Recommendations for new pc for Vista based development?
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I've decided it's time for a new development station and I'm looking for suggestions for components to get the most speed that is reasonably cost effective. Right now I have a p4 3.06ghz dual SATA raptor 74gb raid 0 with 1gb of ram running xp sp2. I typically need to run visual studio, sql server, firebird server, IIS server and then typical browsing email etc. I find it slow for the large multi project solutions I tend to work with in Visual studio. I think I'm more cpu bound than anything else at this point and I'd like to go to a dual processor cpu (if that makes sense for what I do, suggestions very welcome). I'm going to be working on a new wpf project soon (once I learn wpf :) ) and so I figured it's time to go to Vista with a new PC. I prefer to not go with a name brand pc, I'd rather order one from a place that can put in whatever components I spec. I'm thinking my best bet is to start with a Vista compatible system spec'd primarily for gaming as it's probably got the speediest components anyway and then tweak it for development purposes (i.e. probably won't need as expensive of a video card etc). Any suggestions, recommendations, things to avoid etc?
Cost was very fair I thought but then I nabbed a $2000 discount. I have a Dell PowerEdge 2900 and have it marked along the lines John dictated. I *LOVE* this thing. John's hardware terms are strict and severe. What I like about the way he plays is that if you do it the way he suggests you should have a machine that will effortlessly scale for 2 years, be fantastic for 3 years and around 4 years you'll still be very productive. I had a bitch of a time getting 3, 22" monitors working but now that I've done it I could easily step someone through it. I'm in hog heaven though. I run the stuff you run and a tad more in some respects. Quite a few virtual sessions, Remote Desktop, Iron Speed Designer, Outlook 2007, OMEA Pro Reader. (The last 2 can be serious resource hogs or were until I upgraded.) Anyway, mine is a quadcore with 4 gigs of ram that can go to 48 and I can have up to 8 hot swappable drives. Currently running RAID0+1 with SAS73 gig drives. If you want me to benchmark anything for you I'd be happy to and you have my word I won't even peak at your code. I'm not even interested in it. One tool I like is Everest Ultimate Edition. I use it to check out my systems and see how they are doing. Everest really likes this one. - Rex
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Cost was very fair I thought but then I nabbed a $2000 discount. I have a Dell PowerEdge 2900 and have it marked along the lines John dictated. I *LOVE* this thing. John's hardware terms are strict and severe. What I like about the way he plays is that if you do it the way he suggests you should have a machine that will effortlessly scale for 2 years, be fantastic for 3 years and around 4 years you'll still be very productive. I had a bitch of a time getting 3, 22" monitors working but now that I've done it I could easily step someone through it. I'm in hog heaven though. I run the stuff you run and a tad more in some respects. Quite a few virtual sessions, Remote Desktop, Iron Speed Designer, Outlook 2007, OMEA Pro Reader. (The last 2 can be serious resource hogs or were until I upgraded.) Anyway, mine is a quadcore with 4 gigs of ram that can go to 48 and I can have up to 8 hot swappable drives. Currently running RAID0+1 with SAS73 gig drives. If you want me to benchmark anything for you I'd be happy to and you have my word I won't even peak at your code. I'm not even interested in it. One tool I like is Everest Ultimate Edition. I use it to check out my systems and see how they are doing. Everest really likes this one. - Rex
Wow, that's quite a system, but quite a bit more than I want to spend and I'm averse to big name brand computers after many years of dealing with them in my previous career and having zero problems with built up systems since then. It looks more like you've spec'd a server than a workstation with that one. Is the quad core getting a work out compared to a dual core?
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I would go with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, and 4gb of DDR2/800 memory (memory is king with VS2005, especially with a large number of sub-projects). If you can afford it, get a E6800, but that's REAL pricey ($900 right now?). You don't need name-brand memory either, just get 4gb of the fastest RAM you can afford. Also keep an eye on the motherboard you choose. Some motherboards don't support anything higher than DDR2667 RAM... I've heard the nicest/fastest boards have the nForce 690i chipset (or something like that). I have an Opteron 185 (2.6 ghz) and 2gb of DDR5200 ram, and VS2005 is pretty snappy, bbut if I was getting a new system, I'd do what I described above. Also consider a decent video card - you can get a nVidia 7950 GT2 for less than $300.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I would go with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, and 4gb of DDR2/800 memory (memory is king with VS2005, especially with a large number of sub-projects). If you can afford it, get a E6800, but that's REAL pricey ($900 right now?). You don't need name-brand memory either, just get 4gb of the fastest RAM you can afford. Also keep an eye on the motherboard you choose. Some motherboards don't support anything higher than DDR2667 RAM... I've heard the nicest/fastest boards have the nForce 690i chipset (or something like that). I have an Opteron 185 (2.6 ghz) and 2gb of DDR5200 ram, and VS2005 is pretty snappy, bbut if I was getting a new system, I'd do what I described above. Also consider a decent video card - you can get a nVidia 7950 GT2 for less than $300.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote:
I have an Opteron 185 (2.6 ghz)
me too :cool:
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Hi John, I have a question is it right that vista needs to directx10 and if I have geforce 7600 or 7900 I cant run and another question is Motherboard Giga p965 dq6 is become for run vista Thanks
Just because your card isn't a DX10 card doesn't mean you can't run DX10 games. What it means is that you won't be able to see the DX10-specific goodies in the game. It'll be a few more months before we see the 1st DX10 game, and even then, it may not be in your preferred genre...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
John has pretty much covered it, I would recomend this however: http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xps_m2010?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs[^]
Brad Australian - Christian Graus on "Best books for VBscript" A big thick one, so you can whack yourself on the head with it.
I would not choose a laptop for your primary dev platform. Not upgradable, battery fire problems, and they cost much more than a comparable desktop.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Just because your card isn't a DX10 card doesn't mean you can't run DX10 games. What it means is that you won't be able to see the DX10-specific goodies in the game. It'll be a few more months before we see the 1st DX10 game, and even then, it may not be in your preferred genre...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I've decided it's time for a new development station and I'm looking for suggestions for components to get the most speed that is reasonably cost effective. Right now I have a p4 3.06ghz dual SATA raptor 74gb raid 0 with 1gb of ram running xp sp2. I typically need to run visual studio, sql server, firebird server, IIS server and then typical browsing email etc. I find it slow for the large multi project solutions I tend to work with in Visual studio. I think I'm more cpu bound than anything else at this point and I'd like to go to a dual processor cpu (if that makes sense for what I do, suggestions very welcome). I'm going to be working on a new wpf project soon (once I learn wpf :) ) and so I figured it's time to go to Vista with a new PC. I prefer to not go with a name brand pc, I'd rather order one from a place that can put in whatever components I spec. I'm thinking my best bet is to start with a Vista compatible system spec'd primarily for gaming as it's probably got the speediest components anyway and then tweak it for development purposes (i.e. probably won't need as expensive of a video card etc). Any suggestions, recommendations, things to avoid etc?
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Well, the same comment applies to Vista. Just because you don't have a DX10 card doesn't mean you can't run Vista - it just means some of the Vista eye-candy won't be available to you...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
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I didn't either, but it was longshot and Google came through, as usual.:-D
"...a photo album is like Life, but flat and stuck to pages." - Shog9
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Well, the same comment applies to Vista. Just because you don't have a DX10 card doesn't mean you can't run Vista - it just means some of the Vista eye-candy won't be available to you...
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I would not choose a laptop for your primary dev platform. Not upgradable, battery fire problems, and they cost much more than a comparable desktop.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
-----
"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
I would not choose a laptop for your primary dev platform. Not upgradable, battery fire problems, and they cost much more than a comparable desktop.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001Actually, last time I checked, the only thing that was really hard to upgrade in a laptop would be the video card. And true, they cost more, but if you want mobility it's a price you're likely going to pay.
Asynchronously daydreaming...
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I would go with a Intel Core 2 Duo E6600, and 4gb of DDR2/800 memory (memory is king with VS2005, especially with a large number of sub-projects). If you can afford it, get a E6800, but that's REAL pricey ($900 right now?). You don't need name-brand memory either, just get 4gb of the fastest RAM you can afford. Also keep an eye on the motherboard you choose. Some motherboards don't support anything higher than DDR2667 RAM... I've heard the nicest/fastest boards have the nForce 690i chipset (or something like that). I have an Opteron 185 (2.6 ghz) and 2gb of DDR5200 ram, and VS2005 is pretty snappy, bbut if I was getting a new system, I'd do what I described above. Also consider a decent video card - you can get a nVidia 7950 GT2 for less than $300.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001I'd like to also confirm that RAM is king for a development system. You should also definitely stick with your RAID 0 on at least two fast hard drives. RAM is #1 and disk access is #2 for speed. In addition, get a very large and fast USB thumb drive (8 GB) to use Vista's ReadyBoost feature. I've had great luck with my Corsair Flash Voyager.
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I've decided it's time for a new development station and I'm looking for suggestions for components to get the most speed that is reasonably cost effective. Right now I have a p4 3.06ghz dual SATA raptor 74gb raid 0 with 1gb of ram running xp sp2. I typically need to run visual studio, sql server, firebird server, IIS server and then typical browsing email etc. I find it slow for the large multi project solutions I tend to work with in Visual studio. I think I'm more cpu bound than anything else at this point and I'd like to go to a dual processor cpu (if that makes sense for what I do, suggestions very welcome). I'm going to be working on a new wpf project soon (once I learn wpf :) ) and so I figured it's time to go to Vista with a new PC. I prefer to not go with a name brand pc, I'd rather order one from a place that can put in whatever components I spec. I'm thinking my best bet is to start with a Vista compatible system spec'd primarily for gaming as it's probably got the speediest components anyway and then tweak it for development purposes (i.e. probably won't need as expensive of a video card etc). Any suggestions, recommendations, things to avoid etc?
John, You probably have a good idea of what to look for by now but I thought I would share this info with you. I just upgraded the hardware on my 4 year old Alienware Area51. The only thing I needed to do was install a graphics card that supported DirectX 9. Contrary to what a lot of people think, Vista does not use (let alone require) DirectX 10 for the "Aero Glass Experience". The first and,(even at this point in time), very few graphics cards that even support DirectX 10 didn't come out until October-November. Vista's RTM was November 8th. This weekend I installed Vista Ultimate on said Area51 and everything works great though I wish I had more memory (for some reason, 2GB of the older RDRAM cost more than a new Dual Core computer!). My setup: 2.8ghz Intel P4, 1GB RAM:(, Radeon X1650 w/512 MB RAM and DirectX 9. Here is a great article that spells out everything you need to know about hardware support for Vista. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9007623&intsrc=cust_topread I too am diving head first into WPF so best of luck to you. Hope this info helps. Bob
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John, You probably have a good idea of what to look for by now but I thought I would share this info with you. I just upgraded the hardware on my 4 year old Alienware Area51. The only thing I needed to do was install a graphics card that supported DirectX 9. Contrary to what a lot of people think, Vista does not use (let alone require) DirectX 10 for the "Aero Glass Experience". The first and,(even at this point in time), very few graphics cards that even support DirectX 10 didn't come out until October-November. Vista's RTM was November 8th. This weekend I installed Vista Ultimate on said Area51 and everything works great though I wish I had more memory (for some reason, 2GB of the older RDRAM cost more than a new Dual Core computer!). My setup: 2.8ghz Intel P4, 1GB RAM:(, Radeon X1650 w/512 MB RAM and DirectX 9. Here is a great article that spells out everything you need to know about hardware support for Vista. http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9007623&intsrc=cust_topread I too am diving head first into WPF so best of luck to you. Hope this info helps. Bob