Many times I have been asked the question "You work for PlanSwift, what kind of system do you use?". Well that is indeed a good question to ask. Over the years I have had the opportunity to test PlanSwift on many different machines. Most of which have been fairly stock computers from Dell. Here is the short list of systems I have used.
- Laptop - Dell Precision M6300
This computer has been a 'Tank'. It handles everything I have been able to throw at it.
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core™2 Duo
Video - NVIDIA Quadro® FX 1600M 256MB dedicated
RAM - 4GB DDR2
O.S. - Orig. win Vista 64 Business - Currently Win 7 Professional.
- Desktop - Dell Optiplex 760
This computer as well has performed very well. Another good quality machine out of the box.
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core™2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
Video - NVIDIA 9800GT 1024MB dedicated
RAM - 4GB DDR2 1066Mhz
O.S. - Orig. win Vista 64 Business - Currently Win 7 Professional.
- Desktop - Dell Studio XPS MT435
This computer was awesome. This one has since died due to a faulty motherboard but was very nice while it was alive.
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz
Video - ATI Radeon 4550 HD x 2 2048MB DDR5 (aftermarket)
RAM - 6GB DDR3 1066Mhz
O.S. - Windows 7 Home Premium
- Current Desktop - Custom Tower
This computer has the ultimate in performance. This time around I decided to build one from scratch. I did not need any more monitors, keyboards, mice or other peripheral devices. I also managed to salvage some of the good parts from the old i7 that died. I used fairly high end components but not the highest. I wanted Durability, Expandability and Performance. Here is what I currently run.
Case - Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
MotherBoard - ASUS Rampage Extreme III
CPU - Intel Core i7 - 960 3.2 Ghz Bloomfield w/ upgraded cooler
RAM - 24GB DDR3 Triple Channel G.Skill RipJaws at 1600Mhz
Main Drive - Crucial 256GB M4 SSD
Secondary - Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200rpm for backups and additional storage.
Video - 2 x nVidia 550ti 1024MB DDR5 each. I run 4 x 22" monitors
O.S. Windows 7 Professional
All in all this is an awesome system that will last for a long, long time. You may ask what does something like this cost to build? You might be surprised. The components I purchased from NewEgg are common and if you keep an eye out they do go on sale quite often. I also managed to use some of the components I already had. About $1200 all said and done. The big ticket item was probably the SSD drive. The main benefits to having an SSD drive are life expectancy and speed. Typically they will last twice as long as a conventional drive and the speeds are staggering. 20 seconds to boot into Windows and have my first application open. Load speed on programs is nearly instant. PlanSwift performance has doubled mainly from the drive. So if you are a fairly tech savvy person you may want to lean toward building your next computer if you are looking for a higher Bang for your Buck ratio.
