Recommended Industrial PCs
The table below shows recommended PC specs from High-End to Low-End grades. The expected capture speed increases from the bottom row to the top row.
Grade |
CPU |
Integrated GPU |
Dedicated GPU |
Ethernet |
RAM |
Price (EUR) |
High-End |
Intel i5 |
Intel UHD 630/750/770 or Jetson AGX Orin/ Orin NX |
Nvidia RTX A2000 or A4000 |
10 GigE |
16 GB DDR4 |
~ 3000 - 9000 |
2.5 GigE |
||||||
Mid-End |
1 GigE |
~ 2000 - 3000 |
||||
No |
10 GigE |
|||||
Low-End |
2.5 GigE |
~ 1000 - 3000 |
||||
1 GigE |
Note
A dedicated GPU provides better performance than a 10 GigE network card.
The PC budget should be first spent on the components in the table. If the budget is higher, your spending should roughly be done in this order:
Upgrading the GPU to A4500 or similar
Upgrading the CPU to i7 or similar
Upgrading the GPU to A5000
Upgrading the CPU to i9
Upgrading the RAM to 32 GB
For Zivid, it is not worth upgrading the CPU or RAM before getting a 10 GigE network card and a dedicated GPU. However, that might be different when your machine vision software comes into the equation.
Vendor |
Model |
High-End |
Mid-End |
Low-End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Advantech |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Advantech |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
ADLINK |
✓ |
|||
ADLINK |
✓ |
✓ |
||
ADLINK |
✓ |
✓ |
||
ADLINK |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
OnLogic |
✓ |
|||
OnLogic |
✓ |
|||
OnLogic |
✓ |
|||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Vecow |
✓ |
✓ |
||
Vecow |
✓ |
✓ |
||
Vecow |
✓ |
|||
Vecow |
✓ |
✓ |
||
Vecow |
✓ |
|||
Vecow |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
|
Vecow |
✓ |
✓ |
✓ |
Note
Zivid supports Jetson Orin starting from SDK 2.12. The table below lists industrial PCs that embed Jetson Orin modules.
Vendor |
Model |
High-End |
Mid-End |
Low-End |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Advantech |
✓ |
|||
Advantech |
✓ |
|||
ADLINK |
✓ |
|||
ADLINK |
✓ |
|||
OnLogic |
✓ |
✓ |
||
Vecow |
✓ |
|||
Vecow |
✓ |
Thought process for choosing an IPC
In this section, we discuss what to consider when selecting an industrial PC. To avoid being vague, we run this thought process on an example IPC. One such high-performance Industrial PC with specs that we recommend is the Advantech MIC-770-20A1. Some alternative suppliers of industrial PCs are Wecow, OnLogic, and ADLINK. ADLINK has good options for low-power consumption DC-powered PCs suitable for mobile platforms.
Advantech MIC-770-20A1 IPC is compact and fanless, which is beneficial for industrial conditions. However, for many applications fanned PCs will do. The ambient temperature range of this PC is from -10 to 50. This is another aspect that you might want to consider based on your application requirements.
CPU
Advantech MIC-770-20A1 comes with a 10th Generation Intel Core CPU and H480W chipset. Our recommendation for the CPU is i5-10500E or better.
Communication
For use with Zivid 2 or 2+, we recommend a 10 GigE Vision PCIe Interface Card. With Advantech MIC-770-20A1 you can choose either the 1-port PCIE-1181 card or the 2-port PCIE-1182 card. PCIe ports come in x16, x8, x4, and x1 slot options. Some 10 GigE network cards require x4 or higher and some other x8 or higher PCIe ports.
GPU
One of the benefits of this particular IPC is that it is compatible with optional expansion modules, such as a dual GPU Expansion Module MIC-75G30-00A2. A High-End dedicated GPU is what makes this IPC high-performance. The GPU that we recommend is a professional-grade Nvidia Quadro RTX A4000 16GB GPU (SKY-QUAD-RTXA4000B). To cut the cost a bit, you can also go for the Nvidia Quadro RTX A2000 6GB GPU (SKY-QUAD-RTXA2000B). A more affordable alternative is a consumer-grade Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU (GPU 96VG-NR3060F16-6L1). We recommend professional grade because the manufacturer guarantees stability and reliability. Often, the space inside an industrial PC is tight. Therefore, it is important to confirm with the supplier that it is possible to fit both the network card and the GPU.
A good compromise for not having a dedicated GPU is an integrated GPU from Intel, such as UHD Graphics 630. Many low-footprint fanned or fan-less industrial PCs that meet this spec can be found on the market. The reason we chose Advantech MIC-770-20A1 for this thought process is because it is upgradable. This means that you can start with a Low-End version without the expansion card, and upgrade it to Mid-End and High-End by adding a dedicated GPU and a 10 GigE network card.
RAM
We recommend at least 16 GB DDR4 RAM (e.g., SQR-SD4N16G2K6SNCB).
HDD
Advantech MIC-770-20A1 comes with a shock resistance, anti-vibration, and low power consumption SSD (SQF-S25V4). These are all relevant specs for industrial conditions that can be harsh.
Professional Dedicated GPU Price
GPU |
Price (EUR) |
|---|---|
Nvidia RTX A2000 |
~750 |
Nvidia RTX A4000 |
~1500 |
Nvidia RTX A4500 |
~1800 |
Nvidia RTX A5000 |
~3000 |
Nvidia RTX A6000 |
~6500 |
Version History
SDK |
Changes |
|---|---|
2.12.0 |
Jetson Orin support is added. |
2.11.0 |
AMD is no longer recommended. Official support has been removed in SDK, see Enable Unsupported Compute Device for Zivid Software. |