PC for PBManager.

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PC for PBManager.

Postby bscav » Fri Sep 29, 2017 11:36 pm

Hello,
My company recently bought a PB Server. So far, to control we use a laptop with not bad parameters (i7 6700 HQ, 16 GB RAM, GF980, SSD), unfortunately we have a problem with its stability. Laptop hangs and CPU usage often increases to 100%.
That is why we want to build a dedicated PC for PBManager and WD.
And here is my question. What parameters are recommended?
What are you using? Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Regards
Mariusz
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Re: PC for PBManager.

Postby Dennis Kuypers » Sat Sep 30, 2017 12:23 pm

Hey Mariusz,

can you describe what you mean with stability problems?

If you are doing heavy processing in the Widget then you should separate the machines, but if you are only using it as a control surface then you should be fine and we should look into the issues that you have instead.

Regards
Dennis
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Re: PC for PBManager.

Postby bscav » Sun Oct 01, 2017 8:13 pm

Thank you for Your replay.

With stability problem I mean that the computer during no complicated projects (4-5x image sequence on 5 in different layers at the same time) uses 100% CPU which slows it down.
In addition, I had the situation that it was suspended due to the high temperature, but i think this is a problem of this concret computer and I will try to handle it myself.
So far I use WD for very basic functions (MIDI keyboard consoles) but the computer I requested I would build for more complex projects.
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Re: PC for PBManager.

Postby videodsh » Thu Feb 01, 2018 11:02 pm

Hi,

I am interested in your solution and experiences you made with building your Managersystem.
I do have several PB Systems, but my mostly used PC can't handle the complex project, thats why I am going to buy a new machine , but I have no idea, whether there is a well made PC on the market yet...

can you post you experiences or your decision....

thx

tim
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Re: PC for PBManager.

Postby Daniel Kaminski » Sat Feb 03, 2018 12:01 am

Hi,

All your Laptop components sound good, a lot of times it is the right configuration of the OS and sometimes drivers.

There are a few components that are critical to a Manager PC and you need to choose depending on your project needs:

a) GPU - Graphics Processor:
Should always be a dedicated NVIDA GPU (AMD will also work, but a lot of users had poor performance, with NVIDIA you are pretty save) - GTX Series works fine, Quadro is always nice too. The things you should consider are:
  • do I need the Manager System for preprogramming and viewing multiple Outputs at the same time, if so a bigger GPU is better
  • do I need the Manager "just" to run some timelines and playback some Audio, a smaller GPU will do the Job

b) Storage
The question here is, do I manager all Content from the Manager or do I have content that just lives on the client.
If you manager all content on the manager, the question is do I want to preview the content on the Manager.
A 3TB HDD will be able to manager a lot of content, but if you want to preview a 4k Uncompressed Video you will need a SSD RAID System that can deliver the performance.

SSDs, SSD Raids and NVMe Storage (M2 or PCIe Cards) are expensiv, but give you a lot of performance.

c) Network (1GB or 10GB)
This depends on you infostructure and if you need to spread a lot of content regularly. If it is a permanent install that get the content once, it is normally or if your spread takes an hour or two if you have huge amount of content, but in a rental setup where time is money, you might want to think about a 10GB infostructure and save a lot of valuable time that way.

The bandwith needed to run a timeline even to many clients a 1GB Network is way more than enough.

d) CPU, RAM and OS
I prefer XEON over i5 or i7 CPUS, just because they are build to run 24/7.
The amount of CPU Cores you need depends highly on your production and what else you are doing with your manager (encoding, Image converting, Audio Playback ...).
A 6-8 Core CPU with 2 - 3 GHz will do a good job. More is normally better.
RAM : at least 8GB, better 16GB ore more

Workstation Motherboards are preferred over Server or Consumer Boards.

OS: I prefer Windows 8.1 for any Pandoras System, but Windows 7 and 10 work also. Always the PRO Version.
Win 10 is more tricky to get production save and to turn of everything that is not needed like Cortana, Updates, Store .... (much easier on Win 8.1)


So the answer is, you will need to know what your Production / Installation requires. For a lot of productions a small 1000-2500 Euro PC like a compact station will be a perfect manager, for others you need a much more powerful system more equal to a Rev4 Server or even more powerful.
Depending on the job I worked with 1000 € Manager PC or with 10.000 € Manager PC.

I hope this helps a bit.
But I am also curious what kind of hardware you use for your managers and what performance you get.

Daniel
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