Anyone Here Running Dell Precision 690?

I'm waiting to get this setup in the mail by end of month. Just wondering if anyone here running PC with XP,64-bit with 8GB of ram. With either CS3 or Lighroom.

- Quad-Core Intel Xeon 2.33GHz, 1333 FSB, 2 X 4MB L2. (Option of Dual)
- 8GB of RAM (Upto 64GB)
- Windows Professional XP 64Bit

Mac Folks... Please leave this one alone!

I use one at work, but with 2 x dual core 5160 (3GHz) Xeons, 4GB of RAM and XP 32-bit ... so I'm probably not a lot of help One thing I will say is that they're a nicely built machine, but mine does have a definite droning noise in one of the fans. It gets quite irritating at times.

Is there a reason why you're using XP 64-bit rather than Vista 64-bit? I'm running Vista 64-bit on my home PC with both LR and CS3 ... it's a Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM (not a brand name machine, one I built myself). It runs -very- nicely I've been thinking about bumping it up to 8GB of RAM, but I don't know whether it'd be worth it for what I do.

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #3564338
I use one at work, but with 2 x dual core 5160 (3GHz) Xeons, 4GB of RAM and XP 32-bit ... so I'm probably not a lot of help One thing I will say is that they're a nicely built machine, but mine does have a definite droning noise in one of the fans. It gets quite irritating at times.

Is there a reason why you're using XP 64-bit rather than Vista 64-bit? I'm running Vista 64-bit on my home PC with both LR and CS3 ... it's a Core 2 Quad Q6600 with 4GB of RAM (not a brand name machine, one I built myself). It runs -very- nicely I've been thinking about bumping it up to 8GB of RAM, but I don't know whether it'd be worth it for what I do.

Thanks Mat. I'm thinking of sticking with XP to be more compatible with all my existing apps. I went with XP 64bit because I'm looking to get a total of 16GB+ of ram in the next year or so. Standard XP only goes up to 4GB

Maybe I'll jump on Vista one day. I'm not a big fan of all that eye candy stuff that Vista offer. Running blue gradient XP theme is even too much for me. I revert it back to the old gray theme. I don't want any sexyness in my OS. Just raw power.

My last wedding took up 24GB of raw images between my 30D/5D. I wasted so much time during post production with my P4 3.4GHz with 2GB Ram. My P4 is still good for web design but a dog in Lighroom managing 24GB of images. LOL

That sounds reasonable - the only reason I suggested 64-bit Vista instead of 64-bit XP is that I believe driver support is/will be better for 64-bit Vista, but if you're getting it from Dell supplied with 64-bit XP that shouldn't be an issue.

Just as an aside, I haven't found anything that I use that won't run under 64-bit Vista.

Have fun with it!

Cheers,
Mat.

Mat Fitzsimmons wrote in post #3564405
That sounds reasonable - the only reason I suggested 64-bit Vista instead of 64-bit XP is that I believe driver support is/will be better for 64-bit Vista, but if you're getting it from Dell supplied with 64-bit XP that shouldn't be an issue.

Just as an aside, I haven't found anything that I use that won't run under 64-bit Vista.

Have fun with it!

Cheers,
Mat.

Good to know. Thanks Pal

I'm using an older Precision 650, and it's a very nice machine despite its age. I would be tempted to go for slightly faster processors if you can, as there are some things that have to run in a single thread - but 1333MHz FSB is certainly a good idea, as Photoshop in particular is very intensive on memory bandwidth.

I have my eye on the Precision 690 as a replacement for my (now four year old) workhorse, and I doubt I will be disappointed if I go for it.

David