I'm a mechanical engineer looking at using Cosmos for heavy industrial plant design. The models can get big so minimizing processing time is important. At the moment I'm thinking about computer hardware.

I've looked at the following processors:

Intel dual core xeon 5160 3 GHz.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3 GHz.

Options considered are single or dual processors.

Questions are as follows:

1. What are the pros and cons of the two processors? Is the 5160 model on the way out?

2. I understand that there is no significant reduction in processing time using 'quad' processors when doing FEA with Cosmos. Why is that?

3. For the above processors, is there an advantage in using a dual as opposed to a single processor? Why or why not?

4. Are there problems getting acceptable cooling with these processors?

5. Any suggestions on the best system to use.

Sorry about all the questions. Your comments will be appreciated.

Regards,

Derek Bishop