[JerryFlyGuy]

I'm in the middle of specing out my latest and greatest comp. We've settled on Intel's Xeon workstation processor, we have access to a Dual Processor MOBO, but if we don't install the two processor's we don't/won't get PCI 16express.. [instead its will be something like PCI 8 express??] it sounds like you can't use the MOBO w/out putting two processor's on it. The other option is we could opt for a single processor MOBO and get PCI 16express.
I have to use PCI 16x due to my graphic's card.

So my question is.. #1- Does SW support the dual Processor? #2 If yes, is there a noticable increase in performance from using the dual processor's?

My guy building the comp, just figured this out like 10 minutes ago.. and needs to know what the heck to order for a MOBO and processor[s].

Anyone??

Jerry [I can't wait to have a faster system.. imagine not having to take 10minutes to load some of my files! yyyeeeeeeeehhhaaaaaawwwww ]

[--colin--]

SW does not utilize dual processors. I believe that Photoworks and Cosmos does use it. I run a dual process computer and am very happy with it even though I wish SW did make use of the multiple CPU's . With dual CPU's I find that whenever any application is doing something CPU intensive, you still have the freedom to run another application which utilizes the othe CPU. So rather than having to wait for something to get done, you can check email, surf the web, etc. I'd definately do it again.

As far as best performance goes, I suggest talking to your SW VAR. They have experience running SW on several platforms and can offer good advise. I'd also strongly recommend using dual monitors - probably the best bang for the buck on any workstation.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Thanks Colin... I've put a call into my reseller so we'll see what they come up w/. I'm curious to hear how you utilize dual screens and how it makes life better for you? I have dual screen's on order w/ this whole unit.. I've never used them before however.

Jerry

[--colin--]

Dual monitors are great. One of the biggest drawbacks of working on a computer is the limited "desktop" space. I convinced myself to go dual screen because SW has no printed manual and therefore the help screens are used frequently. You can just grab the help screen and drag it onto the other monitor so you can read it while working in SW on the other monitor. I've been working on a large MS Word document recently with many pictures. I have the document open on one screen while browsing through the pictures on the other. A common situation I use is SW on one screen with email or web on the other. It really helps since you don't have to be poping windows into view as often as with a single monitor. You can also span any application across both screens but I don't do that much. I've also run two SW sessions at the same time with one part on each monitor. That comes in handy. I showed my workstation to a friend of mine and he immediately went home and ordered a second monitor, even though he doesn't do much CAD work. You'll love it.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Good to know Colin! I'll have to see how I like it. I was told by my Reseller that SW does infact use dual processors. It maybe is only on 64b system's? I'm supposed to be getting a Xeon dual core- [dual processor also?]system... each processor running 3.4mhz and a total of 6Gb of RAM [expandable to some huge number.. I don't know what..] w/ an ATI FireGL V7350 graphic's card..

should be a hoot to 'fire up'

Jerry [I'm getting impatient already..]

[DareBee]

The only issue is going to be that you will need 4 Jerry's to keep with that massive computers speed.

[JerryFlyGuy]

Ya.. an I don't 'shpreshen zee doytsh' either.. it's come down to, We can't get the MOBO [Intel Xeon] that we wanted that can also run a PCI 16Ex. video card [ apparently most of these boards run servers and they don't need fancy video cards [ go figure eh?? ]] so we've switched to an AMD Opteron dual processor, w/ dual Core processors.. all at 2.0Mhz and 4.0Ghz of ram.. All running @ 64B. That should raise the room temp a degree or two.. ..they say it might even get here this week.. WooHooo.. I just got a Space Traveler as well so.. all the goodiess.. [ I think they like me around here or something!]

Jerry

[daedalus]

im on win64 running sw2006, and solidworks itself only ever uses one processor. That said cosmos uses both processors during FEA, and thats when you really benefit from the second core.

incase you are interested my rig is a dual core opteron 175, running in an athlon 64 home user motherboard. The benefit of doing this is that i can get a motherboard with good upgrade options for graphics, and still run an opteron.

[Deltic_Engine]

I use Solidworks 2006 & 2007 on two different machines.
Both are dual-processor systems (Intel).

Solidworks only uses one processor at a time.
However keep in mind that if you have two simultanious processes
under WinXP, that you can hit Ctrl-Alt-Del, go to 'Task manager' and
right click on the processes and change their 'affinity'
In effect, You can switch one to CPU 1 only and the other to CPU 2 only
regardless if they are one-processor-type programs or not.

Of course doing that can sometimes (rarely) cause a crash if the
programs are busy crunching numbers at the time you switch their CPUs.

Actually my next computers will NOT be dual processor, because I
use several other older programs like Corel Draw 8 that crash
regularly on dual-processor systems (unless I change the 'affinity' each time
that I load them). Also, I have Norton's 'CCAPP.exe' running
and it ALWAYS crashes on either of my dual-processor computers.
It is a real pain to change the affinity of CCAPP (to single proc mode)
every time I boot the machines up.

Next time I am just getting the fastest single-processor machine I can find.
Perhaps Intel's new 'Duo' is better in this regard?

Jeff K.
http://www.polyradial.com

[daedalus]

Jeff,

Those sound like annoying problems with your older software. There are ways to permenantly set process affinity, an app called imagecfg iirc. Have you tried that?

heres a link i grabbed off google describing the method:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=3542

[JerryFlyGuy]

Any of you guy's running 2007 X64 on a dual processor machine? I email my tech support directly about this question before purchasing my machine and was told that SW does support dual core mobo's and properly uses the dual core dual processor. So, which is right? I'm not running x64 on my 'sheen' as our server software doesn't support it [ Novel server..] but I hope to switch over once they get their butts in gear and get it supported...

Jerry