what would be the best System/Computer/Hardware Configuration for Computational Mechanics Simulation in a PC

Hello,

I am trying to buy a new computer system for performing computational mechanics simulations. We plan to run different ranges of models, simulations: non linear, plasticity, contact etc.

I was browsing the market, it seems that the new QUAD CORE XEON 5300 series from intel is the new processor which has 4 core processor. There are a lot of talks about multi-threading, multi-coring in the web, which made me more confusing.

The questions are:

1. Is Quad core going to be better than Dual core, has anyone used a latest quad core to run FEA simulations.

2. Does ABAQUS support the QUAD cores ?

3. How about ANSYS, or home built codes based on FEAP, essentially Fortran, C++ codes, would they run much faster.

4. For visualizations, has anyone used SLI configurations.

5. I am thinking for a computer (e.g. DELL precision 690)

Quad core Intel Xeon E5320 1.86 GHz, 2x4 MB L2, 1066 with XP

4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 667 MHz

SLI config with 2 x 512 MB PCIe NVidia Quadro FX4500 cards

RAID 1 Hard Drives.

This would cost a whopping $5000. The processor costs like $1200. Graphics Cards $2400 and so on.

Would this be an over kill ?

The other option is to buy TWO computers with Core 2 Duo for the same price.

Any help or discussion on this topic is appreciated.

Thanks

Al Stuart