Im Planning On Buying A New Pc And X3 Mill Plans Are To Convert Mill To Cnc Next Year Perhaps.
I Want To Run Master Cam And Some Other Stuff On It.
Mainly Is This Enough Comp For The Job?


Intel Pentium 4 Processor 631
1 Gb Ram
160 Gb Hard Drive
Windows Vista Home Basic

I've been told Vista has problems with CAD and parametric stuff - saw a writeup in a trade mag I believe.

Even though I don't use it myself stay as far away from Windows Vista as you can!!!! I have read alot of bad things about it. Beside you don't ever want the first release of any Windows product or really any software for that matter.

LAter,
Tim

If this is the processor you speak of:
Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 631
supporting Hyper-Threading Technology 65 nm, LGA775 2MB L2 3 GHz 800 MHz

...it would seem that it's fast enough, but what about graphic card/chip?

Gamers have sent the cost of 3D graphic cards down. Many cards are not fast enough for modern games, but can still do CAD CAM well. My aging Geforce 6600GT is now a marginal gaming card, but it runs Rhino3D well.

If you have a desktop computer, you should be able to get a capable card for less than $100

I found the following on Master CAM's site:

System Requirements

* Processor: 32 bit, 1.5 GHz minimum Intel compatible processor (64 bit Intel compatible processors are supported).
* Operating System: Windows® XP, Windows® XP Pro 64 bit edition or Windows 2000 with latest service packs and updates.
* .NET 2.0 framework.
* Memory: 512 Mb RAM, 1 GB available hard disk space.
* Graphics Card: 64 MB OpenGL-compatible (minimum)
* Monitor: 1024 x 768 resolution (minimum)
* Mouse: Windows® compatible mouse

Amen to avoiding Vista. Not that it's bad, just that it is an unknown. Do you want to possibly spend countless hours troubleshooting issues that may be related to your OS?

Many think that Vista is the leading edge of technology...I call it the bleeding edge of technology.

Hardware wise, that is plenty to run mastercam and control a CNC. My laptop is only a p3 1ghz and runs mastercam just fine. I am running XP though

I have been working with Mastercam software exclusivly for over 7 years now and we have Mastercam 9.1 and Mastercam X , and X2 running on vista. I do not believe Mastercam 9.1 is not supported on the Vista system from CNC software as it is a 64bit system and it was not designed for that system. If you load X2 onto the Vista system first then you should be able to then install 9.1 and have the hasp drivers work correctly and allow you to run 9.1. It may take some troubleshooting but we did get it going.

The issues with Vista at this point from experience is that the Nvidia Video drivers do not work correctly with Cad/cam softwares. I have been told that it could take Nvidia up to 6 months to trouble shoot the issue and have new drivers available, of course it may be a shorter time also.

On the system that was tested the system was running an ATI card.

Mastercam runs ok on moderate systems like 2.0ghz with 512 of ram but if you do any sort of demading operation like working with surfaces or solids...or even some complex 2d operations you will find that the system will quickly drag down. I recommend at least 1gb of ram if not 2ghz of ram for surfacing and solid operations.

When installing X on a 64bit system you need to go to http://www.mastercam.com/Support/Downloads/MastercamX2/Default.aspx and download the vcredist_x86.exe - A Microsoft® redistributable file necessary for the installation of X2 on a 64-bit machine. There is a bit more info available about this from there site also.

I am in no way guarentee that Mastercam will run on your Vista system, I am simply trying to relay the results of tests done by my colleagues.

You should contact your local Mastercam reseller for additional information reguarding this issue as I am sure they can help.

Thanks and I hope this is helpful.

AC

I think you can get Vista in 64 or 32 bit, or it can be install either or. Either way, there is a lot of bad info on Vista & it would be wise to stay away from it. IMHO its hard to beat Win2000. Although MS has quit supporting it, W2K is still the fastest OS Windoze has.


I would also suggest as others have to get a good Vid card, and when you get Memory get the fastest you can afford (Timings & bus speed). Plus I would go with a Gig, if you run XP it can eat 512 of mem real quick. I have a A64 run @ 2.6 with a Gig of 222 BH6 mem running at 260 bus with a X800 vid card. My CAD/CAM runs good but it could run better. I am not running a CNC off of it, I expect it would do that easier than the CAD/CAM. The thing is that CAD/CAM programs take more & more to run them, you might as well future proof your PC as much as you can if you are building new from scratch. It would sux to buy some new software a year from now & your new PC struggle to run it good. With that said most people running a small CNC are not going to buying fully updated maxed out software and would probably never have trouble with what you are building, but it doesnt hurt to do all you can to help against this happening. I find that the speed of the mem & the vid card ( how much mem the vid card has) plus the hard drives have more to do with performance than the processor speed.


Jess

There are 2 versions of Vista, the standard 32bit versions and 64 bit versions. That Microsoft patch if for 64 bit processors, not a 64 bit OS. You need 64bit version of software to take advantage of a 64 bit OS.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/64bit.mspx

There Was A Sale At A Local Comp. Store For This That Is Why I Asked. A Friend Sugested A Better Comp. And With All Of Your Help I Have Decided To Buy A Dell. Im Told They Are Easy To Update And You Can Pretty Much Pick What You Want In It ( Vid Card)
Thanks Again

There Was A Sale At A Local Comp. Store For This That Is Why I Asked. A Friend Sugested A Better Comp. And With All Of Your Help I Have Decided To Buy A Dell. Im Told They Are Easy To Update And You Can Pretty Much Pick What You Want In It ( Vid Card)
Thanks Again

Watch our for dell you cannot always use the parrallel ports as they run 3.3 volts not 5.0 on some of there models, and its hard to upgrade some of there parts. That coming form a 2 dell computer owner.
chris

On Ebay you can get refurbished Dell Pentium 4 2.4Ghz, 80 gig HD, 512 meg ram, OS already installed for under $300 all day long these days. Get a video card for under $50 and you're in business..

save yer money for tooling.

~Steve