New workstation

[Loader]

Good morning,

 

Im trying to figure out new Workstation for Mastercam. At this moment I'm working on HP Z400 station with Xeon W3530 and im completely disapointed with it

Even my own gaming notebook Asus ROG with i7-4700HQ is faster for calculating toolpaths.

 

All parts I'm working on are complicated 3D shapes, about 1/4 of them for 5 axis. Some of them very very small (sometimes I have to use 0,2mm ball end mill - 0,0078" dia). The larger parts, the mastercam files have up to 200MB on HDD.

 

So now to the question.

 

I would like to buy/build new computer "not budget friendly" - just one it will be perfect for my work, but cant decide, where to start.

Is it more important how many threads/cores the procesor have itself (can MCam work with 8-10-12 cores)? Or is it better to have just 4 cores but on high frequency like 4GHz?

 

Is it better to go with Intel i7 series or E3/E5 Xeon's?

 

Thank you for your help.

 

[kostiuk]

You'll get a lot of different opinions on that question but mine is, get the fastest i7 processor you can afford. Mastercam can use multiply cores and near as I can will use as many as you can throw at it. There really is no benefit in the Xeon processors, you'll spend more money for less clock speed. They are good, robust processors but they are specifically built for servers that require a lot of use but not necessarily a lot of number crunching, just moving data around.

 

To back this up I built 2 computers last year, one is i7-5930K with 64GB ram and the other is a dual core Xeon E5-2620 v3 with 64GB ram and the i7 is faster running Mastercam than the Xeon. I'm sure it's the lower clock speed of the Xeon's but you've gotta spend major money to get the same clock speed in a Xeon and this computer was already major money. 

 

Kevin K.

[gcode]

I used to run Dell Xeon workstations but now run overclocked i7's.

The i7 machines are way faster

[David Colin]

It depends what cpu to compare to... if budget is not an issue you can find an high end Xeon which would blow an i7-6950

[Loader]

Hi Guys, thank you for fast reply.

 

Lets say up to 1200.- USD for processor.

 

Our IT guy came to me with question what have most influence for calculating toolpaths. Freqency? Quantity of cores? Cache size?

 

He was thinking about i7-6700K (4 cores, 4GHz, boost up 4,2GHz, 8MB L3 cache).

i7-5930K as kostiuk mentioned are more expensive but with lower freq. but more cores and L3 cache ( 6 cores, 3,5GHz, boost up 3,7GHz, 15MB L3 cache).

[kostiuk]

I also just had a new PC built several months ago and put an i7-6700K in it. It's very fast. I did not run a comparison between it and the other boxes but it does run very well.

 

Kevin K.

[jeff]

Hi Guys, thank you for fast reply.

 

Lets say up to 1200.- USD for processor.

 

 

i7 5960X    only $1,015 on newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117404&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

[David Colin]

I would go for i7-5930k over i7-6700k. More cores are better for Mastercam calculating. More L3 cache is important too...

[David Colin]

Even better an i7-6900k...8-core. Should be a nice step above 5930k.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117645&cm_re=i7-6900k_processor-_-19-117-645-_-Product

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

Whether you want more cores or higher clock speed depends on what types of toolpaths you're generating.  This may have changed in 2017 (I haven't been running it yet) but in X9 there are still several single threaded operations.  Anyone weigh in on that?

 

I'm pretty happy with the i7-6700K I've been using for about seven months.

[Loader]

Mostly I'm using optirough, hybrid. "old" operations only occasionally.

 

So I understood it like Mastercam can fully use 8 cores processors. I didnt know if the application itself is able to use all of them. In that case, if noone tell me me now I'm wrong gonna get i7-6900K. Like the benchmarks of it.

 

Thanks everybody for help.

[Aaron Eberhard]

There was a pretty good guide about this that Chris from QC put up:

http://forum.mastercam.com/Topic11007.aspx

[Loader]

Hi Guys, so finally I had a time to put all together. Will appriciate your time, before I'll look like as stupid at our IT's guys eyes.

Btw they recommend to upgrade just the CPU to W3670 (now I have W3530). So I'll have to push on boss a bit harder.

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-6900K + Akasa Venom Medusa cooler (https://goo.gl/kH2pyc + https://goo.gl/ZSrwmy)

MB: Asus X99-A (https://goo.gl/3meRSj)

RAM: Kingston 32GB (4x8GB) DDR4 3200MHz CL16 (https://goo.gl/0yUbnV)

GPU: HP Nvidia Graphics PLUS Quadro M2000 4GB (https://goo.gl/5MQ3DC)

SSD: Samsung 850 Pro 512GB (https://goo.gl/Ehoajw)

Seasonic 500W power supply (https://goo.gl/sZisaj)

 

Do you think it will work together? I mean compatibility of those parts.

 

Thank you for your time.

[Jayson Kramer]

This will work. Have the IT see if that is enough power tho.

[Matthew Hajicek - Singularity]

I usually go a bit overboard on the power supply.  It doesn't add much cost, but it tends do add reliability and longevity if you're only using a fraction if it's rated capacity.  Using a 500W power supply at 500W load is like running your spindle at full RPM 24/7 or driving your car with the pedal to the floor all the time; it will shorten its life.  Better to bump it up to 800W and have some safety margin.

[BrianP.]

Different take here. I do mostly 2D wireframe with an occasional surfacing routine thrown in. They gave me an old POS computer that barely runs X9 and 2017 chokes it. With money being an issue what is the bare minimum you would get for a system?

[Allan]

Different take here. I do mostly 2D wireframe with an occasional surfacing routine thrown in. They gave me an old POS computer that barely runs X9 and 2017 chokes it. With money being an issue what is the bare minimum you would get for a system?

 

I've seen Mastercam run reasonable on a i3 with integrated graphics. 

 

YMMV

[Loader]

Hi guys,

one more question. Can mastercam work, with 2 processors (not cores, 2 procesors on one motherboard) at same time? Our IT's wondering about it.

 

Thanks