VW 2017 - 2018 on Surface Studio and CAD on curved screens?

[Mik]

I think I need to update my hardware (and get current on VW).

 

I am attracted to the large HP screens (34") but wonder if the curved form messes with one's ability to see/understand things clearly in CAD. Anyone have any experience with CAD on a curved screen?

I would purchase an HP Z2 workstation with the screen. HP says VW is "certified" for it. And I am very fond of their 3yr on-site warranty.

 

Alternatively, has anyone tried VW on the MS Surface Studio? I am attracted to some possibilities with sketching (other software) and form-factor, simplicity.

 

I do architectural design and renderings when requested. Customers want more and more renderings now. One client really wanted a walk-through rendering and my current setup worked through the crude-looking OpenGL but left much to be desired.

So the power is needed.

 

I appreciate anyone's experience on these.

Thanks,

Mik

[Bas Vellekoop]

Curious about this as well.

Not to hijack this thread but these seem to offer allot of bang for bucks:

 

http://www.dell.com/nl/p/inspiron-5675-gaming-desktop/pd?oc=cd567513&model_id=inspiron-5675-gaming-desktop

[Kevin McAllister]

14 hours ago, Mik said:

Alternatively, has anyone tried VW on the MS Surface Studio? I am attracted to some possibilities with sketching (other software) and form-factor, simplicity.

 

I did a little investigation but the GPU they use in the low end models only has 2GB of VRAM. Even the higher end model tops out at 4GB. Given the direction VW has gone I think its wise to go with 4GM minimum and 8GB preferred (which isn't even an option on the Surface Studio). See this thread for VW2018 specs - 

Kevin

 

 

[Mik]

K. McAllister,

Point taken.

I am getting the impression that you cannot get into a graphics card loaded to 8gb until you get into the big tower units. Fine for some but I am so over the tower of power format with millions of cables, noises, space, etc.

I have an HP Z1 w/ Xeon E3-1245 V2 3.4ghz, 16gb RAM and a Quadro K3000M w/2gb VRAM. I could upgrade to a K4000M w/4gb VRAM and upgrade main memory to 32gb but not sure if that is going to buy me enough performance and extended life to make it worth doing.

Still not clear on how the Intel i3 - i5 - i7 series compares in performance to the Xeons relative to our needs in VW.

 

[Kevin McAllister]

1 hour ago, Mik said:

I am getting the impression that you cannot get into a graphics card loaded to 8gb until you get into the big tower units. Fine for some but I am so over the tower of power format with millions of cables, noises, space, etc.

 

The Windows world is not my area of expertise as I've only ever investigated the Surface Studio..... I do know the high end iMacs have 8GB of VRAM so it is possible in a non-tower format.

 

1 hour ago, Mik said:

I have an HP Z1 w/ Xeon E3-1245 V2 3.4ghz, 16gb RAM and a Quadro K3000M w/2gb VRAM. I could upgrade to a K4000M w/4gb VRAM and upgrade main memory to 32gb but not sure if that is going to buy me enough performance and extended life to make it worth doing.

Still not clear on how the Intel i3 - i5 - i7 series compares in performance to the Xeons relative to our needs in VW.

 

On the processor side the bottleneck in VW is the math processing which is still single core.

 

Kevin

 

[herbieherb]

A non-tower format doubles the price. You get about 0.2 sqm more space under your table but this costs you thousand dollar. It has exactly the same amount of cables. You can't upgrade or change anything in it. Because your hardware has more space, it will run cooler, your fans will make less noise (if you take the right ones) and the hardware will live longer. Its a workstation not a hotel lobby

Edited September 5, 2017 by herbieherb

[grant_PD]

Current rig is water cooled.  Much less noisy.  Worth the money in my opinion.  

[PVA - Admin]

I agree with everything posted above! I am also a proponent of the desktop form factor when you aren't planning to carrying it around every day, way better price:performance ratio.

As to curved monitors: I had a few days working with a curved display in Vectorworks and I did not notice it affecting my perception of straight lines at all. It MIGHT if you were looking at the screen from extremely high or low, but if the screen is properly oriented in relation to your head, you should be fine.