Best hardware for inLab?

[joonya]

Ive had inlab for nearly two years now and I'm growing tired of the excessive wait time between steps on larger cases. I've been considering scrapping the Patterson computer that it came with and starting over, and I was wondering if any of you have had any successes with any of these upgrades, or any other changes that have worked for you.

Dual/quad core processors?

Upgrade to NVIDIA Quadro FX or ATI Fire GL workstation video card?

64-bit Windows to allow for more that 3gb recognized RAM?

Solid-state disk instead of standard HDD?


The Patterson PC is running a Pentium 4 with dual channel 2.8gb of recognized ram, (4gb installed) and an NVIDIA 8800GTS card. It's good from 1-3 units, but beyond that, it's slow. ...Especially when adding occlusal overlays and antagonist scans. I'm working with them on replacing this machine since it was outdated before we even got it.


Thank you for any input you may have!

[harmonylab]

Originally Posted by joonya

Ive had inlab for nearly two years now and I'm growing tired of the excessive wait time between steps on larger cases. I've been considering scrapping the Patterson computer that it came with and starting over, and I was wondering if any of you have had any successes with any of these upgrades, or any other changes that have worked for you.

Dual/quad core processors?

Upgrade to NVIDIA Quadro FX or ATI Fire GL workstation video card?

64-bit Windows to allow for more that 3gb recognized RAM?

Solid-state disk instead of standard HDD?


The Patterson PC is running a Pentium 4 with dual channel 2.8gb of recognized ram, (4gb installed) and an NVIDIA 8800GTS card. It's good from 1-3 units, but beyond that, it's slow. ...Especially when adding occlusal overlays and antagonist scans. I'm working with them on replacing this machine since it was outdated before we even got it.


Thank you for any input you may have!

I've been using inlab for about 2 years as well. Fortunately, I don't do TOO many longspan bridges. I wish my boss had consulted me before buying this piece of junk. 3K for a junk no name pc made by local computer shop, which I could have built myself for about 2k.

Anyway, I've got the same graphics card, and only 2gb of ram, but I'm on a Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad at 2.4GHz. Your system's a P4? That's pretty sad. I'm afraid I haven't done any upgrades, but perhaps we can see how much difference the cpu makes. Wanna send me a file so we can see how long it takes the computer to process it?

[paulg100]

Hi,

Just came across this forum and looks great so hopefully i can make a worthwhile contribution.

Have been an Inlab owner with MCXL for past 18 months and am also an IT nerd and MS systems engineer so am well up on the IT side.

With regards to system specs this is still something im playing around with. The PC we were also supplied with is a pile of junk.

I have done tests on me home PC which is a watercooled Quad at 3.6 ghz and although the software runs slightly faster it still chugs on anything over a few units.

If you check task manager whilst its calculating steps, the 4 cores do not appear to be used properly and as multi threading and multi core support is not code you can just bolt on, i dont see this chaging until Sirona finish their complete re-write which they are meant to be working on.

As the software currently stands (3.65) it is verging on useless for doing multiple unit anterior work or large unit bridge work.

If they are not going to sort this out soon then i wish they would just open the mCXL up to mill 3 shape work and have done with it.

Despite the software being buggy i was amazed that it worked in VMware running virtual windows XP, so the software appears to be fine on a non sirona pc. Im pretty sure the MCXL will be fine on another pc as its TCIP now but what im not so sure about is comptability of the ineos.

Has anyone had any more experiance with scanning and milling on other pc's?

[TheLabGuy]

I've used In Lab for four years, close to five now. Since then, I've come to realize with the new milling centers and that technology is changing so fast you couldn't get me to invest one more cent into a company (patterson/sirona) that is running around with there cerec machines in hand telling my clients (Dentists) that there machine is better than any lab technician..............which we all know is horse excrement. Just my two cents........

As for your computer, feel free to upgrade, the only thing I may suggest is that you stick with NVidia as a graphic card brand instead of some of the others like Radeon because the graphic interface is different enough that it most likely won't work (speaking from experience here). Don't forget your firewire card too. I built a pc with the AMD Phenom X4 9950 processor, with a 1gb NVidia GeForce 9500 GT, the extra boost helps.

[paulg100]

Thanks for the info.

I have tried both ati and nvidia and both APPEAR to work but yeah i think it would be safe to stick to nvidia as the drivers are indeed very different.

Also from what i can tell, its not the power of the card that makes any real difference. More the CPU in calculating the math for the design steps.

Looks like ill be building an i7 soon then overclocking as much as poss. A brute approach of Mhz seems the only way to speed things up until they re code for multithreading and multi core properly.

[TRH]

[quote=TheLabGuy;18351]I've used In Lab for four years, close to five now. Since then, I've come to realize with the new milling centers and that technology is changing so fast you couldn't get me to invest one more cent into a company (patterson/sirona) that is running around with there cerec machines in hand telling my clients (Dentists) that there machine is better than any lab technician..............which we all know is horse excrement. Just my two cents........


Please know that this is not the message that Sirona is sending out- Actually we want to do the opposite by connecting the dentists and labs together through CEREC Connect. Please do not penalize the company over remarks made by a salesperson.

Thanks, TRH

[TheLabGuy]

Please know that this is not the message that Sirona is sending out- Actually we want to do the opposite by connecting the dentists and labs together through CEREC Connect. Please do not penalize the company over remarks made by a salesperson.

Thanks, TRH

Then I'd suggest Sirona tells Patterson's sales weasels to knock it off already........but hey, how long has this been going on?........and every month I hear it from a client or some technician in a different part of the country..........blahh blahh blahh....... It was already old years ago.

[Al.]

Originally Posted by TheLabGuy

Then I'd suggest Sirona tells Patterson's sales weasels to knock it off already........but hey, how long has this been going on?........and every month I hear it from a client or some technician in a different part of the country..........blahh blahh blahh....... It was already old years ago.

Im with Rob on this, I wont touch their stuff.

[TRH]

Originally Posted by TheLabGuy

Then I'd suggest Sirona tells Patterson's sales weasels to knock it off already........but hey, how long has this been going on?........and every month I hear it from a client or some technician in a different part of the country..........blahh blahh blahh....... It was already old years ago.

Thank you for the suggestion- I apologize for this and please know that this is not lip service. Believe me it is a work in progress and something that we are committed to changing. Thanks, TRH

[PBomber]

I've heard that with the new scanners/software that sirona will only allow thier own PCs to be used. This is horsecrap especially at the price they are asking. For that cost I could build at least 2 much better systems for sure. Someone please tell me that I'm misinformed!!

[joonya]

My understanding is that for compatibility reasons, Sirona is even writing their own bios on this one. Maybe they should've done that from the start. I can't say I've ever been impressed with the speed of my inLab system... especially with large bridges and with occlusal overlay scans involved. Lets just say that although you could build a cheaper system, having one that is specifically designed around the software is a step in the right direction. Newegg & Tiger Direct are far less expensive, but this system is typically the heart of the all-ceramic portion of our labs. Would you want to calibrate your pacemaker with what you get from Newegg?... or something designed specifically for it? You'd also have a heck of a time getting troubleshooting help and tech support when the techs have no idea what's in your system. It IS expensive. It costs WAY more than it would somewhere else. BUT... when my system crapped out a few months ago, it was replaced with an upgraded unit at no charge to me. Newegg won't do that.

[DMC]

I had bacon and eggs this morn.

Are we talking about eggs, or something Dental?

[joonya]

Originally Posted by DMC

I had bacon and eggs this morn.

Are we talking about eggs, or something Dental?

Nice

Newegg.com is a great place to buy all things electronic. Phenomenal prices compared to places like Best Buy. I was using it as an example. I originally started this thread planning on building a system out of parts from that site, but after some research, I decided that what I would be saving in $$ I would wind up losing in time, compatibility issues, and lack of support.

[harmonylab]

Well, it'll be interesting if they make the software run only on their system, seeing as how they supplied me with a "newegg" type PC. Having no compatibility issues would be nice, I suppose, but that doesn't help with all the bugs in the program. Rare is the day when I don't run into a single bug, and even now, I'm constantly finding new bugs.

[Travis]

What OS are they putting on them?

[joonya]

Originally Posted by Travis

What OS are they putting on them?

Windows 7 pro 64bit.

As far as bugs... The system can be a bit of an ant farm at times for me as well. I personally would love to bring the software engineers to my lab and sit them next to me, so I can point at the screen and say, "Make it stop doing that." or, "I wish it could do this." but that's probably not going to happen. I run into the most problems when I'm trying to push it near its limits, or do things that the system is not truly designed for. Lets call it what is pretty much is... A system designed for doctors that was augmented for use in labs as an attempt to profit from both markets. It could realistically create a good bridge from dentist to lab, if Patterson would get more involved with promoting the Cerec Connect aspect of it. We've received only two cases via the portal to date, and several of my clients who have the AC were unaware that Connect was up and running, so I had to take the responsibility of contacting Patterson about setting them up for its use. It IS a pretty good system for the money. I do wish the blue had been out when I purchased my system, though. It's markedly better, but the old "redcam" isn't bad enough to warrant an upgrade for me at this point, at least not unless a trade-in program unearths itself.

[paulg100]

"A system designed for doctors that was augmented for use in labs as an attempt to profit from both markets"

This is so true. At one time the software was probably leading the field but compared to what 3 shape are doing now, its starting to look incredibly dated, espcially for labs.

On top of this the software is not commercial grade as its full of bugs and crashes on a regular basis.

At least Sirona have partnered with 3shape to allow import of 3shape scan data now, so thats a step in the right direction. I only hope that this will manifest itsself into allowing the milling of 3 shape designs stright to the MCXL, much like 3m are doing with 3shape and LAVA.

Please commit the proper resources required for software development Sirona, or open the damn thing up!