Xeon Dual Core Processors!!!!!!!

[tobyaxis]

What do the Mastercam Gurus have to say about this Dell and Polywell PC Build?
This PC is planned to run MCX2 for very big and complicated Molds on a 5 Axis Gantry Mill.

What are your thoughts and suggestions?

BTW: It isn't my money LOL so if it gets more expensive, I don't care

http://www.polywell.com/us/cad/

[wildcat]

Is Mastercam designed to utilize multiprocessors? If not, you may be spending a lot on CPU power that never will be used.

Depending on how you do backups and if critical data is stored on the machine you may want to consider a another drive or two configured in a RAID configuration.

FWIW: I use nearly the same machine you quote at work. No complaints. Personally, I find the 24" panels the most pleasant. I find myself moving my head a lot with 30" panels.

[MrG]

DAMN!!!!!

QUAD CORE POWER ..that must be frickin insane !!!!

i got a core 2 duo and it was really impressive.. that thin looks meaty.. also in regars to back up.. as well as a second internal i would also go for a external that you can remove and lock up in a fire proof cabinet every night...

this can save alot of headaches... imagine if you had a burst pipe or something in the shop or sprinklers.. or someone decides that a 7 grand computer would be worth stealing... i have seen it happen b4


if you have any of those computers lying around that you dont want ill take one .. i have a few applications that would relish 4 cores..

good luck

[tobyaxis]

The Shop Owner is still using MC V8.1.1 on a PC with 6MB Graphics RAM, 256 RAM, and a Pentium 3 LOL

He just WON a HUGE Contract with a Large Company. They want him to UpGrade ASAP. Their Designers use Catia V5 to Model the Molds.

As for the Dual Xeon Processors, MCX2 isn't setup for it, but I was told that you can Asign a Dedicated Processor by changing the Affinity to CPU1.
That means all your other Softwares can be set to run on CPU0.
How fast do you guys think it will be having MC on a Dedicated Processor?

An External Hard Drive is a good idea. The PC is going to be locked in a separate room and Secured to a Desk.


What do you think about the Pollywell Builds?
http://www.polywell.com/us/cad/

[ger21]

Originally Posted by tobyaxis As for the Dual Xeon Processors, MCX2 isn't setup for it, but I was told that you can Asign a Dedicated Processor by changing the Affinity to CPU1. That means all your other Softwares can be set to run on CPU0. How fast do you guys think it will be having MC on a Dedicated Processor?

You realy don't need to change the affinity. With a dual core or 2 processors, Windows will do a pretty good job of assigning threads.

And if the software isn't multithreaded, a quad core processor (or 2 dual cores) will be wasted. One core would be doing the mastercam stuff, a second picks up whatever else needs to be done, and two would basically sit idle. Unless you're doing some serious multitasking.

As for the Polywell, they seem to score well whenever I see them in reviews.

Intels seem to be a bit faster than comparable AMD's right now, so I'd go the Intel route. Get 4 gigs of ram. The video card is where the money goes, and will probably make the biggest performance difference, although I don't know how well MasterCAM uses the video card.

[MrG]

I dont know too much about multiprocessor systems..

you should check this site out....

http://www.2cpu.com/

it has a forum for this stuff and if you ask the question in the right way with all your info you should get a good feedback of answers..


Just as a general fyi

try too keep the room cool or make sure its temp controlled.. i dont know where u are but some of the shops i have been in are not cooled and can get pretty hot and dusty and therefore not ideal for 2 intels...

good luck

[ger21]

Originally Posted by MrG Just as a general fyi try too keep the room cool or make sure its temp controlled.. i dont know where u are but some of the shops i have been in are not cooled and can get pretty hot and dusty and therefore not ideal for 2 intels... good luck

The new Intel processors (Core 2 duo and Xeons) run much cooler than AMD's an older intels. About 30% cooler.

I've been using only dual processor machines for about 10 years now, starting with a dual Pentium 166. Paid about $1K per processor.
The response is much quicker, especially when multitasking.

[cadcam]

You really don't need to change the affinity.

Well yes you really do if you want to dedicate the 01 processor when it comes to Dual systems and windows does not know to automatically set this for the second processor if the software was not built for multi-threading.

I have been like you Gerry used them for along time and have few duals laying around.

Toby if you have other software’s like Catia going on the same box that will support the dual I would go with it. You will see a little speed increase but not enough to justify the cost.

However, not to fare down the road MasterCam will support this and coming fast.

[ger21]

Originally Posted by cadcam Well yes you really do if you want to dedicate the 01 processor when it comes to Dual systems and windows does not know to automatically set this for the second processor if the software was not built for multi-threading.

OK, if you want to assign a specific processor, than youdo need to set the affinity. But, from my experience, I doubt that it would make much difference. I have a dual core Athlon X2 right now, and if I run a cpu intensive app (CAM toolpath generation or rendering)that's not multithreaded, the task manager will show 1 CPU at 100% usage until the task at hand is complete. It usually will not dip below 100% either. So if the app can't use more than 1 processor, and it's already using 100% with Windows assigning tasks, then setting the affinity won't give any increase in performance. You may get worse performance, because the one cpu is locked into the 1 app, so while that ap is running, you basically are back to a 1 cpu system.

Just my experience.

[tobyaxis]

Well gentlemen,

It seems I have asked in the right place.

The room will be kept at about 68 degrees F with no windows, two doors, and weather stripping.
There will be No One Aloud to just walk in either LOL.
The PC will most likely get a Dust Bag (Some input is needed here as well).

This PC will be handling Catia V5 files in the 150MB to 750MB Size Range using MC to Program them for the Two Gantries. Basicly off the wall sized Mold Assemblies.

Any information/suggestions on Dust Filters is needed as well. I have never used one and thinking about Heat Generation in the Xeon Processors.

LOL, it would be nice to have two Air Conditioning units too. One for the PC and One for the Programmer

What do you guys think? Yes that is a good idea, or No your out of your mind knuckle head

[Matt Berube]

A couple interesting links.

SHOULD the programmer get an AC unit ? Absolutely. The computer ?...Who cares... But anyway the first link seems to have some PC climate control available.

http://www.rittal-corp.com/products/

http://www.pcguard.co.uk/computer_ph...l_security.htm

[wildcat]

Originally Posted by ger21 OK, if you want to assign a specific processor, than youdo need to set the affinity. But, from my experience, I doubt that it would make much difference.

Completely agree. The only difference setting affinity will make is lowering the chance that an on-board CPU cache will need to be rebuilt because of the process migrating to another CPU. If you are accessing large quantities of memory (likely in CAD/CAM) there are already lots of cache misses. The only time that I have seen affinity make a difference is with real CPU insensitive apps that mainly fit within the caches of the CPU in the presence of competing applications. Multi-core is not a lot different from this perspective other than some processors have shared caches for the cores while others have independent caches. In the situation of shared caches, the performance of the CPU does not scale as well with the number of cores because of cache contention.

Bottom line: you're getting a great machine. You may be ahead of the software you are running but with technologies such as OpenMP multi-core/processor programming has become a lot easier and we should expect lot more applications utilizing parallel design. Just consider redunancy a little... UPS, RAID, backup, etc. Also, if you need additional machines and cost does become a factor consider the 490 line as well.