Advice on purchasing a desktop computer
May 14, 2011 8:46 AM Subscribe
I'm planning on getting a new desktop computer which I mainly plan on using for ArcGIS 10 and would appreciate advice on what to get.
The use of this computer is primarily for GIS (mainly ArcGIS running windows), and I don't need to purchase a monitor, or any other peripherals.
The ArcGIS 10 page has the following system requirements. I've been considering a Dell XPS 8300 that currently costs $1250 with the following characteristics:
CPU: 3.4GHz
Hard Drive: 2TB
Memory: 12GB
You can see the computer using the following link as I could not find another way to link to it: https://ecomm2.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?cart_id=1012344267640&toEmail=ecomm@dell.com.
As ArcGIS just runs on one core I wanted the max CPU speed possible, but I'm surprised that this is so cheap compared to other Dell models. Are there constraints that I'm not considering? Is it sometimes better to get a slower CPU, that has been around for longer? I've been advised that XPS components are cheaper, more error prone and don't last as long. I'm ok with that, if I can get two years solid use out of the computer.
I have a budget of around $2000, but I can't see anything comparable to the specs of this XPS.
[ArcGIS claims it runs on more than one core, but based on my experience this is not the case usually.]
The use of this computer is primarily for GIS (mainly ArcGIS running windows), and I don't need to purchase a monitor, or any other peripherals.
The ArcGIS 10 page has the following system requirements. I've been considering a Dell XPS 8300 that currently costs $1250 with the following characteristics:
CPU: 3.4GHz
Hard Drive: 2TB
Memory: 12GB
You can see the computer using the following link as I could not find another way to link to it: https://ecomm2.dell.com/dellstore/basket.aspx?cart_id=1012344267640&toEmail=ecomm@dell.com.
As ArcGIS just runs on one core I wanted the max CPU speed possible, but I'm surprised that this is so cheap compared to other Dell models. Are there constraints that I'm not considering? Is it sometimes better to get a slower CPU, that has been around for longer? I've been advised that XPS components are cheaper, more error prone and don't last as long. I'm ok with that, if I can get two years solid use out of the computer.
I have a budget of around $2000, but I can't see anything comparable to the specs of this XPS.
[ArcGIS claims it runs on more than one core, but based on my experience this is not the case usually.]
I don't know anything about ArcGIS, but here are tips for a high-performance machine for big datase crunching:
1. Lots of RAM. 12gb is a nice start, it's easy to upgrade later if the machine gets bogged down
2. Comparing CPUs by clock speed (GHz) is misleading. Use benchmarks instead
3. Hard disk speed matters. You can dramatically and cheaply increase disk I/O performance by RAID striping two hard disks (RAID 0)*
And are you sure about the single core issue?
"At ArcGIS 10, Desktop applications can take advantage of multiple cores. When using a basemap layer or accelerated raster layer in ArcGIS 10 applications, multiple threads are started to perform drawing and blending operations, and because these operations occur in another thread, they can take advantage of another processor core. As a result, the application’s user interface remains more responsive than at previous releases."
* Increases chance of disk failure, but of course you have backups.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:58 AM on May 14, 2011
1. Lots of RAM. 12gb is a nice start, it's easy to upgrade later if the machine gets bogged down
2. Comparing CPUs by clock speed (GHz) is misleading. Use benchmarks instead
3. Hard disk speed matters. You can dramatically and cheaply increase disk I/O performance by RAID striping two hard disks (RAID 0)*
And are you sure about the single core issue?
"At ArcGIS 10, Desktop applications can take advantage of multiple cores. When using a basemap layer or accelerated raster layer in ArcGIS 10 applications, multiple threads are started to perform drawing and blending operations, and because these operations occur in another thread, they can take advantage of another processor core. As a result, the application’s user interface remains more responsive than at previous releases."
* Increases chance of disk failure, but of course you have backups.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:58 AM on May 14, 2011
* dataset
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:58 AM on May 14, 2011
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:58 AM on May 14, 2011
So, the XPS Studio machines are actually pretty good value for money. Get a UPS for it, just to protect it from the vagaries and stresses of modern municipal power, and that should be a good investment.
If I were going to do one thing with the rest of that budget, I would add a really good SSD to it and run my OS, applications and swap file off of it, and leave the 2TB drive for data and less-important applications. Even on a big piece of metal like this one, your bottleneck is still going to be I/O, not processor, and I can't tell you how good an SSD will make your life.
posted by mhoye at 10:09 AM on May 14, 2011
If I were going to do one thing with the rest of that budget, I would add a really good SSD to it and run my OS, applications and swap file off of it, and leave the 2TB drive for data and less-important applications. Even on a big piece of metal like this one, your bottleneck is still going to be I/O, not processor, and I can't tell you how good an SSD will make your life.
posted by mhoye at 10:09 AM on May 14, 2011
* Increases chance of disk failure, but of course you have backups.
Oh, yes, haha. Get an external hard drive, and use it only for backups.
posted by mhoye at 10:10 AM on May 14, 2011
Oh, yes, haha. Get an external hard drive, and use it only for backups.
posted by mhoye at 10:10 AM on May 14, 2011
Response by poster: And are you sure about the single core issue?
I am aware that ArcGIS can run on more than one core - but from my experience of running it on a bunch of different machines with different configurations (win7, xp32, xp 64) with a variety of core numbers it seems to like just running on one core for the most part. Perhaps that is due to my lack of knowledge about how to make it do more sophisticated things (multi-threaded scripting is beyond my current knowledge).
mhoye, how does one spec an SSD? Is there an I/O rating system I can use to choose a fast one?
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 10:17 AM on May 14, 2011
I am aware that ArcGIS can run on more than one core - but from my experience of running it on a bunch of different machines with different configurations (win7, xp32, xp 64) with a variety of core numbers it seems to like just running on one core for the most part. Perhaps that is due to my lack of knowledge about how to make it do more sophisticated things (multi-threaded scripting is beyond my current knowledge).
mhoye, how does one spec an SSD? Is there an I/O rating system I can use to choose a fast one?
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 10:17 AM on May 14, 2011
You want to look at the chipste controllers. OCZ always has the most "upgraded" firmware, and Vertex 3's are now the fastest. Just make sure you have lots of space for data (none of my gis data is on my SSD). Also be wary of SSD failure rates, there's evidence that the failure rates are much higher than reported (the first one I installed was dead in 3 days, but I've been good since).
Also something to be careful of with Arc10: background geoprocessing on my machine just does not work. I have to turn it off.
posted by stratastar at 11:18 AM on May 14, 2011
Also something to be careful of with Arc10: background geoprocessing on my machine just does not work. I have to turn it off.
posted by stratastar at 11:18 AM on May 14, 2011
Oh! One other thing to look into is a discrete graphics cards.
posted by stratastar at 11:37 AM on May 14, 2011
posted by stratastar at 11:37 AM on May 14, 2011
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posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:49 AM on May 14, 2011