Mastercam Workstation

[rhettmandel]

Does anyone use Lenovo thinkstations? I'm getting a new one but I've been procrastinating in choosing one because of my lack of knowledge. Can anyone reccomend a system from their lineup that would be a good candidate? Most of my work is just simple 2d and 3d toolpaths on verticals and horizontal machines. I just want something that will work better. As for budget, my company loves cheap, but I can justify costs.

 

So if anyone has used any Lenovo workstations or has reccomendations I would greatly appriciate it. 

 

I currently program on:  

 

Thinkstation c30 

Think Station C30

OS: Windows 7 64-bit Professional

Processor: Intel Xeon® es-2620 @ 2.0GHz
Memory: 24 GB
Video: NVidia Quadro 2000D
500 GB 7200 rpm HD

 

This system has slowed down. It has made me more careful and detailed in my approach to toolpaths, because of my fear of regenerating. If I pick a path and enter worng data and have to regerate it takes forever, and it is usually really bad when I am the busiest.  And I am constrained to Lenovo because it is our approved vendor for workstations. 

 

Here are the workstations:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/workstations/thinkstation/p-series/?menu-id=thinkstation_workstations

 

And these are the gaming PC's which I've read on the forums would also work for matercam:

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/erazer/x-series/?menu-id=erazer_desktops

 

Thanks.

[MIL-TFP-41]

That really doesn't sound like that bad of a computer, especially for "simple 2d and 3d toolpaths". Is you computer infected/running a lot of bloatware?

How large are your mastercam files?

[taperlength]

I use a Lenovo S30.   Very  nice machine.  I just checked their website and it says Sold Out.  They might be calling it the P700 now.

[rhettmandel]

Thanks for the reply. Thats awesome I'm envious of your nice machine, I want to get one that I can call nice also.

 

So no issues with Mastercam?

 

What do you have inside? 

[rhettmandel]

That really doesn't sound like that bad of a computer, especially for "simple 2d and 3d toolpaths". Is you computer infected/running a lot of bloatware?

How large are your mastercam files?

 

My computer gets wiped clean as soon as it get's here from Lenovo. Then I get mastercam and Solidworks and other enterprise software installed, and there's only trend micro which is launched through a web app.  When I benchmark the system through windows the weakest part of my system is the hard drive. A couple of years back I had issues with permissions, but now I have administrtor rights for anything mastercam on my workstation.

 

Mastercam benchmark file I get around 9 mins. I really don't know whats wrong it's frustrating I've lost confidence in choosing a workstation, fearing that I may get stuck with a inefficient machine for a couple years again. And our processes here at my company run like the government so when you make a mistake choosing, it feels like the loss in programming productivity is less of a cost than getting all the paperwork together to make a return. Because with my current system I had issues and they just had me keep it when I was complaining. 

[m98custom1212]

My computer gets wiped clean as soon as it get's here from Lenovo. Then I get mastercam and Solidworks and other enterprise software installed, and there's only trend micro which is launched through a web app.  When I benchmark the system through windows the weakest part of my system is the hard drive. A couple of years back I had issues with permissions, but now I have administrtor rights for anything mastercam on my workstation.

 

Mastercam benchmark file I get around 9 mins. I really don't know whats wrong it's frustrating I've lost confidence in choosing a workstation, fearing that I may get stuck with a inefficient machine for a couple years again. And our processes here at my company run like the government so when you make a mistake choosing, it feels like the loss in programming productivity is less of a cost than getting all the paperwork together to make a return. Because with my current system I had issues and they just had me keep it when I was complaining. 

 

You're bottleneck is that slow hard drive and slow 2ghz xeon. More cores don't=better 

 

this computer would faster then you currently have:

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/erazer/x-series/x510/#tab-customize

[rhettmandel]

You're bottleneck is that slow hard drive and slow 2ghz xeon. More cores don't=better 

 

this computer would faster then you currently have:

 

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/desktops/erazer/x-series/x510/#tab-customize

 

Yeah I was looking at that one also.  But  I couldn't configure it. I wanted to add more ram and change the hard drive to a ssd. It only has 16gb ram and 2 tb hybrid drive.

[jeff]

  When I benchmark the system through windows the weakest part of my system is the hard drive. 

The windows experience index is useless. It doesn't really tell you anything of importance.

Your current PC looks like a good one to me. But if you really want a new one get an i7 4790K or similar cpu, video card you can get the GTX970, GTX980 or GTX780.

Ram = 24GB is plenty

Storage = Get an SSD! Period.

500W psu or more.

 

That pc will rock your socks.

 

 

FWIW, my cad pc has:

i7 2600K (stock clock)

GTX580

8GB Ram

128gb SSD

And I have no issues at all unless I get a model that has 40,000 entities and try to rotate it, then it becomes a little sluggish and takes a few seconds to load.

[m98custom1212]

Yeah I was looking at that one also.  But  I couldn't configure it. I wanted to add more ram and change the hard drive to a ssd. It only has 16gb ram and 2 tb hybrid drive.

Since youre stuck with Lenovo call them up and have them build you one.  

[Goldorak]

 

Storage = Get an SSD! Period.

 

 

Absolutely, it makes a world of difference in performances 

 

i saw a clear amelioration in performance the day i switched my old WD 1TB drive for a little 250GB SSD on the same computer ( intel i7-4770 3.40ghz 16gb ram and quadro k600)

our server takes the relay when i need more memory space, i set the backup files to transfer automatically to the server each night so each morning i started with a clean backup folder 

 

Mastercam save large files in a blink of an eye now compare to a few seconds before, it seems little, but when you hit the save button after each operation like me , you will save hours at the end of the month 

[dstryr]

I went with 2 240gb SSD drives in raid  0 on my newest build. Seems considerably faster than my other workstation with just 1 ssd.

[jeff]

I went with 2 240gb SSD drives in raid  0 on my newest build. Seems considerably faster than my other workstation with just 1 ssd.

Raid 0 is nice, but unless you do a backup frequently I would consider a redundant Raid array in case 1 drive goes bad.

[Myth Project]

My co-worker just built one for me to use.  Haven't got to test it much yet though.  It's Intel® Core i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz w/ 16GB RAM.  Has a Quadro K4200 graphics card. 120GB SSD and 500GB hard disk.

[m98custom1212]

Raid 0 is nice, but unless you do a backup frequently I would consider a redundant Raid array in case 1 drive goes bad.

 

I helped him with that build.  I suggested windows backup and he is uses dropbox. 

 

I use raid 0, I don't backup jack nothing with OS and programs just all my settings, files, documents, toolbars, templates etc. 

[Jayson Kramer]

These days I always try to go with at min of a 240 ssd for my main drive. As you add windows and office the Mastercam and like me SW and more there almost nothing left on that drive.
you will find your self changing that drive out before you know it. The SSD prices have dropped a lot of the last few years sense I have been using the. I found my self then my wife and now my son that at one time we all had are main drive only a 120. Now those 120gig drives are extra space or got moved over to training laptops.

 

the 4790K so far seems to be a really nice CPU just built a rig similar to your for my sons gaming. except for a GTX970 not a quadro.what are you using to cool the CPU? are you over clocking it?