Hardware

[TOOLDEV]

I have passed the "Hardware discussion"

on to My supplier to quote a new system,

below I have listed what He quoted to supply,

any suggestions or comments would be appreceated:

Custom Summit Computer System $1500 (Can)

INTEL PENTIUM III 750 MHZ PROCESSOR

COOLERMASTER BALL BEARING HEATSINK AND FAN

ASUS P3B-F MAINBOARD

24GA ATX SUPER MID TOWER CASE WITH POWER SUPPLY

128 MB PC133 SDRAM

MATROX MILLENNIUM G450 DUALHEAD 32 MB AGP VIDEO CARD

QUANTUM FIREBALL 30 GB 7200 RPM HARD DISK DRIVE

PANASONIC 1.44 MB FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

AOPEN 50X CD-ROM DRIVE

SOUND BLASTER PCI 128 SOUND CARD

AOPEN 56K V90 FAX MODEM

KEYTRONIC [LARGE] 104 KEY PS/2 KEYBOARD

MICROSOFT INTELLIMOUSE EXPLORER WITH PAD

ALTEC LANSING ACS21 STEREO SPEAKERS

WINDOWS 2000 PRO OEM, INSTALLED WITH CD & MANUAL

Upgrade from AOPEN 50X CD-ROM to SAMSUNG 8X4X32 CD-RW drive $110

 

[johns]

We have Matrox Millenium cards on the 4 systems we got in October, running NT sp4, and you cannot Xform with dimensions or notes on screen without freezing the system. The dealer and Mastercam were contacted, no reply yet. I have Win98-2 on my system and it has proven more reliable than NT. I don't know about Win2000.

[d0gFartz]

Just my opinion but i wouldnt go with a pIII

750 cuz ya can get an AMD 1ghz anywhere from

$1.00 more to $7.00 dollars less....at least

from the sources i use......im sure ya could

prolly come up with the same results with a

little research......i use a 1ghz T Bird with

excellent results........also i dont know

whut the goin rate is on ram right now but a

couple weeks ago i got 128mb sticks of pc100

for $67.00 buckz and 128mb pc133 sticks for

$69.00 buckz.....if its still down might as

well go for more than just 1 stick of 128mbs

......unless its outa yer budget.....the vid

cards being mmatrox though seem ok.....only

ever had experience with them once but dont

have anything bad to say about them...im an

oxygen user myself with excellent results...

of course theres an earlier post from a few

weeks ago that claims theres no difference

in the performance of cad cards chip sets

versus the cheaper gaming cards using the

GeForce chipset(this from a site whos major

backers are gaming developers) ..........

i believe James Meyette(sorry if i spelled it

wrong) whos on here alot is a big fan of the

matrox cards he could point you in the right

direction as far as matrox is concerened....

but i would check into the AMD if i were you

.....more bang for the same if not less price

....theres a few usser on here also that run

the AMD`s with good results

Just my 2 and ½ ÇèÑt§

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

Tooldev,

You'll want to make sure you have THE MOST CURRENT drivers for your Matrox(if running Win2k - If running NT you'll want the drivers dated 5/25/99 on the G400 {Not sure about the 450}. In an NT Environment, I've found that the Matrox can't be beat. (At least I've not seen it be beat yet). Make sure you're running NT Service Pack 6a and Microsoft Internet Exploder ;-) 5.0 or greater and if possible Active X 8.0

 

That should get you started pretty good.

James Meyette

 

OOOps. I meant Direct X 8.0 I don'tknow what I was thinking. Sorry.

James Meyette

[This message has been edited by James Meyette (edited 02-21-2001).]

[TOOLDEV]

Thank You Guy's

Your Help is greatly appreciated,

I have spoken with the suppliers

again, upgraded to 256 meg ram,

and gone with the asus 32 meg video card,

the next step will be the 1 gig processor.

and I will show the guy all Your comments,

I am really looking foreward to the upgrade.

tired of working with a steam engine

Peter

[Bullines]

If it's an extra $110 for the CD-RW drive, then I'd go for it.

James, do you mean DirectX 8 instead of ActiveX?

[areid1957]

I build computers. I always use AMD processors unless a user requests Pentium, and would recommend the Microstar Motherboard. Namely the K7T pro 2a. It has Ultra ATA 100 support , socket A and built in audio so it leaves open PCI slot.It is a very reputable Manufacturer.

I've definitely seen better prices ($1500 for a pentium 3 750)? I have built Machines from above boards with AMD 1 ghz with 20 gig ata 100's and good video cards for $1000-$1200. Talk to your supplier don't let anyone bash AMD. look at the forums and the minimum requirement part of this site and you will see. Good Luck and email me if you need to talk more about it.

------------------

Dean

[TOOLDEV]

Thanks Dean,

You may not have realized,

but the price on top of My list

is actually Canadian $, which is

only about 2/3 of the US$.

So You are absolutely right, and once

converted, the prices You suggest are in fact, what I was quoted, 1US$ = 1.5 Can$

thanks again

[5-axis]

Personally, I prefer Intel processors due to their superior floating point performance. We have a P-III 800 that smokes a 1Ghz Athlon routinely. Same amount of RAM (512MB), Mastercam configured same, same size and brand HD, both Win 98, etc. We have benchmarked and the Intel wins by 15-40% every time.

As to graphics cards, I perfer 3dLabs stuff. Since we run SolidWorks, Mastercam, Surfcam and all the MS Office stuff, they have been the most stable. We are running VX1 and GVX1 all with 32MB.

[Jeremy]

5-axis ->

I don't know why your Pentium III can beat your Athlon in speed, but it's not the floating point power of the Pentium III.

Floating Point Calculation Performance (@ 1 GHz)

"Athlon's pure FPU performance is some 33% percent higher than Coppermine's." (tomshardware)

"it will take a Pentium III at 750 MHz to reach the floating-point power of the cheapest Athlon at 500 MHz" (tomshardware)

[This message has been edited by Jeremy (edited 02-23-2001).]

[Guest CNC Apps Guy 1]

INTEL Rules!!!!!

Athlon is for gamers, Intel Pentium is for CAD/CAM.

With regards to AMD,I'm just having flashbacks from Cyrix that's all.

But....... if it's working for you, great.

Just my opinion.

------------------

James Meyette

[d0gFartz]

After being a long time Intel only user and

a basher of anything besides Intel i made the

change to AMD based on price..........after

doing so i`d never go back .......i dunno

what everyone else is using to benchmark but

i use SiSoft Sandra and have yet to see an

intel come close to the AMD`s............

(Coppermine vs. T Bird Socket A)..when i can

get a motherboard,the cpu and 128 mbs of ram

for $2.30 more then just the intel cpu alone

im on it.......i bet CNC will even admit that

there 1 ghz Athlon runs pretty sweet too....

i think there here to stay and aint goin away

like the cyrix......who by the way could make

a come back to a degree with Via owning them

now and supposedly puttin some cash into that

project......there worth a try for the price

especially when you get a computer today and

tommorrow its out dated its almost insane to

spend twice as much as ya have to.....just my

opinion but how people can afford to keep

upgradin the intels is beyond me......guess

they have money trees

Just My 2 Centz

[This message has been edited by d0gFartz (edited 02-23-2001).]

[gcode]

I'm currently running a Diamond video card.

It caused minor glitches once in a while, but

they got worse when I upgraded to Win ME.

Since Diamond has gotten out of the video card business I figured this was a good time to get rid of the Diamond card.

I orderd a 3Dlabs VX-1 AGP 4X from Cadtoys

for $165. It should be here by the end of the week. I'll report back after the install.

[gcode]

I got my new 3dLabs video card installed a couple of days ago.

I haven't noticed any speed increase with Mastercam, but most of my work is 2 1/2D

and lathe.

Predator CNC Verify redaws much faster and MC Verify is faster and clearer.

Two irritating bugs are gone as well.

With the Diamond card, accessing help would

sometimes cause MC to lockup.

MC Verify would also lock the first time I

opened it. Then I would have to CNTL-ALT-DEL,

shut down MC and resart MC. Then Verify would run fine.

It never occurred to me that these problems were caused by my video card, but they are both gone! I'm a happy guy!!!

The card is a 3Dlabs VX-1 AGP 4X . Some of 3dlabds cards cost $2000 plus. This one was $170 and worth every penny.

[d0gFartz]

3D labs all the way!!!!!!!!!

[bo]

Hey Peter

I use 900MHZ AMD Athlon, very happy with it, and knowing what u know about win2000 and or NT, please stay on the other end of town and use win98se with all the updates and patches.

call me when u know the boss ain't lookin.

bo

[5-axis]

My error on saying we are running Win 98. Actually Win 2000 Pro.

As to what we are using for benchmarking, it's called Mastercam, SolidWorks, Surfcam and a stop watch.

Setup the same file, same toolpath, extrude function, etc., press 'Enter' and the stop watch button at the same time.

Whichever machine finishes first seems to me, the winner.

So far, Intel. Big time.

[Rekd™]

It's hard to argue with a stopwatch...

Rekd

[TOOLDEV]

I would like to thank all who have contributed in helping to get the right

system.

most of the advice made perfect sense,

but due to the fact that there is such a variety of makes and models of components,

together with operating systems that the combinations are endless.

At first I had some problems with ghost immages, and crashes, however, after reading all the possible problems on the forum, I

Decided to ordered the Computer from the local Mastercam dealer "Cadwire", they know

what is reqired, took the machine back, changed the motherboard, played with the video card, and changed win2k back to win 98, in order to optimize the equipment.

I am conviced I will get a perfect computer when they are done, My advice to anybody buying hardware,

USE SOMEBODY THAT KNOWS MASTERCAM, AND IS WILLING TO GET IT RIGHT IF THERE IS A PROBLEM.

My final configuration:

256 kb ram

1 gig AMD processor