Lower lever for a usable computer.

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WB8LBZ
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 3:59 am
Location: El Paso, TX

Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby WB8LBZ » Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:08 pm

Hi All,
What is the lower lever for a usable computer that will handle the processing needed for an Anan 8000DLE? I read that an I3 is the minimum. Is there a Passmark rating to gauge this by? Where does the I3 rate?

73,
Larry, WB8LBZ
Anan 7000 sn:117 and Hermes board sn:3115
El Paso, TX
good in QRZ
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w-u-2-o
Posts: 5540
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:47 pm

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby w-u-2-o » Sat Jun 17, 2017 9:58 pm

Hi Larry,

First, to clarify, the computing requirements are nearly identical regardless of whether you have an ANAN-10E or an ANAN-8000DLE, as they both utilize the same thick client software, PowerSDR mRX. So what you are really asking is how much computer do you need to run PowerSDR mRX.

The short answer is that you could get away with a Core 2 Duo if you dumb things down a bit. I've actually run things on a Core 2 Duo (two computers ago) and I was able to get things to work just fine using an IF sample rate of only 96KHz and no PureSignal, with a CPU load of 70%! So you can certainly adjust things to match nearly any computer.

However, that said, you just spent nearly $4K on a top of the line radio. You probably don't want to "adjust things". You are going to want to run 192KHz sample rates on both RX1 and RX2, run PureSignal, run Diversity, and perhaps even use VAC facilities. While there are no doubt people doing that on i3's and i5's, later on, in the hopefully not too distant future, you are going to want to run the new Protocol 2 firmware where you can have sample rates of 1.5MHz.

My suggestion is that you obtain an i7 based machine in the 3GHz class so that you are future proofed for a time. You don't need a lot of RAM, 16GB is plenty. And you don't need a lot of storage space or storage speed, although having an SSD is the single best thing you can do to speed up the logistics of running your PC (launching programs, booting, etc.). A good video card does help PowerSDR run smoothly. The later model Nvidia cards are generally considered good. You probably want one with CUDA processing capability as that might be something the developers are going to exploit in the future. You should be able to buy or build something in that range for under $1K.

73,

Scott
WB8LBZ
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 3:59 am
Location: El Paso, TX

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby WB8LBZ » Sun Jun 18, 2017 12:23 am

Thanks Scott,
I have an AMD quad core with 8 Gig of memory for my rig control and logging computer. It has on board video so I's not too great in the Passmark test. I guess I should consider 8 cores and a decent video card.

73,
Larry, WB8LBZ
Anan 7000 sn:117 and Hermes board sn:3115
El Paso, TX
good in QRZ
User avatar
w-u-2-o
Posts: 5540
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:47 pm

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:09 am

Right now the available software benefits more from CPU speed than number of cores/threads. I'm running an i7-7700k with only 4 cores/8 threads and it is, of course, doing plenty fine. Pretty much any i7 second generation or above will work very well.
WB8LBZ
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 3:59 am
Location: El Paso, TX

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby WB8LBZ » Sun Jun 18, 2017 2:46 am

I was hoping to stay on Windows 7 and the older AMD processors. I have Windows 10 on the Ryzen 7 and don't care for it.

73,
Larry, WB8LBZ
Anan 7000 sn:117 and Hermes board sn:3115
El Paso, TX
good in QRZ
User avatar
w-u-2-o
Posts: 5540
Joined: Fri Mar 10, 2017 1:47 pm

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby w-u-2-o » Sun Jun 18, 2017 11:45 am

WB8LBZ wrote:I was hoping to stay on Windows 7 and the older AMD processors. I have Windows 10 on the Ryzen 7 and don't care for it.
Well, that's a double whammy right there.

Obviously W7 is not supported on Ryzen, but equally obviously you don't want to be buying any new computers that are not using Ryzen if you absolutely must have an AMD product as the rest of the AMD universe is hopelessly behind where the i7 is. There's no compelling technical reason to buy an AMD product over an Intel product, but you already have one, and the Ryzen 7 is a good CPU, to be sure.

The second part of the double whammy is that W7 is now end-of-life'd and even extended support is going to end in two years. Certainly new tools can be hard to get used to, but I have to say, with appropriate setup, I am finding W10 to be far superior to W7. Smoother, faster and more stable. I was able to turn off all of the privacy-intruding features, and even set up the computer so it does not update except when I want it to. With those two fixes it's a good OS.

That said, it is possible to run W7 on a Ryzen. There are plenty of good web articles on how to do that, just put "Ryzen Windows 7" into your favorite search engine.

73,

Scott
WB8LBZ
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 3:59 am
Location: El Paso, TX

Re: Lower lever for a usable computer.

Postby WB8LBZ » Sun Jun 18, 2017 1:53 pm

I met those whammys when I was trying to get this going. I tried several times to get W7 install disk to boot and all it would do is hang. Linux would at least boot on Ubuntu 16.10. I went with Ubuntu 17.04 install (new for the Ryzen 7) and ran it on Linux for a month. I gave up and bought W10 and I'm contemplating an I7. I don't think I will go with the powerhouse like you have I'll do something.
End of life for W7 means nothing to me as I still have a computer running XP, it runs my Magic Jack phone system.

73,
Larry, WB8LBZ
Anan 7000 sn:117 and Hermes board sn:3115
El Paso, TX
good in QRZ

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