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RichardL
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| Posted: December 22 2015 at 13:31 | IP Logged
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Currently I have a dedicated PC for PowerHome still running Windows XP. I wish to replace this PC, keeping the replacement as a dedicated PowerHome PC. I would like to know what are the items I really should strive for: CPU? RAM? etc.
On the older side I have in stock (and free) -
a 3GHz Pentium 4 or Pentium D CPU, 32 bit PC, with 4GB of RAM and Windows 7.
Or - will it make a difference, if I move to something newer and faster?
Since PH is the only thing running do I need a 64bit machine, more RAM, CPU, etc?
Thank you.
Richard
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smarty
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| Posted: December 22 2015 at 19:10 | IP Logged
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Richard,
Personally, I just got done with replacing a crashed boot drive. I thought I'd replace my Win7 32 with the 64 bit version.
I ended up going back to Win7 32bit because it became apparent that many of my automation programs (including PH) and hardware drivers are 32 bit programs.
A few did offer 64 bit drivers/versions, but it quickly became apparent that trying to upkeep both system32 and sysWOW64 would quickly become more hassle than it is worth.
I would stick to Win7 32, and get the full 4 gig of memory. I would also recommend a SSD boot/(C:) drive, that will REALLY speed up your PH performance.
my 2 cents...
Trying to keep it simple and proven...
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 22 2015 at 20:55 | IP Logged
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Smart choice on the SSDs as I run nothing but SSDs except for backup. As far as 64 vs 32 I also run Win 7 64 bit and have no problem with integrating 32 bit drivers. But then I am not as complex as you are.
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RichardL
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| Posted: December 23 2015 at 18:21 | IP Logged
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Agreed on the SSDs, setting up all PCs with SSDs. But, my server has a RAID tower where I currently use rotating 2TB drives in tandem for data and backups.
At the time the Wall St firm where I worked sold off their old PCs, I bought 10 HP XW6000 workstations. They are workhorses with dual 3.04GHz CPUs, still running well today. But they suck power and are 32bit only. So off to replacing all with 64bit and Windows 10.
The big ticket is that it appears that there is not much of a difference if I use a 32 or 64 bit PC for PH. I can then retain one of the XW6000s for PH. I only have Windows 7 for 32 bit, but that too looks OK. Also don't want to deal with the 64/32 bit conversions.
Please let me know if there is any doubt that this will keep PH quick, I would then fire it up on a better PC.
All good! As usual, thank you.
Richard
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 23 2015 at 20:26 | IP Logged
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Well if your processors are 32 bit you have no choice but 32. And 32 bit with PH runs fine...
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dhoward
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| Posted: January 04 2016 at 20:42 | IP Logged
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Richard,
I would think you would be just fine with the Pentium
4 running Windows 7/32 with 4GB of RAM. Anything else
would likely be overkill (I mean faster is always
better but I don't think you'll see much of a
difference).
PowerHome will run fine on 32 or 64 bit versions of
Windows 7 and you shouldnt have any problems with
drivers. Though, like Steve suggests, 32 bit will
definitely keep things "simple" as PowerHome uses
pretty much all 32 bit technology.
I also like the idea of using and SSD for the OS, main
program, and database (but not the eventlog). The
eventlog is constantly pounded so I would definitely
have that on spinning media. Using a RAID for this
task should be just fine. I have also heard of people
using a RAM drive for the database to make things as
fast as possible. You would just want to ensure that
at some point the database is image is written to
physical media so it isnt too far out of sync.
Hope this helps,
Dave.
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PowerHome Messageboard : PowerHome Hardware
Topic: New PC hardware for PowerHome.
