Jump to content

Welcome to eMastercam

Register now to participate in the forums, access the download area, buy Mastercam training materials, post processors and more. This message will be removed once you have signed in.

Use your display name or email address to sign in:

Laptop?


ChrisD
 Share

Recommended Posts

Good morning Everyone.

I am considering getting a laptop computer at work to use Mastercam. The reason being that I would like to be mobile with it within the shop, (for emergency communications between machines and so forth)

But also to get rid of the clutter on my desk. I was wondering if any of you out there have any suggestions on what package I should look into to do this.

Thanks in advance

Chris DiNardo

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest CNC Apps Guy 1

Th main reason you want to stay away from PC's running Celerons for CAD/CAM Applications is because they are short on the L1 and L2 cache memory. This is the memory on the CPU that has an even more dramatic effect on system performance than RAM memory. For example even a PII-350 has at least 256k L2 cache whereas the "high end" Celerons have only 128k at best. My PIII-500 has 512k. Xenon chips have up to 2MB cache - these chips(Xenons) normally find their homes in Servers but are the equvalent of the Pentium Pro 200 of days long past. The Xenon's would be your best bet if you have the money, but if you're in the market for an upgrade, you'd be better served waiting until January when the PIV's come out, they are the Gigahertz and then some. I've heard excellent reviews of them so far. Only time will tell.

James Meyette

Celerons also do not perform Mathematical calculations as fast. I'm not certain why this is. I have read a few papers on this phenomenon, though I cannot seem to recall where I read these.

James Meyette

[This message has been edited by James Meyette (edited 11-08-2000).]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My desktop suffered a total meltdown

while upgrading to WIN ME on Monday.

It is beyond my abilities to repair and is in the shop.

In the meantime I am using a 2 year old SONY

266 MMX. It runs slowly but without any problems.

For some reason the lathe module runs much slower than the mill but they both run OK.

My SONY laptop has been incredibly durable.

I have used it on the shop floor for 2 years

to daytrade and do light programming work.

In those 2 years it has had the keyboard filled with water once and machine coolant twice. All three times I let it dry for a couple of days and it still runs just like new. The case has started to crack in a couple of places but the machine just keeps on running.

I'm currently looking at a laptop built by Prostar of Industry CA. It has a 15in.

screen and the keyboard has a 10 key numeric keypad. My one concern is the video card is built by ATI.

I've had some trouble with MC and ATI video cards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds like I won't be installing Win Me then. I've been checking out the Dell product line. They seem to have what we are looking for. My only dilemma is whether to spend the the extra cash and add on the 256 SD RAM and a 32 meg video card. The old man here says money isn't the issue, ( but we'll see how his tune changes when he sees the final price!)

Thank you for all your replies

Chris DiNardo

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Celeron (<300 MHz): 0 k L2 cache (slot 1)

Celeron A (current): 128 k L2 cache running at cpu speed (slot 1 and s370)

Pentium II: 512 k L2 cache running at 1/2 cpu speed (slot 1)

Pentium III: 512 k L2 cache running at 1/2 cpu speed (slot 1)

Pentium III E: 256 k L2 cache running at full cpu speed (fc-pga)

The original Celeron was a bust for anything but floating point 3d (i.e. Quake) and overclocking. The newer Celeron was neck-and-neck with the Pentium II. The Pentium III is much faster, mostly due to the faster transfer between memory and processor on the 133 MHz Front-side bus.

The Celeron and the Pentium II/III use the same core. That is, they are the same chip, with different cache levels.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

While CNC Software discourages the use of non-Intel processors for Mastercam, our experience is, that the AMD Athlon and Thunderbird processors work like a bliss. Anyone have 1 GHz PIII yet? I doubt that, since it is not for sale yet, but it might compare to a 850 MHz AMD Thunderbird in performance with Mastercam.

We just bought three PC's with 850 MHz AMD Thunderbird processors for our own use (one of them slated for my use biggrin.gif), and they are cheaper than the fastest Intel PC's available (about 3/4 the cost IIRC).

Christian Raebild, post processor developer smile.gif and support technician frown.gif for CIMCO Integration, the Danish Mastercam reseller.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

Join us!

eMastercam - your online source for all things Mastercam.

Together, we are the strongest Mastercam community on the web with over 56,000 members, and our online store offers a wide selection of training materials for all applications and skill levels.

Follow us

×
×
  • Create New...