Hi All,

I have been given the go ahead to purchase a workstation which will be used
for heavy mathamatical calculations using Excel. I mostly run monte carlo
simulation models ( @Risk, Crystal Ball) which cause excel to re-calc a
spreadsheet as much as 10,000 - 20,000 or more times. Some of the model
files are extremely large spreadsheets, >50 mb.

I would be upgrading from a dual 166 MMX machine.

The questions for the group is the processor for such a system. Would a
Xenon be worth the money? Should I stick with a PII or possible PIII? Should
I wait for AMD's K-7? Would that processor be a good fit for number
crunching? Does Intel have anything coming down the pike in the near future
that would be worth waiting for? I am not sure if the software I use within
Excel to run the models would work under an Alpha chip., otherwise that
would also be a consideration. How good is the PC emulation software for the
alpha?

The models are run under WinNT 4.0 WS. Would a dual processor system be
worth the price?

Hards drives, controller cards, video, NIC are not at issue.

Once again, thanks for your time and input.

==============================================
David Brenner, Ph.D.                           [log in to unmask]
==============================================

                Curious about the people moderating your
                   messages? Visit our staff web site:
                     http://nospin.com/pc/staff.html