@josm3 Sigh. I think you’re right, but only time will tell. It’s supposed to ship early next week, and I don’t know where it’s coming from, so it might be another week before I have it.
What I’m guessing people here and on the other thread about this computer seem not to have payed attention to is that I really am going for a low end computer that will, nonetheless, reliably run SketchUp and Layout for very small, low poly models.
- Curved surfaces? I’ll have nearly none! The most I’ll have is modeling the outlines only of round electrical meters and meter sockets.
- Textures? Other than, perhaps, custom textures as a way to label my components, I’ll only be using untextured colors!
- Shapes? I’ll be mostly modeling what are functionally simple box shapes, representing electrical structures such as group metering modules and switchboard sections. What will be critical is alignment! And when I’m never trying to align more than 10 of these simple box shapes, I’m not worried about the speed of response of my computer. Heck, even if SketchUp goes to outline view while I’m moving a component, that’s all I need!
- Entourage? What entourage? At most, I’ll need to model the section of a wall surface on which I “slide” my components, arranging them to fit between obstructions - and the obstructions need to only be vaguely defined. Can’t block a window? I won’t need to model the window, only draw and perhaps color in red (for “avoid”) the part of the wall where I can’t place equipment!
- Stairs? At most, I’ll have to model the bottom limit of the extent of the stairs - as a plane inclined to the slope of the stairs.
And the REST of the uses to which I’ll put this computer are even less demanding! The “program” that will get the most use (probably over 95% of my time) is the Microsoft MSTSC app which gives me a desktop - served by our terminal server - inside a window. All of the heavy hitting computation will happen on the server, not on my computer.
And ALL of this is to - hopefully - close a sale on approximately 2% of my work!
Thus I suspect the 3584th rated graphic card will suffice - as long as SketchUp like working with it!
And beyond the OS and installed programs, I’ll be surprised if I ever use more than 5GB of disk space for data. MOST of my work will still be on the server, and I intend to use Trimble Connect to store most of my models in the cloud - so my salespeople can access them when they’re making an onsite presentation. We will be licensing the SketchUp Viewer, but that’s a cheap license and we only have two outside salespeople. I’m actually excited to let my salespeople know that they can use their mobile phone to provide an augmented reality, illustrative view of how our proposed gear will fit the intended space!