What systems are people using?

[theta]

Hi All....

Trying to get a feel for benchmark performance. I have seen users running Excel on old Pentium 4 machines, even Pentium 3.

I currently use a core i3 530 with 4gb RAM on a 32 bit operating system with a solid state drive

Thinking time to upgrade to 64 bit operating system, 8gb (or possibly 12gb) of RAM and a core i7 quad processor (excel see's it as 8 logical processors) and a solid state drive.

Anybody running excel on a high spec rig like this? Performance?

 

[Richard Schollar]

Don't go for 64bit Excel if you do that - it will cause you compatibility problems and isn't worth the hassle IMO.

I run Excel XP on a crappy Core Duo at work and it works OK

 

[theta]

Hmmm ok

Should still be fine running 32 bit office 2010 on Windows 7 64 bit. Uses WoW (which is what caused me probs before as running on an old version of MS server with a rubbish WoW config)

Should run great, although excel 32 bit will only try to address 4gb of RAM (the 32 bit address limit) ?

Anybody else using anything fancy, any custom builds for excel devel?

 

[Smitty]

I just built a new rig, with an i7 930 (2.8Ghz), 6 GB RAM w/1 MB Ready Boost, 3 x 1 TB Hard Drives in a CoolerMaster HAF-X tower (fantastic!), running Windows 7 64-Bit and Office 2010 Pro 32-bit. I tried the 64-bit version of Office and switched back after a week, as none of my Add-Ins worked and I don't feel like learning the new VBA security measures at this point (holding out for something different).

I didn't notice any calculation differences in either Excel or Access between either version, so I'd stick to the 32-bit. 64-bit just didn't seem worth the hassle.

 

[SydneyGeek]

My understanding is that 64-bit Office is only worth it if you work with huge Excel files. Otherwise stay 32-bit.

Denis

 

[Smitty]

And if your files are that big go to Access anyway.