken me 3 years to get them to recognize that there are some users (drafters/modelers) who require faster machines than others. The 'workflow' our office has been using involves giving newest and greatest to the highers...
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    Apple MBP i7 2.2 vs 2.3

    I got the 2.3, and it may have been worth it. I normally do not see any performance gains; I did have a 'render off' with a friend who has the 2.2 and managed to consistently finish faster than his, but i dont know if those performance gains really matter when doing more complex rendering...
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    Office needs new workstations

    Thanks for the advice. I wouldn't install the GPU on my own because of the exact reasons you cite. I think I could get away with RAM though - so long as I reinstall the factory RAM if i were to use the warranty/support!
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    Office needs new workstations

    Great! Thanks mfenn. I'll try and explain to the partners that 5years is out of the question - especially given the limited budget. Do you think the quadro 4000 would suffice or is the 5000 really worth it? Comparing the processors. Is there a noticeable difference between the W3565 and...
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    Office needs new workstations

    I will look into the monitors - we are currently using the 1907fp from dell. As far as what is holding us back - i would say GPU, RAM, and CPU. Currently we are using Dell Precision 380's - when we originally bought them we were doing no 3d work. Now we are working on huge 3d models with...
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    Office needs new workstations

    Lets hope so! The price does not need to include monitors, We already have dual 19"ers and i would rather have performance than new monitors. as for the sandy bridge xeons...I may be able to get the office to hold, but its hard not to strike while the iron's hot. thanks everyone for...
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    Office needs new workstations

    unfortunately not, only 3 or 4 - so maybe we can, but i'm not counting on it. Yes they are serious machines - we do a lot of drafting/modeling/rendering which requires.
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    Office needs new workstations

    thanks for the replies, I am definitely planning on choosing a dell - the problem is they have a lot of options, particularly dealing with processors. I dont know much about the xeon processors and i dont know where the best price point is (dual low end quads, vs hi-end 6-core? etc..)
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    Office needs new workstations

    Hi all, I've been tapped to research new workstations for our office! Yay! Problem is i have no experience with professional level builds...I have built a few PC's and know my way around a build, but i've never built anything beyond a consumer I7 core. I'm hoping some of you egg-heads...