Here at SolidBox, we take stock Dell workstations and enhance them with our own version of the Windows operation system and several performance tweaks, which results in a workstation that is typically 18% faster than a stock system running the identical software. We customize each system per our user’s requirements, and work closely with their VAR to make sure you have the latest/greatest version
of SolidWorks installed and running perfectly. After you’ve purchased our hardware, our warranty covers any hardware issues, and more importantly any SolidWorks Installation related technical support. In order to achieve the best performance possible, SolidBox developed a custom version of the Windows OS with help from Microsoft and Dell. Our OS is only available when installed on a Dell Precision Workstation. It’s essentially the same as a factory version of Windows Professional x64, with about 22 specific modifications. Without giving away our company's secrets, I can tell you that our OS is optimized to run SolidWorks at the fastest, most reliable, speed possible on Dell’s non-overclocked hardware. On systems with a XEON processor, our SolidBox OS yields a 18% increase in performance. We do this by:
· BIOS Tweak - Several BIOS tweaks that effect performance in SolidWorks and Windows (The DPPO can enhance this, but ours also modifies the Intel SpeedStep profile. Since we are a Dell OEM Partner we are able to implement our own custom BIOSs)
· Windows Services - Disabling several non-essential services
· .NET Tuning - We modify the bandwidth of several Windows .NET and I/O Services parameters to handle the larger file sizes generated by SolidWorks
· SolidWorks Registry Tweaks - We implement a registry profile that speeds up SW's "File locations" performance to the point where there is almost zero latency when accessing "File Locations" both locally and over the network. This makes a huge improvement to SolidWorks that needs to be seen to believe
· NVIDIA & AMD Partner - We are a certified testing facility for both AMD and NVIDIA graphics drivers. Every week we certify graphics drivers for our SolidBox systems. If we find any issues, we work with NVIDIA and AMD to correct them (BE AWARE: The “certified drivers” on SolidWorks Corp. website are highly out of date. Please do not use this site as a reference.) If there’s EVER an issue with performance, then you can rest assured that SolidBox will have the knowledge to fix it
· Custom NVIDIA Driver - Our NVIDIA performance graphics driver is tuned (not a simple “profile”) specifically for better performance in SolidWorks. We accomplish this by overwriting specific registry settings after we’ve installed our most recently certified NVIDIA driver
· NVIDIA Profiles - Modify Windows and NVIDIA profiles to handle multiple windows and switching
· Software Installation Sequence - We install, in a very particular sequence, all the software necessary and the major software packages (MS Office, Adobe, SolidWorks, etc.). The order is critical, as certain programs will modify system DLLs and NVIDIA libraries that render a system more or less stable. In certain combinations of MS Office, NVIDIA, Adobe, Windows update, a certain system will become unusable if the installation was done out of sequence
· Data Partitions –We have developed a tool that creates the partitions and also remaps the user folders to reside within the “DATA” drive.
· Backing-up Data– We’ve implemented and educated our customers on a particular workflow for backing up SolidBox systems that has yet to be replicated in the industry. After you take delivery of your SolidBox we will show you this method. It’s a very elegant method for working with both OS and DATA drives. Again, our customers find this to be very a valuable service
Company Highlights:
· In the six+ years that we’ve been in business, SolidBox has become Dell’s largest reseller of CAD/CAM workstations
· We are a Certified SolidWorks Services partner and we are the ONLY hardware provider to achieve this status
· Everyone at SolidBox is either a Certified SolidWorks Expert or Professional and more than able to handle your SolidWorks technical questions. All Technical Support (hardware/software) is
handled in-house by our team.
