Contol PC

[twelchPTM]

I have seen a lot of post asking for recommendations for a Control PC. As I am now also considering upgrading mine I thought that I would pose a question that could be helpful to my self and others.

Barring any personal preferences and favorite flavors - what are the specs of your control PC ( Processor, RAM, Windows version, control software version ) and rate it as needs upgrades, just enough, above the need, ridiculously over the top but who cares I love my gadgets.

[jerry_stanek]

I like my P4 2.8 ghz with 2 gigs of ram to run mine. I have run 11 hour cuts with this set up and I can surface my table a 600 IPM

[adrianm]

Similar questions have been posed quite a few times so a search should get you some info.

For what it's worth I use a Dell Optiplex 745 intel core 2 duo with 2gb memory running Windows XP. It has a fanless power supply which is the main reason I use it.

Does everything I want using the 3.8 version of SB3 with no issues at all.

[twelchPTM]

Adrian, I know similar questions have been asked but they are well spread out and full of commentary (hence the line about barring personal preference). The thought was to collect a list that is strictly data not just for my own sake but for the sake of others who stumble upon it.

Truth be told almost every question one could ask has been asked or discussed to some extent here on the forums but a lot of times, finding it is not as easy as it sounds. If you feel the need to point it out every time a question resurfaces two things can come of it, 1. you'll spend a lot of time typing "Similar questions have been posed quite a few times so a search should get you some info." and 2. those new to the Bot will be discouraged from asking questions and spend so much time with frustrating searches that they'll give up and leave the forum or worse leave their Bot.

Please don't read this as me blasting back at you, it is not meant to be offensive and is actually directed at every person who as ever been compelled to reply with "someone already asked, do a search". It should be read more like a comical rant much like the way I flip out when someone feels the need waste my text messages with nothing more then the letter "K".

[steve_g]

http://www.shopbottools.com/mproducts/computerRequirements.htm

[srwtlc]

Barring any personal preferences and favorite flavors - what are the specs of your control PC ( Processor, RAM, Windows version, control software version ) and rate it as needs upgrades, just enough, above the need, ridiculously over the top but who cares I love my gadgets.Fresh build... AMD A10 5800K APU @3.8ghz (on chip graphics, no need for a dedicated video card), 8gb PC1866 DDR3 ram, 1TB hard drive, on a miniITX Gigabyte motherboard running Win 7 and SB3.8.8. Above the need and over the top, sure, but if I don't like it in the long run, it would make a great HTPC. ;)

So far, it seems to run the machine well (given some 3.8/controller glitches). Packet ET's of 16 in Utilities Diagnostic Information (UD) in SB3. Need to really put it through it's paces to tell. I have a large 3D file coming up that should be the tell at around 24 hours run time.

The PC before this one was an AMD Phenom II X4 965 @3.4ghz with 8gb ram with Win 7 and it ran the machine great on 3.6, but 3.8 has been a test of my patience and trust and I wanted to try a new clean dedicated setup this time.

I enjoy picking out components, building and testing them so.... maybe an Intel one next time and this one will be up for sale then. ;)

[jerry_stanek]

For a SB control computer you do not need more than 4 gigs of ram as Win 7 can only handle 4 gigs when in X86 mode that the SB software runs in.

[cowboy1296]

If it ain't broke don't fix it. It seems that every time that I open the forum I see some negatives about the new control software followed up by some positives. So I have refrained from downloading it until I know that I can trust it.

It took me a while to learn this about the control computer but it has to be used for nothing but a control computer. In the beginning I had all sorts of missing comm issues.

[twelchPTM]

steve - I have seen that page but even though I haven't been able to call my self a techie for a long time one thing I do remember from my days in the software lab is when it come to system requirements - minimum, recommended, and what actually works best are three completely different things.

Jerry - I did not know that about the RAM, that will be helpful to know if/when looking at new PC's

srwtlc, thanks fo rthe input

cowboy, you are right my constant need to be running the latest or having the best led me to upgrade and I have had issues since, I can't even get the software to roll back and work as well as I did before!

[srwtlc]

For a SB control computer you do not need more than 4 gigs of ram as Win 7 can only handle 4 gigs when in X86 mode that the SB software runs in.This is true. Normally a 32-bit program will be limited to 2GB under 64-bit OS, if it is large address aware it can use up to 4GB. Don't know if SB3 is large address aware.

My reasoning for 8gb is that most motherboards have dual channel memory support, you need two sticks of memory to enable it, and the difference in price from two sticks of 2gb and two sticks of 4gb isn't that much (currently) and if the PC gets recommissioned, it's better suited for future multitasking use.

If you have no interest in building one and are not going to use it for anything else down the road, then it makes more sense to buy less. Bad thing about buying one, is all the crapware and OEMware and possibly cheaper components, stuff turned on that you don't need, etc.

To put it another way, your RAM generally does not make your PC faster, it just allows it to do more things at once (something we don't do with our Bot PC's, or shouldn't be). If your single application uses 200 MB of RAM, it won't matter if you've got 2 or 8GB of total system memory, but if you've got 10 windows open using 200 MB each, then you are probably going to benefit from more. I figure having SB3 open and Aspire or similar open with say a large 3D file that you may want to tweak at the machine, can benefit from more.

[bleeth]

A couple years ago my SB driving computer died (It was the second one). After an appropriate memorial I bought a new one from Dell (Don't have all the specs handy) but it is a Windows 7 with 4 or more gigs of RAM, 32 bit and some kind of Intel chipset. I told the guy I was ordering from what I was going to use it for and therefore I wanted no extra programs preloaded. He let me know by their contract they had to put a McAfee starter on it but would leave out all the facebook, Office, and other stuff. After I got it I removed the Mcafee the usual way with software uninstall and then did the complete Black Viper routine. Since then the only "pop-up" reminder I have ever had was from Java for the security update they did several months ago, it starts up in 5 seconds, and communicates just fine (78). It is networked to my router as all SB programs are on my main computer in a shared file. It also has an internet connection but I only use it for control software and firmware updates. I'm running 3.66 the last few weeks since I did the Alpha upgrade.
No screen saver, never shut off monitor or machine(except manually) and the only other added software is PW so my floor guy can do some basic parts design on the fly while out there.
A basic computer to run a Mill very well costs a few hundred bucks. I can't imagine a good reason anyone would buy thousands of dollars worth of equipment and then say they have to use the control computer for their design work or anything else.

[jerry_stanek]

At where I work our Biesse run off a Windows 95 system