overmyhead

Thank you for the concise response! I will look into just going with a NAS and adding a few solid workstations instead.

That's ok. Thank you for your input and yes, this will help! Revit and Illustrator are the most CPU heavy. Revit 2017 minimum system requirements: Single- or Multi-Core Intel® Pentium®, Xeon®, or i-Series processor or AMD® equivalent with SSE2 technology. Highest affordable CPU speed rating recommended. Autodesk® Revit® software products will use multiple cores for many tasks, using up to 16 cores for near-photorealistic rendering operations. 4GB RAM (sufficient for a single model up to 100MB on disk) Video Adapter (Basic Graphics: display adapter capable of 24 bit color. Advanced Graphics:Direct X11 capable graphics with Shader Model 3) 5GB free space Illustator's requirements are: Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 processor Microsoft Windows 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10* 1 GB of RAM (3 GB recommended) for 32 bit; 2 GB of RAM (8 GB recommended) for 64 bit 2 GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on removable flash storage devices) 1024 x 768 display (1280 x 800 recommended) To view Illustrator in HiDPI mode, your monitor must support a resolution of 1920 x 1080 or more. OpenGL 4.x To use the new Touch workspace in Illustrator, you must have a touch-screen-enabled tablet/monitor running Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (Microsoft Surface Pro 3 recommended). Optional: To use GPU Performance: an Intel, NVIDIA, or AMD video adapter from those listed below (medium/high-end recommended); 1 GB of VRAM (2 GB recommended); and latest drivers for optimal performance NVIDIA Quadro K Series NVIDIA Quadro 6xxx NVIDIA Quadro 5xxx NVIDIA Quadro 4xxx NVIDIA Quadro 2xxx NVIDIA Quadro 2xxxD NVIDIA Quadro 6xx NVIDIA GeForce GTX Series (4xx, 5xx, 6xx, 7xx, 9xx, Titan) NVIDIA Quadro M Series NVIDIA Quadro P Series One of my largest client project files contains 768 files and is almost 3GB in size. Typically my project files are half this size but I have 9+ years worth to store and of course future projects to plan space for. I do have a 2TB external hard drive that I have moved most of my old files to in order to free up space for the time being. I have been using Revit for several years and am running an older version of it which I will be upgrading. My current desktop configuration is: Windows 7 Pro with SP1 Intel 2Quad Q6600 2.4 GHz 4GB RAM and an NVIDIA Quadro FX1700 (the system lags when processing photorealistic renderings) and is old so I will be replacing this in the near future too. My thought was that I would install Revit on the server instead of my desktop or laptop and then it could be accessed by me or the draftsperson. The rest of the system would be used primarily for file storage Someone else asked about remote access to other CPUs in the office vs setting up virtual machines for every user. the only CPU in my office is my machine. My admin assistant has her own MacBook and brings it to the office to connect to the network or remote connects to the office into my CPU. Looks like I need to look for an IT company to assist me. I thought I could tackle handling this on my own but after all of the input here, I am indeed over my head. I am not just looking at the server expense but a CPU, IT set up and a Revit software upgrade.

Sheesh, condescending much? If my small business needs and questions are too petty for your hallowed input why bother responding? I arrived at this forum while trying to do some due diligence before making what I feel is a hefty purchase for my small business. BTW, my previous Dell equipment purchases were through their business division not the consumer one. I consulted with an IT company 2 years ago and they wanted $4k for a lenovo server and setting up the network. ($3200 for the system and Microsoft server essentials alone). I thought that was highway robbery then. I am glad I did not make the purchase as it appears that even $1500 is excessive and will not serve our needs.

Aha! Ok. Dell's website. And what you cite is what I was afraid of. All of my old equip was through Dell ---- 9 years ago. I went there out of brand comfort and obviously minimal knowledge of what the heck I need. Argh.

You might as well be speaking Greek to me at this point. (This coming from someone who speaks a little Greek). I know SSD means Solid State Drive. What is AD? GPU? I use windows' remote desktop app (remote connection was set up by someone else) No rack When you say their own vms.....does that mean virtual machines?

Eek. Ok, Did you catch the specs that it has (2) 8bg ram and (2) 1tb hd's? I was under the impression that Revit is pretty demanding particularly when rendering images. Am I wrong?

Ha! If you need a kitchen designed to cook those eggs in or a table to eat them at - I can help. A video card was not even an add-on option but I will look in their parts section. I have an NVDIA in my desktop but I see AMD's spec'd a lot. Does one brand perform better than another?

Good evening! I am in desperate need of some direction before I go through the checkout process for the purchase of a server. My apologies up front for this being a long post but I am in over my head. Uncle! I am a small business owner (husband and wife owned design build construction company). I have a degree in architecture and have been thrown into wearing the IT, admin, marketing and graphic design hats. The last time I purchased computer equipment (server, PC and laptop....was 9 years ago and they were all Dell brand equipment) Our previous server (which died a few months ago) was simply used for file storage. We have a central office space which I am in almost daily and my admin assistant is there 2 days a week. On her "off" days, she works remotely; I often work remotely "after hours" as well. Right now I have remote desktop set up to connect to my desktop at the office however I am frequently finding my assistant and I both need remote access during the same hours. I am also in the process of hiring a draftsperson who will need to remote connect on occasion and use Revit as well as access drawing files. Programs we use regularly:Revit (an older version loaded to my computer - we will be going cloud based in the next 30 days), Photoshop (cloud based), MS Office programs, Adobe PDF Occasionally: Illustrator (cloud based) and AutoCAD I am have customized a Dell T130 Tower Server with the following specs: TPM 1.2 FIPS Common Criteria (this was an add on for $37) Chassis with up to 4, 3.5" cabled hard drives and embedded SATA Intel Xeon E3-1230 v5 3.4GHz , 8M Cache 4C/8T turbo (80W) (a $50 upgrade from their base 3GHz 4C/4T) 2400MT/s UDIMMS (standard and not customizable) 8GB (1x8GB) 2400MT/s DDR4 ECC UDIMM --- Qty 2 (base spec is (1) 8GBm adding a second increases cost by $120) No RAID (embedded SATA) 1TB 7.2K RPM SATA 6Gbps 3.5in Cabled Hard Drive --- Qty 2 (base is (1) 1TB, adding a second increases cost by $163) On-Board LOM 1GBE Dual Port (BCM5720 GbE LOM) and Intel Ethernet I350 DP 1Gb Server Adapter (Do I need both? The Intel Ethernet adds $144) iDRAC8 Basic DVD+/-RW, SATA, Internal (standard equip is just DVD, upgrading to RW adds $43) NEMA 5-15P to C13 Wall Plug, 125 Volt, 15 AMP, 10 Feet (3m), Power Cord, North America Electronic System Documentation and OpenManage DVD Kit for PowerEdge T130 Windows Server® 2016,Essentials Ed,Factory Inst,No MED,2SKT,NO CAL Windows Server 2016 Essentials Edition,Media Kit UEFI BIOS Boot Mode with GPT Partition and a power supply....810 Watt / 1350 VA , 12 V , 1350VA CP AVR LCD UPS TWR 8OUT 5-15R USB/DB9 RJ11 ($130+) The cart is saying this server would run $2760.99 but with the sale they have going on it's coming in at $1786.44 plus there is a coupon that will take another $250 off making the cost before taxes $1536.44 .....and then I can get 10% cash back through a rewards program I belong to. I am also going to need to purchase Remote Desktop user licenses correct? Any guidance would be tremendously appreciated! I am sure I look like a dummy here sigh, bear with me.