How to get the most out of EXCEL? (Hardware-Wise)

Hello!

I need your help. I have a few very large model workbooks. Each from 100 to 300 mbs. I need to recalculate all of them quite a lot of times daily (500 times or more) to perform complex analysis of the constantly evolving natural phenomena. I am thinking of purchasing the laptop PC which can handle this much of calculation on a daily basis (hopefully with the help of some automation routine and lots of fan cooling). My laptop simply cannot not cope with that. I need to note that all my files are in Excel 2003 format. I am thinking of purchasing Intel i7 processor equipped desktop. I wonder if you think it must be necessary to convert all worksheets into the excel 2010 format to UTILIZE THE STRENGTH of all the Cores included? I wonder what you think can be the ideal setup to perform such calculations daily??? Maybe you can give me a link to the recommended Laptop setup for maximum Excel processing power? I am considering of the following configuration:

Intel Core i7-2600 (3,4 ГГц) / RAM 4 ГБ / HDD 1 ТБ / nVidia GeForce GTX550 Ti, 1 GB/ DVD+/-RW / DOS

Please let me know what you think???

Do you think it will help to accelerate the EXCEL calculation if the HARD drive is the latest SSD type???

Any input will be highly appreciated!)


Thanks!

Originally Posted by abousetta

It is preferred if you can upgrade to Office 2010 - 64 bit to allow your program more than the 2 GB cap set forth by 32-bit versions... that should take care of the memory bottleneck as long as you have enough memory. Then becomes the issue of processor speed and number of cores. I definitely prefer quad or more cores... speed is just that... speed. It will run faster with the more cores and the speed of each core. Hard disk space was never an issue with me but wouldn't put too much stress on that part, and to the best of my little knowledge on the matter the new SSD types make starting up frequently used files faster but do not make the processing time after faster once the file is opened. Now if you are opening and closing the same files over and over again then this might be an advantage.

Hope this helps.

abousetta

Thank you very much for your full reply....thanks also for suggesting the 64 bit operating system...can you please tell me more abotu that? is not the 32 bit Excel 2010 not capped by the memory limit any more? do you think the excel 2010 can utilize the power of ALL cores? thanks for the suggestion about the ssd memory...yes I will need to save and load these times many times through the day...update them...so you think this kind of disk can accelerate it immensely (which would accelerate the whole process very much!)

what do you think will be the fasted operating system to run this??

Originally Posted by abousetta

Hi,

I have to run but here are some quick responses.

1) 32 vs. 64-bit: If the operating system is before XP or before then they can't handle 64-bit programs. 64-bit is slower for small operations but can use as much memory as available on your system and is not limited to 2GB as its 32-bit counterpart. This is important if you are doing a lot in memory.

2) Excel 2010 can be installed as 32 or 64-bit, prior versions were all 32-bit

3) I prefer Windows 7 to Vista, but don't have any benchmark comparisons to share with you. I have Excel 2010 on running on both XP and 7 and both function the same but since the hardware is different I can't tell you which is faster.

Hope this helps.

thank you very much for this detailed and helpful reply....I am sure you knwo that excel 2003 can be blazingly fast on a simple processor - I wonder if the excel 2010 on multiple processors can easily outperform it???? thank you so much for your help!)

Originally Posted by shg

Having suffered through Windows Me with my daughters when they were in school, I agree with you -- sitting back to gauge the water temerature before taking the plunge is a good thing. I also managed to miss the Vista revolution (Praise Jesus), and stayed on Excel 2003 for several years after 2007 was released, though I had both installed. But I think that W7 and Excel 2010 are pretty solid, and the kinks in the 64-bit versions will settle out.

thank you for your answer...do you think it is worthwile to convernt all 2003 workbooks into teh 2010 format to benefit form the multiple cores or the original 2003 files will work faster on teh latest CPU machine like i7? mayeb you can share the details of your own setup? if thta is possible?

Do you think it will help to accelerate the EXCEL calculation if the HARD drive is the latest SSD type???

This will depend on the kind of calculation that needs to be done. If it's just number crunching then a fast CPU + extra memory will be helpful.

If the calculation involves a lot of hard disk activity i.e. reading and writing results then a SSD will be of help.

Alf