Optimal Hardware to Run Visio UML??

[kprieb]

I have a UML document in Visio that is currently running about 15
megabytes in size, roughly 1300+ pages.

I am currently editing the document on a 2.4 Ghz machine with 256 Meg
RAM.

The performance is extremely sluggish. Simple manipulations such as
name changes can take minutes to complete. Saving the file can take a
quarter of an hour or more.

I am willing to spend decent money on better hardware to get increase
the performance of the Visio UML, but at the same time I don't want to
waste money unnecessarily either.

Where should my money best be spent?
1. Faster processor?
2. Dual processors?
3. Faster memory?
4. More memory?
5. Faster hard-drive?
6. Some combination of the above?

In particular, I am considering purchase of the following:

Dell Precision?Workstation 650
Dual Processor Intel® Xeon? Processor,3.06GHz,512K Cache,
1GB RAM (4x256) DDR266

Can Visio take advantage of the extra processor, or is that pointless?

What about the memory? Most of the time memory usage seems to stay
<200 Meg, but occasionally it can soar to 400+ Meg, and that is
without a memory leak (which seems to happen from time to time.)

This will be a substantial expenditure for me so I would GREATLY
appreciate any advice on this question - especially from someone who
has used the UML add-on. Thanks in advance!

Kris Prieb

 

[Randall Arnold]

Ram will make ALL the difference. I worked on a similar project and
upgrading to 1 gig of ram from 256 meg solved all of my speed problems.

Obviously, other improvements *will* help but in my experience increasing
ram and getting as much of the process off of your hard drive as possible
gives you the most bang for your buck. As to hard drives, the new SATA IDE
drives with 8 meg cache and 7200 rpm speed have shown me significant
improvements in that area.

Randall Arnold