Cadalyst - November/December 2008 - (Page 23)

cadalystlabsreview Our contribution to the Global Economy on board — a speedy but relatively high-cost addition to a budget-minded system. I put the Xi MTower PCIe system through its paces, starting with the new version of the Cadalyst C2008 benchmark running under the 64-bit version of AutoCAD 2009. With AutoCAD’s native Direct3D drivers, the MTower PCIe produced C2008 total index score of 342. Using the NVIDIA Performance driver for AutoCAD, the system scored an even 500, the highest AutoCAD performance score to date. Also using the performance drivers, I then ran two concurrent sessions of AutoCAD, with each running a separate version of the C2008 benchmark. The combined C2008 total index score for the concurrent sessions was 765, completing in only 18 minutes. Next up was the MAXBench 4 benchmark using the 64-bit version of Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009. With 3ds Max’s native OpenGL drivers, the MTower PCIe produced a combined average high/low score of 74.46. With 3ds Max’s native Direct3D drivers, the combined average of the high/low scores was 120.32. Finally, the NVIDIA performance driver (MAXtreme) produced an averaged high/low score of 183.18. For the final benchmark, I ran the full 64-bit version of SPECviewperf 10, which produced the following scores: 39.15 for 3dsmax-04, 50.08 for catia02, 42.15 for ensight-03, 165.47 for maya-02, 47.62 for proe-04, 99.60 for sw-01, 25.69 for tcvis-01, and 27.53 for ugnx-01. The Xi MTower PCIe system as configured is priced at $2,499 and comes with a three-year warranty for parts and labor, with one year of on-site service. Highly Recommended. FREE A /CAD ™ Introducing A/CAD LT EXPRESS ™ Works like LT. But FREE. Priced at less than $2,000, the Lenovo ThinkStation S10 comes with a three-year warranty for parts and labor. ThinkStation S10 The Lenovo ThinkStation S10 is a sleek, compact, solid, and very quiet workstation that also is very well engineered. Lenovo S10 models are single-processor systems, with the D10 Lenovo 866.968.4465 www.lenovo.com Price: $1,896 systems providing a second processor socket. The ThinkStation S10 Cadalyst received was based on a 3.16-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 processor mounted in a custom Lenovo motherboard. The motherboard used the Intel X38 Express ICH9R chipset and features a front-side bus speed of 1,333 MHz. The Lenovo S10 came with 4 GB of PC3-8500 1,067-MHz ECC DDR3 RAM installed, but it can accommodate 8 GB when fully populated. It also included two Hitachi 250-GB SATA hard drives. A standard combination optical drive was included in the configuration — Lenovo uses several vendors for its optical drives. Housed in a very black 16.8” x 6.9” x 19.0” (H x W x D) case with a built-in handle on the top front, the Lenovo S10 is well-crafted and beautifully engineered with lots of attention to detail. The fittings are excellent and the system is compact but substantial and unlikely to tip over. It’s also remarkably quiet — some noise emits from the optical drive when it’s active, but otherwise the system is nearly silent. A beefy 650-W Delta Electronics power supply combines with nine drive bays, 10 USB 2.0 connectors (2 in front), and a FireWire 1394 connector to offer Get a first look of A/CAD LT in Las Vegas December 2 - 4 By appointment only. Please email Demo@ACADnow.com For more information www.ACADnow.com A/CAD is a trademark of IMSI/Design November/December 2008 cadalyst www.cadalyst.com 23 http://www.ACADnow.com http://www.lenovo.com http://www.ACADnow.com http://www.cadalyst.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Cadalyst - November 2008

Cadalyst - November 2008 Contents Editor's Window CAD Central Tech Trends: Designed after Our Own Image Budget-Conscious Workstations — 64-Bit CAD Power for Less than $2,500 Cadalyst All-Star Awards 2008 SolidWorks 2009 — 3D MCAD Software IES Virtual Environment 5.9 — Building Performance Analysis Software View Point: A Design with Teeth CAD Manager: CAD Manager’s Survey 2008 MCAD Modeling: Ask for What You Want AEC Insight: AEC Software by the Clock CAD Cartoon Issue Indexes Hot Tip Harry: Hot Tips for Cold Days

Cadalyst - November 2008

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