What is a good cpu for Mach2?

[jguillen08]

Hello All,

I am currently shopping for a Computer for my Cnc Mill, I will be using Mach2. Can some one please let me know what is a good cpu speed that will take full advantage of the Max pule rate set by Mach2. Also does any one know if there is any dfference between CPU brands and models performance wise? ie Pentuim3, Pentium4, Celeron , Amd etc....


Thanks,
Joe.

[ynneb]

I asked this question recently. The answers were rather vague and sparce. I have used a pentium 500 for quite a while and found it ok, but did notice when doing circles it was a bit jumpy. My guessing was the computer could not process the code fast enough. In the end I bought a pentium 1gig and notice that it does not jump with circles. Another thing was if I increased the feed rate above 100%, my machine would start stop as though it was waiting for the next bit of code to come through, even for straight lines. This start stop was very momentary but enough to notice. With the pentium 1gig I have now it seems to have sorted out that problem too.

Having said all that, I will give you a definate answer and say to get a computer that is at least a pentium1 gig. Has enough ram to run xp comfortably and also Mach2 without resorting to virtual ram ( hard-drive ram). Get 256meg of ram minimum.

I have heard that Mach2 does not get along with some video cards too. My computer has an all in one mother board and seems to be ok. I have a compaq computer to be very specific.

I hope this wasnt as airy fairy as the information I got in my thread.
Maybe others could mention the sorts of computers they use and have success with.

Just outa interest I also have a compuetr with an ASIS mother board and 1.4 athalon chip and nvidea video card, and Mach2 and it just dont get on at all, no matter what I do. So avoid that combination if you can.

[ger21]

I'd go for at least 1.5Ghz. You should be able to get a motherboard, processor and 256MB of ram for around $150-$175. For not much more you can get a 2.8Ghz Celeron, though.

[DareBee]

Wintergreen AMD Sempron 2400+(1.66GHz) / 256MB DDR / 40GB HDD / CD-RW / Windows XP Home / Desktop PC

The AMD Sempron CPU are designed to deliver best-in-class performance for the day to day computing needs of home and business PC users.

$299.99

This was the the least expensive computer with 256Mb preinstalled at Tigerdirect.com

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...7981&CatId=118

For this kind of money why would you bother pissing around with a P2 or P3 (other than the enjoyment of taking a pile of computer parts and making a working machine)

[JFettig]

I am using a 700mhz celeron system on my mill, and itll put out 26000hz, I would like more but Ill be alright for now, dont think itll go too much faster stabily.

Jon

[aghobby]

Here the computer we put on all the plasma table we built using Mach2

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/prod...HS1&l=fr&s=dhs

All price in $CAN

Dimension 3000
PC de départ
Processeur Intel® Celeron® D 320 (2.40 GHz, 533 FSB, 256 KB L2 cache)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Édition familiale (français)
256Mo DDR SDRAM à 400MHz
Moniteur CRT E773c 17 po (16 po vis., .27dp)
80Go Ultra ATA/100 7200 t/min
Lecteur simple 48x CD-RW
GRATUIT! Imprimante à jet d'encre Dell 720 - valeur de 69$!
449 $

[CNC Darren]

I am about to build a compuret for my new router table that i am working on and have a AMD athlon 1200 (1.2gig) and the rest of the stuff except the mother board. My question is would a motherboard with built in video work fine as opposed to one with a AGP video card in it? I know this is a tough question to answer as all motherboards are different but just thought i'd ask.


Darren

[ViperTX]

Really depends on whether any of the main memory is shared by the video card. Just a note....it takes longer to update your display then to output data to the port....so depending on the software and the single threaded nature of the Windows stuff the designer must trade off display updates over data output via the LPT. That is why alot of the faster systems use a separate controller board to do the calculations and control multiple axis (I wonder what the plural for axis is....axis'...hmmmmm).

[JFettig]

I am running onboard video with deadicated ram on my machine, and no it wouldnt even matter if the ram wasnt deadicated. It doesnt display the stuff to the screen then output it to the port, well to my knowledge, it wouldnt make any sence, theres no loup back type thing, it goes out to the monitor and out to the drives probably at the same time.

Youll be just fine with onboard video, even if its shared, but if it is shared youll want at least 128 deadicated to the mainboard(not the video card) I am currently running 128 and its doing just great.

Jon

[CNC Darren]

What ever I decide on will have atleast 256 ram in it, I just wasnt sure if the onboard stuff may mess with Mach2.

Darren

[ger21]

In the past, a lot of people have had trouble with onboard video. The general advice was to stay away from it. However, it seems like it is becoming less of a problem, as I now read about plenty of people using it. And if it doesn't work, you can usually disable it and plug in a card.