Heavy User: Ultimate PC

[RXC]

Hi Mr. Excel,

I use Excel for analyzing large sets of data in Finance (like historical prices).

My spreadsheets are very large (25 Mo) with loads of VLookup and many Graphs.


My PC lags and often crashes when calculating, when scrolling ot lags as well because of the Graphs.

Can anyone recommend the ultimate PC given that I have a good budget but I don't want to waste money either on hardware which wouldn't be used by Excel 2010.

In particuar, can Excel use the following:
-64bit Windows 7?
-Quad Core?
-Dual Quad Core?
-A lot of RAM (max?)?
-Would a high-range graphic card help or not?

Thanks!

 

[SydneyGeek]

For AV I use Sunbelt VIPRE. Great for home use; you can purchase a home license to install on any number of PCs, for less than $50. It's quick, low on resources, and updates definitions every 2 hours.

FWIW I'm looking at upgrading soon. Specs will include Core i7, 64 bit Win 7, 8-12 Gb RAM. If I feel rich I'll use an SSD for the system disk, and buy 1-2 Tb storage. Not fussed about the graphics so I'll go for a mid-range card.

Denis

 

[MrKowz]

I'm still not sold on SSD, from what I've read and understand, their lifetime is much less than a regular disk-drive (~1 million read/writes before your data starts to corrupt). I've stuck with 10,000 and 15,000 rpm drives instead. They are a bit loud, yes, but I at least feel my data (saved games mainly ) are safer.

 

[RoryA]

That's why you use the SSD for the OS and normal hard drives for the rest.

 

[sous2817]

That's why you use the SSD for the OS and normal hard drives for the rest.

This is what I did and couldn't be happier w/ the boot times. The hardest thing (for me) to remember is to change the default install location. Most programs default to C:\Program Files when you install...sometimes forget to set it to D:\Program Files.

 

[Smitty]

I recently changed my OS drive from a 1TB to a Western Digital Velociraptor 3.5" HD. It's got a 10K spindle speed, and 300GB is more than enough to hold all of my apps. It's significantly improved my OS/application performance.