Suggested (NOT "minimum") system requirements for Access 2000?

[Dougmeister]

My boss asked me what hardware I would need to program in MS Access
2000. I need to keep in mind that we may be upgrading to a more
recent version of Access in the future.

(I looked at Microsoft's website and it's kind of a joke to say that
minimum sys require is Pentium 166 w/ 64 MB RAM. Although, ok, that is
"minimum"; I need "suggested configuration so that it runs as fast as
possible without buying a Cray supercomputer)

Right now, I have a P4, 1.8 GHz Gateway w/ 512 MB RAM.

I am hoping that you all can give me a recommendation/justification for
a new machine.

What makes the most impact when using Access from a development point
of view? I would think that *CPU and RAM*, but *not multiple CPU's*.

(Multiple CPU's would not help Access, per se, but would help when
multitasking between Access and other applications, right?)

Also, *SCSI drives* wouldn't help that much?
Same with *RAID*?
What about *hyperthreading*?

I'm thinking: (I looked at Dell)

Intel® Xeon™ Processor, 3.20GHz, 1MB L3 Cache
(fastest CPU I can find)

XP Professional (or 2000? Hyper-threading only available in XP; does
Hyperthreading affect MS Access?)

1GB,DDR266 SDRAM Memory,ECC (2 DIMMS)

Your advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Allen Browne]

64MB RAM is workable on Win 98. With Win XP Pro or 2000, 128MB would be
better. More if you run multiple apps at once.

Access does not need lots of CPU power. A Celeron 1000 or Pentium III 800 is
just fine.

Surprisingly, SCSI/RAID makes less difference in practice than you would
imagine, probably due to the way Windows caches the data, and the fact that
you are generally not working with millions of records in Access.

In short, you would notice little practical difference between a P4 1.8 with
512MB of RAM and the Xeon 3.2. In fact, a well setup P4 with the WinXP theme
things turned off would probably feel faster.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear though.

 

[Brendan Reynolds]

Sorry, but the honest answer is that the PC you already have is more than
adequate for the task.

I recently bought a new notebook, and I opted for the slower of the range of
processors available, putting the money I saved into a larger hard disk
instead. I would have seen very little benefit from the faster processor,
while you can never have too much hard disk space on a development PC.

 

[Tony Toews]

64MB RAM is workable on Win 98. With Win XP Pro or 2000, 128MB would be
better. More if you run multiple apps at once.

I'd suggest 256 Mb at least. Preferably 512 Mb but then RAM is cheap
these days. By the time you load an antivirus program and a few
other such required utilities my system is sitting at about 180 Mb.

Access does not need lots of CPU power. A Celeron 1000 or Pentium III 800 is
just fine.

Agreed.

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
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