I'm sure someone will also answer before I'm done, but here's my view.
1. Desktop vs. Workstation
Not much difference these days really - it's all in the hardware. But
Xeon/Opteron machines with ECC ram and OpenGL cards are labeled as
workstations and cost a lot more.
2. 32bit vs. 64 bit
3. If 64 bit, which OS and which software other than ACA 08 doesn't work on
it?
4. If 64 bit, what fixes are available for ACA 08, and where to find them,
and do they work, what problems exist with them currently?
All related really. ACA '08 is not made for 64-bit - period. And I don't
think Revit is either. The workarounds may be more trouble than it's worth.
But I'll let others with more experience post comments about that.
5. Nvidia GeForce vs. Quadro & which series is best...
That all depends, now. Using DirectX in Acad, the mid-to-upper end GeForce
is not a bad option. But if sticking with OpenGL, then the Quadro is your
only real choice. The GeForce sucks at the level of OpenGL that any of
these Autodesk products operate at. With XP, you can choose either DirectX
or OpenGL for ACA. Dispite what others have said, Vista does support
OpenGL, but only through the graphics card manufacturer driver - Vista does
not provide one natively.
6. 3GB Ram vs. 4GB Ram...on 32bit or 64bit OS.
7. What is the story on 32 bit OS not allowing use of 4GB ram? Why do
resellers offer 32bit OS with 4 GB ram? Is there a fix?
64-bit will use much more than 4. It will use the max that the motherboard
can take - most current motherboards can take up to 8GB now.
As for 32-bit not using all 4GB, that's not exactly accurate. It's the
hardware system that for some reason takes a certain amount of ram for
itself for system driver use. Why it carves out some of that ram only when
you have 4GB? I don't know, and no one's been able to explain it to me.
What is the system using when there's only 3GB installed, or 2GB, or 1GB, or
128MB? System drivers are still loaded, but they seem to work just fine
without stealing system memory when anything less than 4GB is installed.
However, how much less than a full 4GB you end up with depends on the
specific system. Some may leave you with almost the full 4GB (like 3.8GB),
while others will take a larger chunk. There is no fix - it's apparently
just how the OS and systems work together.
8. SATA vs. SAS hard drives...I'm very used to the old SCSI and they have
never failed me and enjoy the reliability...
I don't think there are any issues with SATA. Don't be scared of them.
9. Processors - Intel.... Quad Core or Dual Core Xeon, Core 2 Quad, Core 2
Duo, Core 2 Extreme???
Well, Xeons are the high-end. For renderings, the more cores/processors,
the better. For ACA, the more cores, the less the return benefits since
(other than the built-in rendering) only redraws and regens are
multi-threaded. 2 cores help, but 4 cores probably help only a little
more - probably not worth the cost. But if rendering is a big part of your
usage, then, again, the more cores and the higher-end the better.
10. And most importantly, if you go Nvidia Quadro, have you ever heard of
having 2 different Video Cards, like a second being a GeForce, so us mega
Designers can play some games too??? (Yes EA does not allow use on
Quadro's). You can make them but not play them!!!
I honestly don't know how that can work. Sounds like driver-conflict city
to me. Even if you used an old PCI card for the second one.