New Workstation

I usually end up in the same boat as you every 4 or 5 years.?ÿ The last time I had to replace my box I shopped arouns for a few weeks and ended up going with an IBuy Power gaming PC with a very intense processor and maxed out on memory.?ÿ I spent about $2,500 on it but two years later, I remain very happy with it.

This box is water cooled, hard boots and loads Windows 11 in seconds and easily handles AutoCad Civil 3D, Carlson SurvCad and I can have multiple window open with no delayin processing or regenerating graphics.

The one thing that I did not put much thought into was the monitor, I opted for the largest, highest resolution monitor that would fit on my desk in front of me.?ÿ While I do love it, I feel that I should have gone with two smaller ones so I could have split screens.?ÿ I'm missinghaving two monitors as some things are easire to wonk on with two, instead of opening new windows on just one.

I also forgot to add to that, I don't have to deal with the software loading and tweaking.?ÿ We have over 60 PCs on our network so we contract out the IT work to a company that is great.?ÿ I simply put the PC on a table, they load it and when it needs any sore to updated or installation they remote in and take care of it forme after hours.

We are switching to laptops. But my new hp laptop with 64gb of RAM (among other things) is going to take 6 months to get according to our I.T. person.

My desktop workstation is an hp with 64gb RAM (and much more) with two monitors sits in my office in the office building. Since spring of 2020 Iƒ??ve been using a Dell laptop we acquired in 2016, it has 16gb of RAM. It is adequate for almost anything except a few intensive processes (photo modeling and Register360 import of RTC360 data). I can run that remotely from home over night or on the weekend because it is more than twice as fast (due to RAM) and I donƒ??t use my electricity that way.

If I ever get the new laptop I think the desktop will go away and I might bring the monitors home.

There is a guy who builds computers on Youtube named Carey Holzman. He insists that a quality desktop computer is good for 8 years.?ÿ

I have always relied on Dell. The service agreement on the business side can't be beat.

Actually had a wifi issue and he ended up sending a tech to the house, replaced the motherboard and wifi card. No charge.

My desktop is 10 years old, and going strong - probably been powered off for a total of 3 weeks in that time.?ÿ I built it myownself from parts I got at newegg & tigerdirect, with guidance from

https://pcpartpicker.com/list/

It runs Carlson/Icad 2021, Globalmapper, etc. just fine, though it does bog down some on any kind of point cloud.?ÿ Took me a short day from the unboxing to up and running.?ÿ Over the years I've added RAM, a 2nd and 3rd monitor, a dedicated video card, and an SSD for the OS.?ÿ Boots in about 40 seconds.

IF I decide to build a new PC to satisfy Their Lordships at Microsuck, I'll definitely start with a Gigabyte motherboard and an AMD CPU & graphics card.?ÿ Intel can pound sand.

What's all this about Windows 11, then? I'm sure I heard, from the horse's mouth, that Win 10 is the b all and end all.

@richard-imrie : I think what you heard came from the other end of the horse.

@dave-lindell?ÿ

my PC's are both running 10 but prompting me to upgrade. I use C3D daily so will this be an issue? I dread stuff like this

@dave-karoly?ÿ

My 2017 Low end Gamer Dell 7557 is doing just fine, even crunching the ESRi and C3D modeling.?ÿ Is it as fast as the DTR ( Desk top replacement aka mobile work station)? No, but it also didn't cost 5k.?ÿ There's a premium on knowing what chip sets are workhorses and capable, and helping streamline the heavy lift users is always going to be a niche market.?ÿ Do you work for the Gubment? a 6 month lead time save the current scarcity sounds like bureau red plastic sticky stuff if not. We had to wrest away from the IT dept at my recent municipal job the idea that 16 G of memory was more than enough. We all ended up with 64, which is a great start, but with point clouds if youre not at 128, youre wasting time a lot of the time, I've experienced. But we also had the heaps of govt bloat ware and recording and spyware thy monitored everyone with too.

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YMMV depending on the organization and their intelligence in the IT arena.

@jitterboogie I've noticed the gaming systems are getting better. my 2020 gaming laptop with i7-9750h 6core processor, NVIDIA GTX & 32GB of RAM (upgraded it) is hanging with what my former employer's 2016 $8k workstation w/ Xeon 8 core processor, NVIDIA Quadro card & 64GB of RAM could handle it seems. very little difference in performance w/ C3D surfaces & pipe networks or layout tabs for plan sets

In the recent AutoCAD University there was quite a lot of crowing about how great the Intel 11th gen laptop chips were for CAD, and computing in general. They specifically said that if your computer was as little as 4 years old you would notice big improvements in performance.

I have a nearly 5-year-old HP desktop with an i7-7700 and 32GB of RAM -- I upgraded it to Windows 11 a few weeks ago. Windows Update said that it wasn't compatible, but I made sure I had the latest BIOS from HP and then followed this workaround. It handles it just fine, no problems at all.

@dave-karoly I had a lap top with a docking station at the office and a docking station at home in the early 2,000s, it was an IBM and worked flawlessly, however, 20 years later, software is much more intense.

I like the ability to be able to work from home with my desk top by logging into the office server but, at the end of my field career, pre data collection, I always toted around my own lap top in the field withCAD and cogo installed just to make the calcs easier and faster.

Just by the by here, when I went out as a "privateer" in around 1998 I swore I'd never be reliant on company supplied computer kit, so from then on bought my own laptops. The first one cost me around 4.5 large, and I'm fairly sure it was a Pentium and had a 3.5G hard drive. Did an awful lot of AutoCAD on that computer. Have probably replaced it with about 10 others over the years, there's at least 4 broken ones lying around the office. I stopped doing this about 4 years ago.

I would also like to say that all the hardware grunt you have, wont amount to ... , unless you have your OS and Autodesk settings, set, to use it. These settings are often very obscure and very well not known, and are constantly spawning with updates to the software - which is particularly prevalent now, with things going more and more to the cloud.

@ncsudirtman?ÿ

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DORK ALERT DORK ALERT!!!!

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Yeah that s a nice newer chip for sure!

My old dog is just doing what it needs till I can figure out the next bargain butt-kicking chip, stats here:

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-6700HQ+%40+2.60GHz&id=2586

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most crap people do on computers never needs a heavy lifting chip set.?ÿ Surveying and engineering and geospatial do.

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Your chip is the heir apparent from whence i leaned then..

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-9750H-vs-Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ/m766364vsm34954

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I decided that I didn't want to spend the time building my own system, so late last night I dropped a bundle of cash on this:

Dell Precision 5820 Tower
Intel Xeon Processor W-2235 (6C, 3.8GHz 4.6GHz Turbo HT 8.25MB (130W)) DDR4-2933
Windows 11 Pro for Workstations (6 cores)
2 each M.2 1TB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
32GB 2x16GB DDR4 2933MHz RDIMM ECC Memory
NVIDIA Quadro P2000, 5GB, 4 DP

I've never had a desktop system with no rotating storage before.?ÿ Should be intesting.

@jim-frame based on my own personal experience (I am sure that you donƒ??t need this advice, but maybe someone out there does) be sure to allow the machine to keep itself cool. ?ÿI had my desktop pc right up against the side of my desk for years before the fan got so mucked up with dust that she quit. ?ÿNow, I keep a badass laptop sitting on a cooling fan assembly ?ÿon my desk and she is connected to all my large screens, printer/scanner, etc. devices.