System configuration principles and practices

System Configuration

Key Business Requirements

The company is an aerospace engineering firm which means that new design will be an integral part of what they do. The company will be dealing with the design of new technology and it is important that the engineers involved have the best equipment possible. The software is decided, in that they will be using CAD to assist with the design of the technology, but the platform is important because it will have to be able to do more than just run the program. The company has also stated that price is not a large consideration. For the purchaser, this means that the best equipment can be considered regardless of price. Since this is an important project for the future of the company, making sure that the right platform is purchased is of the utmost importance.

Computing Systems Considered

The purchaser will have to marry the right processor, operating system, amount of RAM, hard drive, graphics card and peripherals to make sure that the system runs at maximum efficiency. The processor can have anything from two to twelve cores, and bigger is not always better. There are three primary operating systems that can be used in Windows, LINUX or Mac OS. Since CAD is very RAM intensive (Phillip) the more RAM the better. Choice of graphics card comes down to either NVidia or ATS and the pros and cons are discussed in the next section. The hard drive has to have both capacity and speed..

Pros and Cons of Options

The processor comes down to speed and processing capacity (which is probably most about processing cores). A two core processor will allow the program to be run, but when using 3D it is not optimum. A four core processor will give the computer an even better platform because it allows the user to both run the program and use the computer for other applications. However, the best option is a six core processor because of the flexibility it provides.

The amount of RAM needed is one of the largest considerations to make sure that the software runs at its best. Although it is possible to get by with 2 gig of RAM, it is best to have 4 gig or more, and six GB would be preferable.

The graphics card can be either NVidia or ATS. However, CAD is designed to run on an NVidia platform. When choosing a specific NVidia card, the Quadro is preferable to the GeForce model. The card will have to have 512 MB RAM capacity or greater also.

The most important aspects of a hard drive are the speed and capacity of the equipment. It is possible to purchase one and two terabyte hard drives now, and since the computer may have to store a lot of information for the project, the more capacity the better. A 7200 RPM drive is all that is needed, but drives can run at 10,000 RPM+ now. Because the greater capacity of the drive requires greater run speed, the 10,000 + RPM is recommended.

Optimal Computing System

The engineers who are to work on the project will understand what they need from a computing source and they will expect the best. The processor is the most important piece of equipment overall because it is the actual computing element, however deciding between the different operating systems available makes the processor decision more difficult. Although the processor is the most important consideration, it is not the only need. The purchaser will have to consider processor, how much RAM is needed for proper operation of the software, the graphics card, the capacity of the hard drive, and the peripherals (such as the plotter and the monitor).