Recomended CPU to run tracking tools

[adricanedo]

Hello!

I am new in this forum, so first of all hello to everybody.

My research group has recently bought the OptiTrack system (11 cameras) with the TrackingTools software. Now, we need a computer for it. I was thinking about a machine similar to this one:

CPU I7-3770, 3.4GHz, 8MB
NVIDIA GeForce GTX550 Ti 1GB GDDR5
1TB 6Gb/s HDD & 64GB SSD
12 GB Dual Channel, DDR3 a 1600MHz
1118 �

First question: What is your opinion on this machine? Do you think that TrackingTools will run fluently on this machine? Is the SSD a worthy option, or will a regular HDD be enough?


Anyway, the company who mounted it in our laboratory insists on buying a server-like computer. Particullarly, this one at least:


HP Z220-TR02
Intel Xeon E3-1270v2 3.5 8MB 4C HT GT0 CPU
16GB DDR3-1600 ECC (4x4GB) RAM
NVIDIA Quadro 600 1GB Graphics
500GB 7200 RPM SATA 6G 1st Hard Drive
1850 � approx.


I checked in different benchmarks, and both machines are apparently very similar regarding performance. However, the second one is much more expensive! I guess that is because the second one is a server station, and the first one a regular work-station.

So I asked them about the reason to choose the second one, and they said (not very convinced) that this machine would perform better because of the ECC memory (Error Correcting Code memory): since the TrackingTools works with big amounts of data on RAM, having a memory which corrects errors improves the performance.

I am not an expert on this topic, but I always believed that ECC provides reliability (necessary if you have a server or a financial application), but at the cost of decreasing a little bit the processing speed (hence, it does not increase the speed). So I was a bit surprised regarding the reason that they gave me... Anyway, I guess that the performance depends on the particular application, and as I say I am not an expert...

What do you think about this? Does ECC really improve the performance of this software? Which machine would you choose?




Thank you very much in advance. And sorry about the length of the text!

Adrian

[bsteagal]

Hi Adrian

As a distributor and user of Optitrack systems, I can tell you that the first system is more than enough to run tracking tools. In fact, it is more than enough to run even the largest of our systems for mocap..

I run a 12 camera system, with Arena (the mocap application) on a dell precision laptop, core i5, regular hd, 8g ram, with a quadro 2800 video card.. runs it perfectly with no issues.

Hope this helps!

Bryan

[adricanedo]

Hello Bryan,

Thank you very much for your response. It has been extremelly helpful. I had almost decided to buy the first system, but now I am definitelly sure about it.

I will post my experience with this system, just in case anybody comes to the forum with similar issues.

Best regards!

Adrian

[NaturalPoint - Mike]

Video card is less important on the machine running Tracking Tools or Arena. I generally build them in house with high end consumer cards. Processor, on the other hand, can be the most important aspect. On larger systems I highly recommend an i7.