Computer Hardware Question

I use mostly Rockwell/Allen Bradley software. I'm curious if anyone has seen a performance boost using a Xeon processor vs the i7 series? Or if more ram would help with things such as compiling HMI screens.


Any thoughts on the idea are welcome.


Thank you

DannyD303 said:

I use mostly Rockwell/Allen Bradley software. I'm curious if anyone has seen a performance boost using a Xeon processor vs the i7 series? Or if more ram would help with things such as compiling HMI screens.


Any thoughts on the idea are welcome.


Thank you

Click to expand...

More ram will always help, if your running a VM its a must

Xeon CPUs are designed to be used in servers for maximum stability and reliability. That doesn't mean that they are faster than i5 or i7 especially since high end commercial CPUs are clocked higher. I don't see any point buying a Xeon unless you are in need of high performing workstation for video encoding or 3D rendering.

https://www.velocitymicro.com/blog/xeon-vs-i7i5-whats-difference/

I will probably upgrade my desktop as soon as the AMD Rizen 3000 CPUs are released.

More RAM is always good.

DannyD303 said:

I use mostly Rockwell/Allen Bradley software. I'm curious if anyone has seen a performance boost using a Xeon processor vs the i7 series? Or if more ram would help with things such as compiling HMI screens.


Any thoughts on the idea are welcome.


Thank you

Click to expand...

Yes but not so much with A-B s/w, mostly CAD s/w like Solidworks or the offline robot s/w like RobotStudio. I would agree that with more ram you'll notice a jump, I'm running 64gb in my Precision laptop and it really helps with Siemen's Step 7 and Starter.

The biggest performance gain you will notice is with the hard drive. Solid state drives have come a long way within the last few years as well as now are affordable. I wouldn’t say having a crazy amount of ram will do anything for performance. You just need to make sure you have enough ram with a decent cushion. The type of ram and making sure you can take advantage of on board optimization that the manufacturer offers with the correct ram set up is far more important than the bottom number.

Xeons are server cpu's so are made to run 24x7 but also usually come with louder fans on a better board so factor that in. You will indeed probably see a little less performance, but longer life.

A major performance increase can be obtained with a NVMe SSD installed in an M.2 slot. Transfer speed 5 times greater than a Sata SSD and up to 10 times more than a traditional HDD.

I have never noticed any reliability improvement with using Xeon and ECC memory.

harryting said:

I have never noticed any reliability improvement with using Xeon and ECC memory.

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how did you measure?

noticing is not measuring. you might have had luck with your RAM. ofcourse when your normal RAM functions good, ECC RAM would have functioned evenly good. so how would you notice reliabilty improvement?

I didn't and as you alluded to, it's not anywhere close to a scientific measurement of reliability.

I have always bought "workstation" level PC from Dell or Lenovo or HP with Xeon and ECC but we had quite a few went bad on us within 5-7 years. Which seems to be the consensus on how long a PC should last if they are running 24x7. I guess the question to me is whether paying extra for Xeon is worth it. Even assuming some what of a reliability improvement, unless I'm deploying hundreds of them, might not be worth the extra $ layout. I haven't come to a conclusion yet, just asking the question aloud.