Need Advice on Fast PC for Excel

[LosIllini]

I have some rather large/ complex Excel models that are choking my ~2 year old (higher end at the time) Dell Dimension desktop. Pentium D- Only have 2GB of ram in it- but, it is a dual core processor. Still, it's having trouble keeping up w/ recalcs/ linking in this particular model.

Have done all the typical things to optimize the model (removed the links I could, paramaterized, etc.), but I'm still slowing down- 5+ minute recalcs, memory errors, etc. So, I'm ready to order a new machine.

Any recs on processor/ memory/ configs? I'm not wanting to drop huge coin, but figure, I can do better than my older machine- -and save time/ headache. TIme is an issue too- should I build one- or will something like a Dell Workstation do better?

 

[kevwun]

I would reinstall windows before buying a new computer. I would think that pc is good enough to handle what you are doing. I don't have much experience with spreadsheets that large, though. If it is that much of a resource hog, you might have to look at getting a 64 bit machine.

 

[netslave]

I'd move away from Excel. There's got to be a better solution than Excel if you running calculations that are that complex. Do you program at all?

 

[LosIllini]

I've tried a couple of machines-- same results. It's a pretty complex/ large data file- close to excel's row limit. Getting to the point where it should be a database, but requires flexibility in calculations/ formulas/ editing- so, I'm stuck w/ excel. Should wrok w/ some more horsepower/ memory- so, I'll probably have to order a new workstation.

 

[netslave]

I would think that a SQL Server back end with a VB front end would work better. Make your company pony up the cash and get some college student to program it for $200.

 

[Texas007]

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[LosIllini]

Thanks for all the replies!

Believe I have solved my problem-- was using Office XP (think this is same as Office 2003). Upgraded to Excel 2007 and it made a huge difference. Will do some code tweaks to further optimize, but, I think 2007 is the winner.