New Workstation

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Bimbox
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Re: New Workstation

Post by Bimbox »

You will have to excuse me. Our 128 Thread Osprey vs a 112 Thread Intel dual Xeon. I will give detailed specs. We live in the minutia. :)
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Re: New Workstation

Post by Bimbox »

smacl wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 7:59 am Even for a small organisation, I'd question return on investment on very high end rigs and think it makes more sense to have multiple relatively high spec rigs running different tasks at the same time. The difference between a $5k rig and $15k rig is very likely to provide $10k worth of benefit, the difference between $15k rig and a $40k rig is less likely to bring $25k of benefit. An additional workstation or two, accessed over a fast network via remote desktop can help remove processing bottlenecks though where you have compute intensive tasks and a few jobs in the pipeline. The trick is designing and analysing your workflow so that you're not systematically wasting anyone's time waiting on a slow process to finish.
Spot On
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Re: New Workstation

Post by fobos8 »

Bimbox wrote: Sat Aug 08, 2020 1:11 am
smacl wrote: Fri Nov 01, 2019 7:59 am Even for a small organisation, I'd question return on investment on very high end rigs and think it makes more sense to have multiple relatively high spec rigs running different tasks at the same time. The difference between a $5k rig and $15k rig is very likely to provide $10k worth of benefit, the difference between $15k rig and a $40k rig is less likely to bring $25k of benefit. An additional workstation or two, accessed over a fast network via remote desktop can help remove processing bottlenecks though where you have compute intensive tasks and a few jobs in the pipeline. The trick is designing and analysing your workflow so that you're not systematically wasting anyone's time waiting on a slow process to finish.
Spot On
Buck, you must have seen a few workstation configurations munching through scan data. What would your recommendations be for an AMD cpu for 100 plus scan projects processed in Faro Scene?

a) Ryzen 3950X
b) Threadripper 3960X
c) Threadripper 3970X

regards, Andrew
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Re: New Workstation

Post by fobos8 »

I can across this article yesterday

https://aecmag.com/hardware-mainmenu-34 ... ca-cyclone
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Re: New Workstation

Post by dhirota »

It is hard to believe that I finally got the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (decided to spell it out) Proliant DL380LGen 8 refurbished server working with absolutely no help from HPE since I did not want to pay the US$800 because they could not guaranty that the BIOS would be working with our non-HPE equipment. After several calls to technical support and trying to find anyone in HNL to help with no Google search of an HPE office in HNL, I decided to spend some trying to figure it out (I would not do it again with an Hewlett Packard Enterprise product).

20200806_133603.jpg

After removing the HPE 420/420i raid controller, I installed an AVAGO 9361-8i raid controller for 8X6TB Seagate HDD. Created 3 virtual drives:
1. Windows Server 2016
2. Ubuntu 18.04.04 LTS
3. Raid 6 for storage

Installed NavVis post-processing software, which adds another dual processor, this time with 384GB of RAM.

LESSON LEARNED: I cannot print it in a forum like this. It might be printed in a thread like this

https://www.laserscanningforum.com/foru ... 789#p87789

I did learn many details to allow equipment to run effectively, when companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise do not want you to do it, and only in their antiquated ways from many years ago.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
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Re: New Workstation

Post by jedfrechette »

dhirota wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 12:01 am LESSON LEARNED: I cannot print it in a forum like this. It might be printed in a thread like this
Off topic, but it's Friday and I just got off a 1.5 hour "Support" call with HP too so I'm going to rant about them as well. Here's my story:

We're still mostly working remotely and starting a new project next week that will require a few more remote desktop seats. No problem, get on HP's store and order 4 seats of Remote Boost Server (Which despite the horrible name is actually fairly awesome). Order total ~$1400.

A few minutes later a confirmation email arrives saying "You've chosen Standard Delivery in 3-8 Business Days". What! It's a digital good all they need to do is send me a download link and a license key. Which, by the way, is exactly what happens if you sign up for the trial version. A few minutes after requesting a trial you get an automated email with a download link and a set of temporary floating license keys for however many seats you requested. Anyway, the confirmation email is weird, but I'll give them a day and see what happens.

Fast forward to today. No new info so give them a call to ask what's up. That starts off well with a hour long wait on hold. After finally getting through to a person, that person seams deeply perplexed that Remote Boost Server is actually a piece of software not a physical machine.

HP: But my computer says the item will be shipped from our warehouse and is currently out of stock.
ME: So you're going to send me CDs, what is this 2002?
HP: Let me put you on hold.
...
HP: No wait, it says on this other page it is build to order.
ME: What does that mean?
...20 more minutes of my life vanish...

Long story short, the operator eventually finds somebody who is more familiar with the product, that confirms it is a digital deliverable and I should get an email with license keys within 48 business hours, so I guess I'll see what happens on Monday. Although now that I think about it maybe 48 hours really means 6-days. Argggg.

Oh well, at least it's not Autodesk.

Oh I almost forgot the best part. Moment's after hanging up the phone I get an email "Please fill out this survey to let us know how we've done." The link in the email goes to a dead page which, for anyone who as ever tried to use HP's website, should be entirely predictable.
Jed
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Re: New Workstation

Post by smacl »

jedfrechette wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:23 amOh I almost forgot the best part. Moment's after hanging up the phone I get an email "Please fill out this survey to let us know how we've done." The link in the email goes to a dead page which, for anyone who as ever tried to use HP's website, should be entirely predictable.
The first big vendor computer systems I used for survey processing was a Wang, who's customer service was notoriously bad but funny at the same time. When you rang them up and the voice on the other end of the line said "Hello Wang Care, how can I help you" you always knew it was going to end badly ;)
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Re: New Workstation

Post by fobos8 »

smacl wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:32 pm "Hello Wang Care"
love it! surely a windup by the Wangs?!
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Re: New Workstation

Post by dhirota »

smacl wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 7:32 pm
jedfrechette wrote: Sat Aug 15, 2020 1:23 amOh I almost forgot the best part. Moment's after hanging up the phone I get an email "Please fill out this survey to let us know how we've done." The link in the email goes to a dead page which, for anyone who as ever tried to use HP's website, should be entirely predictable.
The first big vendor computer systems I used for survey processing was a Wang, who's customer service was notoriously bad but funny at the same time. When you rang them up and the voice on the other end of the line said "Hello Wang Care, how can I help you" you always knew it was going to end badly ;)
Shane

We had some of the very first Wang Labs land surveying hardware and software anywhere on the planet. What you were missing was the local element named Mr. Dodge Chu, who lived in Hawaii, who represented Wang Labs in the Pacific, and was a relative of Dr. Wang.

We were always aware of the new stuff, visited Lowell, MA several times, received excellent service, and had our Chinese lunch at Dodge's restaurant once a quarter from 10AM to 2PM to understand technology over specially prepared clams, oysters, and fish raised on Molokai.

From Dr. Wang, I learned how the 2.5MB, 5.0MB and 10MB HDD all looked the same, but the pricing was 1X, 2X and 4X based on the 2.5MB HDD. The only difference was the chip that controlled the distance the heads traveled to accomplish the reads and writes.

Not enough time to list all the important LESSONS LEARNED from Wang Labs and Dr. Wang, but the significant one is having the ability and foresight to make significant changes before they are required and it is too late.

This has little to do with new workstations, but should be in my book if it ever is written.

https://www.laserscanningforum.com/foru ... 789#p87789
Dennis Hirota, PhD, PE, LPLS
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Re: New Workstation

Post by Carbix »

My go to is https://www.pugetsystems.com/

Support is 1000% spot on. As they go above what you would expect. All of their stuff is a mix of off the shelf and custom fab for reliability.

Also I can’t see getting full buck out of $50k+ system until much of our software supports Containers over VM’s. Also with vendors like Cyclone not giving us standalone exporters and importers.

My hot mess of a dream would be a server OS from the dealer (Leica) that runs as a storage and transcriber that would allow you to stream the prudent data via 10g local and that would also have a virtual remote mode for less powerful computers. It would be the heart of the opposition. Make it even more wet by allowing it to offset load to ideal PC’s through a node protocol 🤤
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Vancouver - Okanagan - Calgary
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