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Spec's for New PC.


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Are you building a custom system or buying one from H-P, Dell, Alien or the like?

Are you trying for the fastest machine on the block or trying for one generation back with a good price point?

Overall I would suggest a minimum of a Quad processor (either AMD or Intel). The Intel i7 extreme is primo but I run a AMD Phenom quadcore and VW runs just fine.

Since VW runs best under Vista or Windows 7 32-bit more than 4 Gig of memory is superfluous, but is good to have for the future.

The most important element is the graphics card. Make sure you have a minimum of 1-gig of graphics memory. Both Nvidia and ATI make great cards compatible with Vectorworks.

You can get a great system in the $1,200 range.

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Dell Precision T7500 with dual Xeons.

Oddly enough the T7500 costs around $3k more than an equally-specced Mac Pro, even using memory direct from Apple (which is infamous for copious amounts of "Apple Tax"). You could get that plus a high-end Quadro FX 4800 and still save $1.5k.

The Dell does offer more in terms of room for future expansion, and do note that the aforementioned price differences were based on website quotes. More often than not, a direct call to Dell will get you cheaper equipment than if bought on their website (sometimes by 50%).

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I, for one, agree with the Kool Aide. Get two systems for the price of 1 1/2. Buy the iMac and buy a Windows 7 license. Best of the best(MacOS Intel) with the bonus of the rest(Windoze ...sorry Ben).

We all know NNA's offical party line is "Buy a Mac" and their official policy is not to help people specify their PC's.

Edited by brudgers
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I, for one, agree with the Kool Aide. Get two systems for the price of 1 1/2. Buy the iMac and buy a Windows 7 license. Best of the best(MacOS Intel) with the bonus of the rest(Windoze ...sorry Ben).

We all know NNA's offical party line is "Buy a Mac" and their official policy is not to help people specify their PC's.

Here I have to make an exception to my ?Ignore Brudgers? -rule.

I happen to know several VW-distributors, resellers and consultants, some even personally, many others virtually, in various countries.

Some 90% of their ?free? support is wasted on Windows. Not how VW works in Windows, but Windows in general. How do I print. How do I save files. How this, how that.

I'll leave it to you to decide whether only complete idiots buy Windows or whether Windows is an inferior OS.

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Thanks again everyone for your comments. When I started this thread I tried to head-off the Apple vs MS/Windows debate by stating that I am interested in spec's for a new "PC". "PC" usually is taken to mean a Windows species operating system. Ben's question:

Why would anyone choose to spec their PC based on what Apple sells?
was to the point. However, I have not experienced a NAA prejudice against PC's. I seem to remember NAA promoting a DELL machine pre-loaded w/ VW, a year or so ago. Also, VW tech support provided some good information re choosing a PC.
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Thanks again everyone for your comments. When I started this thread I tried to head-off the Apple vs MS/Windows debate by stating that I am interested in spec's for a new "PC". "PC" usually is taken to mean a Windows species operating system.

Oh yes: Concept Appropriation, so commonplace in Cults. PC in fact means a Personal Computer.

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Maybe so, but the first truly successful personal computer for professional use was the Apple II. Among other things, it spawned the concept of the spreadsheet program. Macintosh, on the other hand, was the mother of graphics and desktop publishing, not to mention the GUI. The key components of Microsoft Office, Excel and Word, were originally Mac-only programs. As were MiniCAD and ArchiCAD.

There has not been a single software innovation in the Windows environment. If anything, Microsoft has held back innovation and progress, with of course substantial help from IBM. Without those, we'd be so much more advanced.

EDIT

And had MS had its way, we'd still be typing on Command Lines of various programs. Just like AutoCAD users still do.

Edited by Kool Aid
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Thanks again everyone for your comments. When I started this thread I tried to head-off the Apple vs MS/Windows debate by stating that I am interested in spec's for a new "PC". "PC" usually is taken to mean a Windows species operating system. Ben's question:
Why would anyone choose to spec their PC based on what Apple sells?
was to the point. However, I have not experienced a NAA prejudice against PC's. I seem to remember NAA promoting a DELL machine pre-loaded w/ VW, a year or so ago. Also, VW tech support provided some good information re choosing a PC.

Based on my personal experience with NNA's technical support for the Windows platform, I would consider Jeffery's attitude and platform knowledge as typical.

I know the person at NNA I spoke with prior to purchasing the black beast in 2008 pushed the "switch to Mac" agenda.

And of course they weren't aware of the known and significant incompatibilities between windowsXP Professional x64 and VW2008...even though NNA was in the process of adressing them in SP3 which was released within a few weeks of my call.

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Based on my personal experience with NNA's technical support for the Windows platform, I would consider Jeffery's attitude and platform knowledge as typical.

So would I, until there are different prices for different operating systems. Why should NNA subsidise Windows-users, who can't even install a printer?

Your hobbyism, dear Windows-cult members, is costing us professional users money!

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By and large Windows users are always "dealing with" Vectorworks.

Windows users respond to the difference between NNA's dual platform talking points and the corporate culture of Mac bias...Even if such response is subconscious.

So many of NNA's employees...not just Jeffery...have more passion for selling Macs than for selling Vectorworks.

And as Kool-Aid's post points out, Windows users are viewed as problems by the local distributors who represent NNA around the world.

You can't hide passion and you can't manufacture it either.

Notice the absence of Vectorworks evangelists using the Windows platform.

In their hearts, NNA would rather have nine toes and sell a Mac, than have ten toes and sell Vectorworks to a windows user.

Edited by brudgers
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And as Kool-Aid's post points out, Windows users are viewed as problems by the local distributes who represent NNA around the world.

Ha ha ha ha haa! Viewed, indeed! Why should VW/Mac -users subsidise you and your ilk: idiots or users of the inferior OS that requires huge amounts of support.

I know already what you are.

edit: Ms. Brudgers, I gather, has not contributed to development lately. She expects others to pay for that, too.

Edited by Kool Aid
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NNA doesn't manage the Mac/PC issue well.

The roots of its mismanagement are historical.

In the beginning it was easy to graft their brand onto Mac culture.

The consequence of this expediency is that today the Vectorworks brand struggles to exist independently even though the major themes of Mac culture are contrary to NNA's business interests.

Apple spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to define Windows users as "the other" and it's impossible for NNA to embrace Mac culture the way Mac users expect without assenting to such a definition.

That's why here on the board NNA employees are extremely active in rebutting disparaging remarks about the Mac and entirely hands off regarding such comments about Windows.

By to some extent seeing - even if subconsciously - at least half their user base as "others," NNA has made it next to impossible to create a culture of Vectorworks which is distinguishable from the culture of Apple.

And since adopting the culture of Apple in lieu of creating a true Vectorworks community is so easy, the circle continues despite its detrimental effects on potential sales growth.

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