Written by a PlanSwift Professional Customer Service Representative, edited to bring it up-to-date.
Many times I have been asked the question "You work for PlanSwift, what kind of system do you use?". Well, that is indeed a good question to ask. Over the years I have had the opportunity to test PlanSwift on many different machines. Most of which have been fairly stock computers from Dell. Here is the short list of systems I have used.
Laptop - Dell Precision M6300
This computer has been a 'Tank'. It handles everything I have been able to throw at it:
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core2 Duo
Video - NVIDIA Quadro® FX 1600M 256MB dedicated
RAM - 4GB DDR2
O.S. - Orig. win Vista 64 Business - Currently, Win 7 Professional.
Desktop - Dell Optiplex 760
This computer as well has performed very well. Another good quality machine out of the box:
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core2 Duo E8400 3.0Ghz
Video - NVIDIA 9800GT 1024MB dedicated
RAM - 4GB DDR2 1066Mhz
O.S. - Orig. Windows Vista 64 Business - Currently Win 7 Professional.
Desktop - Dell Studio XPS MT435
This computer was awesome. It died due to a faulty motherboard but was very nice while it was alive:
Processor - 64-bit Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz
Video - ATI Radeon 4550 HD x 2 2048MB DDR5 (aftermarket)
RAM - 6GB DDR3 1066Mhz
O.S. - Windows 7 Home Premium
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Reminder: Whatever computer you're using for PlanSwift must meet or exceed our current System Requirements.
Current Desktop - Custom Tower
This scratch-built computer is the ultimate in performance. I did not need any more monitors, keyboards, mice, or other peripheral devices. I salvaged some parts from a dead i7. I used fairly high-end components but not the highest: I wanted durability, expandability, and performance. Here is what I currently run:
- Case - Cooler Master HAF 932 Full Tower
- Motherboard - ASUS Rampage Extreme III
- CPU - Intel Core i7 - 960 3.2 GHz Bloomfield w/ upgraded cooler
- RAM - 24GB DDR3 Triple Channel G.Skill Ripjaws at 1600Mhz
- Main Drive - Crucial 256GB M4 SSD
- Secondary - Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200rpm for backups and additional storage.
- Video - 2 x nVidia 550ti 1024MB DDR5 each. I run 4 x 22" monitors
- O.S. -
...
- Windows 8.1 Professional/Windows 10
This has been an awesome system that will likely last for a long time. Since its components frequently go on sale at NewEgg, and since I used some components I already had, I kept my outlay to about $1200. The big-ticket item was the SSD drive, which has a longer life expectancy (twice as long as a conventional drive) and very high speeds (twenty seconds to boot into Windows and open my first application). Program load speeds are almost instantaneous, and PlanSwift performance doubled due to the drive. So if you are a fairly tech-savvy person or know someone who is and can help you, you may want to build your next computer to get the biggest bang for your buck.