Siemens TIA portal software

I recently got a quotation for a Siemens PG computer with TIA Portal V14 SP1 installed as a ready-to-go package to support a new line we are installing. My management wants to buy only the software and load on a standard PC. Is the PG computer from Siemens worth the price? What kind of specs would I need to look for to run this software on a standard laptop. Any recommendations? Thank you in advance for any help.

The Siemens PG / Software bundles make sense, if you don't have any Siemens licenses.
If you subtract the single license price for the Siemens software from the bundle price with the PG, you get a high quality and robust notebook for a relatively low price.
Also it has some interfaces like MPI/Profibus and a Siemens card reader which is sometimes useful if you have to deal with the classic S7 line of S7-300/400.

The Siemens PG, at least the one I used to have, had three separate NICs in it - two wired and one wireless. I found that to be more useful than I thought it would be.

If you work with S7-300/400, then your company really should have at least one PG around for clearing the (non-windows formatted) memory cards. Profibus is nice as well, for older systems.

If you plan on using the newest software, getting Portal pre-installed is a huge time saver. Honestly, probably saves a day. You'll probably need to add some other options like safety, though.

I use both NICs simultaneously plenty, but textra NICs are easy enough to add later with cheapish dongles.

If you don't get the PG, you'll need a decently specced system. Siemens support site has the recommended specs for Portal. Make for sure you get a SSD, preferably a big one. Mine is 2TB, but that's because I run a lot of VMs.

TIA portal will run good an a good computer. Never had any problems since I bought my newest one.

A day to install? The installation takes 30min?

rQx said:

A day to install? The installation takes 30min?

Click to expand...

Well, it doesn't take too long to install from CDs. I usually have to download it first; I counted that, too.

If you have no software, its not a bad investment - if you do, its very costly.