hardware upgrade

[DCT]

it's time to upgrade can i get opinions on the following items, my main concern is the video card.

 

p4 2.0 ghz

wildcat II 5000 with 64mg

512 mg rdram ecc memory

18gb scsi hard disk drive (10000)rpm

adaptec aha-29160scsi controller card

52x cd rom drive

sound blaster live

10/100 network card

window 2000 pro op sy

[cadcam]

Ok I will be suddle.

 

CAN I HAVE IT

 

This will work well the wildcat being a 3D Labs higher end card is great.

[DCT]

thanks i appreciate the quick response

[McRae]

I work with files in the range of 30-50MB and when surfacing with a tight step over, the 512MB ram bogs a little. Suggest to go 1GB or as much as could fit. Windsor is full of mold guys so I assume that is your niche, and this is why I suggest it.

[Craig Madsen from CM3D]

You may want to do some timing tests on the P4 hardware. I just bought a P4 laptop - 1.7Ghz 512Meg ram - it runs slower than my 1.2Ghz Athlon.

 

1.2 Athlon - Leftover demo part -select all regen

2min 23 seconds

 

1.7 P4 3min 55 seconds

 

I will be trying all the tweaks and tricks I can pull out of my black bag and will report after the weekend.

 

Craig Madsen

[email protected]

[Bullines]

quote:

---

I just bought a P4 laptop

---

I know the AMD fanatics are going to hate me for this, but you answered your own question with the last word of your statement above; laptop.

[Craig Madsen from CM3D]

Well, after spending lots of time this long weekend tweaking and timing on the laptop, I've gotten about as fast as it will go.

 

As a timing test, I deleted all regen files, loaded samples3dmachiningleftover.mc9 then toolpathsoperationsselect allregen path (start stopwatch at same time) 'til complete. THEN do a regen using the recently created regen files intact.

 

I'm now at 3 min 28 seconds on the laptop P4 1.7Ghz

2 min 23 seconds on the Athlon 1.2 Ghz

 

The regen on both is Identical at 1 min 16 seconds.

 

This seems to support the sites I found on the web noting the dismal performance of the P4 chip (typically a 1.3:1 to 2.4:1 difference in favor to the ATHLON chip). I am unimpressed with P4, but I did not find a laptop with a GEFORCE 4 with a ATHLON CPU. I was really avoiding the ATI graphics problem.

 

I did find that if I used a ramdrive configured for 96mb and then routed the temp and regen files there that the time for the P4 drops to 2 min 35 seconds, and the regen is 57 seconds. But then I don't have the ram I would like for some of the lager parts. I assume that if I configured the ATHLON desktop with the ramdrive the time would also drop significantly.

 

Craig Madsen

[email protected]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Once upon a time I had a 486 DX 2 50MHz Laptop with 64MB RAM and a 486 DX 2 50MHz Desktop with 64MB RAM and the desktop was about 5-10% faster running ordinary applications. They both had 1MB Video cards. So, try the same thing on a desktop and see what the differences are then.

 

I'll do the same thing you did Craig and compare my PIII 800 at home to my Athlon 1.2 at work and submit my findings.

 

My 800MHz PIII withthe standard Windows Swap Settings - 6:15, though I did notice that on two operations the boundaries were not in the same plane and they would not regenerate. I'm going to tweek my system a bit and I'll let you know.

 

After tweeks, 5:40 for the PIII 800, after the regen files were created, 3:20.

 

[ 05-29-2002, 03:51 AM: Message edited by: James Meyette ]

[Craig Madsen from CM3D]

Hi, James.

 

I found a ramdisk program for XP Pro at web page that I configured for 96mb. I then directed Mastercam's temp and regen directories to that. (setup the system to backup to the millregen directory to save the rgn files). This cut down disk thrashing and resulted in the best times.

 

The ramdisk program will run for thirty days for free - after that it is less than $80.00. For the performance difference, I bought it. After I configured ALL temp files to the ramdisk (windows system and Mastercam) the regen time for the P4 drops even more.

 

In NT/2000/XP task manager/processes, add "I/O reads", "I/O read bytes", "I/O writes", and "I/O write bytes". Then do a regen from scratch, after deleting the rgn files and monitor the reads, writes etc. Also, watch the disk access light. After installing the ramdisk, disk access is almost nonexistant.

 

Craig Madsen

[email protected]

 

[ 05-29-2002, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Craig Madsen from CM3D ]

[Bullines]

Sounds kewl. I just hope you have a UPS on that computer