hardware for Wildfire?

I have a 4 year old Intellistation M Pro (600 MHz, P3, 256MB SDRAM, 1 GB swap, ...) that runs 2001 just fine using NT 4.0, but comes to its knees when I try using Wildfire. Should I bother adding more memory or just giveup and move on to a new machine and OS?

If the anwer is to move on, what hardware and OS is best for Wildfire? If they ever come out with an OS X version, there would be some great hardware available. But given we are stuck in a windoze world - what is the best of the worst?

Reply to
John Watson
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I'd say, move on. I have tried running Wildfire on a P4 3.0 GHz desktop and on a P4 2.66 GHz laptop (1GB RAM on a desktop, 512 MB - on a laptop), and in both cases it is much slower, very noticeably so, than 2001. However, it is workable on both. So my advice would be a P4, 2.8GHz or higher (800MHz front side bus version), 512MB RAM or more, and a video card with at least 128MB of dedicated video RAM (preferably NVIDIA, QUADRO if possible). As far as OS, I'd go with XP. As far as I know, Pro/E is not supported under NT anymore (certainly not under NT 3.5, and even if they have not yet discontinued support for 4.0, they soon will), so on a Windows platform you are choosing between W2000 and XP. In my opinion, XP is easier to use, configure and tweak, as well as more stable (at least after all the latest patches have been applied...:). It is also somewhat slower than W2000, but not by a lot. Since, I am afraid, MAC OS X support is out of question for the near future, the only other alternative you have is LINUX. Unless, of course, you have the $$$$$ for an SGI machine...

Reply to
Alex Sh.

There is also Sun or HP.

Reply to
Randy Jones

I don't really know much about the UNIX workstations, so we should probably ask somebody who does for a list of preferred models and configurations. For what it's worth, however, on numerous occasions I've heard opinions of people who DO work on UNIX machines. It seems to me that the most recommended for Pro/E use among the midrange (performance- and pricewise) workstations have always been SGIs, closely followed by HPs, with Sun a distant third. In any case, as far as I know none of them comes close to the PC's price. Unless one is faced with very complicated work with commensurate payback, they are simply not cost-efficient for most people.

Alex

Reply to
Alex Sh.

Checkout the OCUS Pro-E benchmark results at

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You'll see that you can't beat the price/performance benefits of 'Workstation' class x86 PC's vs SGI, SPARC, etc...

BTW, although Pro-e doesn't use the second processor, your life is much happier in MS Windows with a Dual Xeon PC. It shouldn't cost as much as an SGI or SUN machine, and you can migrate it to someone else in the company in 3-5 yrs when you get your next machine, or make it a server for another department.

** Currently running WF on a Dell 650, 2Ghz Dual P4 Xeon with 2 Gb RAM, and NVidia Quadro 900 XGL. **

No major problems, but WF seems soemwhat 'sensitive' to GUI picking and may sometimes crash. Very slightly more often then with Pro-E 2001 on NT 4.0

Alex Sh. wrote:

Reply to
Chris Gosnell

I would suggest that you add more memory to your current system. 256MB is a bit of lean for ProE, unless you only want to creat simple models. I am running ProE2001 on a dual P3 800 system and I have never had any problems (okay, I am not running Wildfire version), with 1GB physical memory, of cause.

Reply to
Geoffrey

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