Comments on: Dell vs. Mac – $20,000+ PCs http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/ Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:23:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Synapse Syndromehttp://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/comment-page-1/#comment-30004 Synapse Syndrome Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:25:38 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/#comment-30004 Heh, on second thoughts, I had another look at the spec, and the machine is nothing that amazing. I only noticed the high amount of RAM and price before. RAM options like that tend to be expensive - it's basic supply/demand economics. The rest of the spec would be used widely in industry, even though the 80/20 rule still applies - you can get 80% of that performance for 20% of the price. It is actually rather bad in the hard drive department - SATA? Even I use SAS drives in RAID. Heh, on second thoughts, I had another look at the spec, and the machine is nothing that amazing. I only noticed the high amount of RAM and price before. RAM options like that tend to be expensive – it’s basic supply/demand economics. The rest of the spec would be used widely in industry, even though the 80/20 rule still applies – you can get 80% of that performance for 20% of the price. It is actually rather bad in the hard drive department – SATA? Even I use SAS drives in RAID.

]]> By: Synapse Syndromehttp://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/comment-page-1/#comment-30003 Synapse Syndrome Thu, 06 Aug 2009 02:58:30 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/#comment-30003 I had to LOL too. I'm an architect and CAD consultant, and I am [reluctantly] learning Revit too. I know ArchiCAD very well, which I think is a better program, and have been using it for a decade, since I was at university. But now when AutoDesk do their food and wine presentations at large firms, they do not even mention AutoCAD anymore. Revit has replaced it for architecture, and Inventor for mechanical engineering. You get the latest version of AutoCAD Architecture/Mechanical free with these programs, to help firms make the transition to modern parametric object-based modelling. AutoCAD never did 3D very well, being a kludge made from an ancient DOS based 2D *Draughting* program. ArchiCAD started off on the Mac, in the '80s, but now it looks that Revit is becoming the new architecture standard, with Autodesk's user-base and marketing money. I think this is a shame, as ArchiCAD is better.These types of program are used by hundreds of thousands of architects and engineers all over the world, in ordinary projects, and all you'd need is a few gigabytes of RAM and a decent FireGL/Quadro OpenGL graphics card for the most complex projects.But the machine mentioned in this article would only be used by a very small group of people, in comparison, working in highly complex engineering projects. I could imagine that sort of machine used by Boeing, for example, for complete aircraft models, using CAD programs like CATIA. Even then, the engineers working on the individual parts would be using machines far less powerful. I had to LOL too. I’m an architect and CAD consultant, and I am [reluctantly] learning Revit too. I know ArchiCAD very well, which I think is a better program, and have been using it for a decade, since I was at university. But now when AutoDesk do their food and wine presentations at large firms, they do not even mention AutoCAD anymore. Revit has replaced it for architecture, and Inventor for mechanical engineering. You get the latest version of AutoCAD Architecture/Mechanical free with these programs, to help firms make the transition to modern parametric object-based modelling. AutoCAD never did 3D very well, being a kludge made from an ancient DOS based 2D *Draughting* program. ArchiCAD started off on the Mac, in the ’80s, but now it looks that Revit is becoming the new architecture standard, with Autodesk’s user-base and marketing money. I think this is a shame, as ArchiCAD is better.

These types of program are used by hundreds of thousands of architects and engineers all over the world, in ordinary projects, and all you’d need is a few gigabytes of RAM and a decent FireGL/Quadro OpenGL graphics card for the most complex projects.

But the machine mentioned in this article would only be used by a very small group of people, in comparison, working in highly complex engineering projects. I could imagine that sort of machine used by Boeing, for example, for complete aircraft models, using CAD programs like CATIA. Even then, the engineers working on the individual parts would be using machines far less powerful.

]]> By: Kiddhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/comment-page-1/#comment-29963 Kidd Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:38:10 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/#comment-29963 Ahh yes, AutoCAD. I haven't heard anyone mention it in a while. I use it everyday, but only for 2D, so the above machine is WAY too big. Actually, it's probably too big for any AutoDesk product for PC (they have a few imaging programs for Linux). But I'm learning AutoDesk REVIT now, and a 32-bit os just isn't gonna cut it anymore. I need access to 8GB RAM or more. I would love to have the above machine in front of me daily, but there lies another problem. 8 cores? Revit was not designed to utilize multi-core processors, except for Rendering. So if you're just using the design portion of the job (architecture, structure, or MEP), you won't really use them. It's the Architect that wants a Rendering that gets to really use the multiple cores. Actually, the fact that this software is for Windows is why I can't consider switching to Mac, no matter what Dave praises it for. When AutoDesk jumps on board, I'll be right behind. (not holding my breath) I think another program I'm less familiar with would really use this machine: ProEngineer w/ Wildfire. Ahh yes, AutoCAD. I haven’t heard anyone mention it in a while. I use it everyday, but only for 2D, so the above machine is WAY too big. Actually, it’s probably too big for any AutoDesk product for PC (they have a few imaging programs for Linux). But I’m learning AutoDesk REVIT now, and a 32-bit os just isn’t gonna cut it anymore. I need access to 8GB RAM or more. I would love to have the above machine in front of me daily, but there lies another problem. 8 cores? Revit was not designed to utilize multi-core processors, except for Rendering. So if you’re just using the design portion of the job (architecture, structure, or MEP), you won’t really use them. It’s the Architect that wants a Rendering that gets to really use the multiple cores. Actually, the fact that this software is for Windows is why I can’t consider switching to Mac, no matter what Dave praises it for. When AutoDesk jumps on board, I’ll be right behind. (not holding my breath) I think another program I’m less familiar with would really use this machine: ProEngineer w/ Wildfire.

]]> By: DravenXhttp://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/comment-page-1/#comment-29930 DravenX Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:14:37 +0000 http://www.pcmech.com/article/dell-vs-mac-20000-pcs/#comment-29930 Well with me, storage is a priority. I have 6 500GB HDD in my server pc and I need to find a better way to configure them. Well with me, storage is a priority. I have 6 500GB HDD in my server pc and I need to find a better way to configure them.

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