Hardware for Revit 2011?

[Jazzster11]

I have currently have a quad-core processor (E5400 maybe?) with 8Gb of DDR2 and a 256MB video card.  Our files are large enough and have so many linked Revit files loaded that my memory usage is often at 98%, at which point I have to shut down and reboot in order to free up the RAM.

I am hoping to request a computer with the following components, but I don't know enough about hardware to know whether this will be sufficient to meet my Revit needs for the next few years.  Here's what I am looking at from Dell:

Intel® Core™ i7-920 processor(8MB L3 Cache, 2.66GHz)

Windows 7 pro x64

12GB Tri-Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1066MHz - 6 DIMMs

750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive

ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3

I know this is a tough question to answer, but like most firms we have very limited budgets, and I just want to request the most reasonably priced computer that can meet our needs.  Thanks in advance.

- Alex

[DarrenP]

this is what i am running: Dell XPS 8100, I7 870 2.93 ghz, 1 tb hard drive, nvidia 260 gtx 1.7gigs of video memory, 16 gigs of ram  with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit ran about $2300 without any warranty i have no problems with this computer running revit 2011

[ryan.duell]

I would also consider the Model Performance Technical Note for Revit, which I have included a link for below:

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revit_tech_note.pdf

Please keep in mind the amount of local machine RAM required is approximately 20 times the size of your compacted central project file.  Each linked file would apply to this total as well.

I would also consider the Model Performance Technical Note for Revit, which I have included a link for below:

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/revit_tech_note.pdf

Please keep in mind the amount of local machine RAM required is approximately 20 times the size of your compacted central project file.  Each linked file would apply to this total as well.

[Jazzster11]

Thanks Ryan.

Most of our files are in the 70Mb-150Mb range, but I may have 5 files linked in at any given time, so does that mean my memory estimate should include the file sizes of everything loaded as well?  I have read through the technical bulletin a couple of times already, but we have some fairly complicated projects that entail lots of linked files with many phases of construction.

- Alex

[ryan.duell]

Correct; for each loaded link Revit has to fully open the project and load it into memory.  Memory considerations should include the number of linked files currently loaded.  If a link is not needed for the active session it can be unloaded to free up additional memory until needed.

[DarrenP]

is there an updated version of the pdf for the 2011 revit products?

[ryan.duell]

At this time there is not a 2011 version of this information in PDF form; I would instead reference the Revit page on Autodesk.com.