Centroid CNC PC requirements

All things related to the Centroid Acorn CNC Controller

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KirkD
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Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by KirkD »

I have been doing some research. Thanks to Franco, I have decided to move my current build from Mach 3/4 to Acorn. The current PC I bought for this project unfortunately fall short of the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. Upon further investigation, I was looking at 1) Centroid all-in-one touch screen, 2) Centroid Intel NUC CNCPC, and 3) Intel NUC model #NUC7i3BNK. All 3 of these devices use the Intel i3-7100U processor, which also falls short on the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. According to cpubenchmark.net, the single core bench mark in 1322.

So my question, what are exactly the requirement because I don't want to have to look for another computer if in fact mine will work.

Thanks
Kirk
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by cnckeith »

anything above 1000 single thread with SSD as c: will work just fine as long as its a clean windows 10 install, and you don't plan on doing any short vector Gcode smoothing for high speed 3D machining and you are not trying to run mastercam or any other CPU heavy program on the CNCPC.

for drilling holes and 2.5D work. the I3 with a SSD works great.
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C6MFG
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by C6MFG »

I purchased one of the Lenovo Tiny Pc's recommended elsewhere on the forum. It's a nice size and decent price off eBay.

Jason
martyscncgarage
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by martyscncgarage »

KirkD wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:25 pm I have been doing some research. Thanks to Franco, I have decided to move my current build from Mach 3/4 to Acorn. The current PC I bought for this project unfortunately fall short of the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. Upon further investigation, I was looking at 1) Centroid all-in-one touch screen, 2) Centroid Intel NUC CNCPC, and 3) Intel NUC model #NUC7i3BNK. All 3 of these devices use the Intel i3-7100U processor, which also falls short on the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. According to cpubenchmark.net, the single core bench mark in 1322.

So my question, what are exactly the requirement because I don't want to have to look for another computer if in fact mine will work.

Thanks
Kirk
Some PC's CPU's are upgradable. Have you checked to see if you can swap CPU's?
One other thing, it seems that any Intel CPU running at 2.9GHZ or better meets the minimum. Even a Celeron processor. That is what is running on my CNC Knee mill. Solid State Drives are cheap. 128G for well under $100
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KirkD
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by KirkD »

martyscncgarage wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 11:14 pm
KirkD wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 4:25 pm I have been doing some research. Thanks to Franco, I have decided to move my current build from Mach 3/4 to Acorn. The current PC I bought for this project unfortunately fall short of the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. Upon further investigation, I was looking at 1) Centroid all-in-one touch screen, 2) Centroid Intel NUC CNCPC, and 3) Intel NUC model #NUC7i3BNK. All 3 of these devices use the Intel i3-7100U processor, which also falls short on the single core minimum benchmark of 1500. According to cpubenchmark.net, the single core bench mark in 1322.

So my question, what are exactly the requirement because I don't want to have to look for another computer if in fact mine will work.

Thanks
Kirk
Some PC's CPU's are upgradable. Have you checked to see if you can swap CPU's?
One other thing, it seems that any Intel CPU running at 2.9GHZ or better meets the minimum. Even a Celeron processor. That is what is running on my CNC Knee mill. Solid State Drives are cheap. 128G for well under $100
I did some checking. The CPU runs a intel LGA 775 chipset and I have looked at several processors and I cant get over the 1500 mark. I should be able to get up and running. I'm looking to build a thin mini ITX motherboard. All the processors seem to fit the bill. Only question is if I go that route, would there be any difference in the plain pentium vs. celeron vs i3,i5, etc processors (will be keeping the benchmark > 1500) giving that they only thing I plan on doing is running the Acorn software. The pentium and celeron is significantly cheaper than the i5.
Thanks
martyscncgarage
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by martyscncgarage »

I have been running Pentium 3.1ghz and Celerons with no trouble so far and just over the minimum benchmark. SSDs make a big difference
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Reedfirst
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by Reedfirst »

Check out my Bridgeport conversion thread.

I listed out the parts I used for a mini ITX build. Maybe it'll help you out.

Just a note though, the mother board I used only has 1 network port. But those are easy to add later on if you want two.

I was planning on just using a wireless usb adapter or something along those lines.

viewtopic.php?f=60&t=947
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by Bravin Neff »

cnckeith wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:54 pm anything above 1000 single thread with SSD as c: will work just fine as long as its a clean windows 10 install, and you don't plan on doing any short vector Gcode smoothing for high speed 3D machining...
Can you expand on this? You seem to be suggesting the PC's single thread benchmark is directly related to how well the Acorn will do 3D surfacing work. This is the kind of work I am planning on doing so naturally this caught my attention. Thank you.

Regards,
Bravin Neff
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by Centroid_Liviu »

Bravin Neff wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:50 am
cnckeith wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:54 pm anything above 1000 single thread with SSD as c: will work just fine as long as its a clean windows 10 install, and you don't plan on doing any short vector Gcode smoothing for high speed 3D machining...
Can you expand on this? You seem to be suggesting the PC's single thread benchmark is directly related to how well the Acorn will do 3D surfacing work. This is the kind of work I am planning on doing so naturally this caught my attention. Thank you.

Regards,
Bravin Neff
It is not directly related as there are many factors. We give the 1500 minimum to assure that the CPU is not a bottleneck even with Windows doing other things. A correctly set-up Windows environment (with a solid state hard drive) can perform even at 1250 with no bottleneck (the caveat being it must remain setup that way, no installing a bunch of other bloatware on top of it). The lower you go though, the more chance something will come up. Windows itself is a constantly evolving environment. It might work great today, but tomorrow it decides to run some self diagnostic at the same time as your program is running. We give the minimum CPU score to give you overhead over anything like that.

A score of 1500 and even 1250 is not a huge score for today's technology. I understand wanting to keep costs down as much as possible, but a few more dollars spend and you can save yourself a world of hassles down the road.
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martyscncgarage
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Re: Centroid CNC PC requirements

Post by martyscncgarage »

Centroid_Liviu wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 12:11 pm
Bravin Neff wrote: Fri Nov 10, 2017 11:50 am
cnckeith wrote: Mon Oct 16, 2017 5:54 pm anything above 1000 single thread with SSD as c: will work just fine as long as its a clean windows 10 install, and you don't plan on doing any short vector Gcode smoothing for high speed 3D machining...
Can you expand on this? You seem to be suggesting the PC's single thread benchmark is directly related to how well the Acorn will do 3D surfacing work. This is the kind of work I am planning on doing so naturally this caught my attention. Thank you.

Regards,
Bravin Neff
It is not directly related as there are many factors. We give the 1500 minimum to assure that the CPU is not a bottleneck even with Windows doing other things. A correctly set-up Windows environment (with a solid state hard drive) can perform even at 1250 with no bottleneck (the caveat being it must remain setup that way, no installing a bunch of other bloatware on top of it). The lower you go though, the more chance something will come up. Windows itself is a constantly evolving environment. It might work great today, but tomorrow it decides to run some self diagnostic at the same time as your program is running. We give the minimum CPU score to give you overhead over anything like that.

A score of 1500 and even 1250 is not a huge score for today's technology. I understand wanting to keep costs down as much as possible, but a few more dollars spend and you can save yourself a world of hassles down the road.
I echo what Liviu said. The PC that meets these requirements is not terribly expensive. And most certainly a very good performance improvement is a SSD. They don't need to be huge. 128GB works very nicely and can be found for well under $100

I have run the software on two identical PC's one with a SSD and one with an HD. Very noticable difference in performance,though the software does run on the standard mechanical hard disk.

Marty
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