System Requirements

The Workstation Computer

NewViews requires a "contemporary" computer to give satisfactory performance.

During 2008/2009 advertisements from various manufacturers listed computer systems as low as US$ 399. These computers are targeted at home users and are not designed for serious business office applications.

Sample System Configurations

System Requirements

The Server Computer

We strongly recommend that NewViews be run on it's own server.
However we do not recommend that the "Server" computer run a Microsoft Server "OS". We prefer the simplicity of Windows 2000 or XP Pro for the "Server" computer.

NewViews 2 Server does not rely on any "services" provided by Microsoft Server.
NewViews is not restricted by the 10 connection limit of a Microsoft desktop "OS".

Sample System Configurations

Components

Intel or AMD processors

The CPUs above are year 2008, 2009 model numbers. AMD also manufactures processors. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 and Phenom 9500 models are acceptable CPUs. We can recommend both manufacturer's high end processors without reservation.

Intel Celeron and AMD Sempron processors are handicapped with small L2 cache sizes and low bus speeds. We do not not recommended any computer systems with these processors.

Windows XP Pro vs Vista

NewViews operates on any Windows 2000/XP/Vista computer or laptop with 1024 MB of RAM. Windows Vista performs notably slower than Windows XP for most applications. Windows Vista requires at least twice as much memory (RAM) as Windows XP to operate. Each new version of Windows released by Microsoft has performed slower than prior versions.

It is clear that Windows XP is both faster and far more responsive than Vista. You will experience this performance difference by operating Windows alone. All applications including Microsoft Office are less responsive running under Vista.

Therefor, as long as Windows XP is available, we recommend that you order new computers and laptops with Windows XP professional.

Suggested Storage

• Financial data is critical, we therefor recommend RAID 1 configured computers.
  
  During the last decade, computer components prices have dropped sharply. Now component quality, mean time between failures is also dropping. The hard drive is a mechanical device. It has an electric motor and high speed magnetic actuator arm. The hard drive is not a solid state device. The hard drive is where all your data is stored.
  
  Recently we have noticed an increase in the number of hard disk failures. By adding two (2) hard drives to a computer and mirroring the data, the exposure of losing data due to hard drive failure is greatly reduced. This can easily be achieved with a RAID 1 or RAID 10 system.
  
  
• Consider ordering new computers for the accounting department with RAID 1.
  
  Many computers can now be ordered with an Intel P35 ICH9R or P965 ICH8R chipset. These computers provide onboard Intel RAID 1, 0 or 10 support. RAID = Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks.
  
  The cost difference between a computer with a single drive and one configured with two drives in SATA RAID 1 can be as low as $150.

Sample inexpensive SATA RAID configurations

For further information on RAID please check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID

Recommended Hard Drives

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