Computer ?

[Phild]

What Computer do I need to run the latest LOR software?

 

[PhilMassey]

The official requirements are here.

https://www1.lightorama.com/upgrade-from-s4-to-s5

Let me add in my opinion like most computer activities, buy as much as your budget allows. 

I would up the ram to at least 8GB and preferably 16, to give Windows plenty of room and S5 can now access 64 bit memory on a 64 bit machine with Windows 10, 64 bit. The old LOR 4GB limit is truly gone.

Sequencing and the Preview are the most demanding and the better the machine, the better the experience. Playing the show is much less demanding and many people use an older machine for that.

Just for reference I built mine about two tears ago. AMD Ryzen 7 2700X Eight Core Processor running at 3.8GHz. 16 GB Ram, 512GB M2 SSD on the motherboard. Nvidia GEForce 1060 6GB, running three monitors.

I suggest you get at least two monitors if you can, Having the Preview on one and the Sequencer on the other saves an enormous amount of window clicking.

If you want a laptop, that's fine, but a desktop is expandable later on and IMO better if you don't need portability.

 

[Phild]

Thank you for your reply, perhaps the desktop is a good option I never thought of that.

[TheDucks]

Desktop (and not an ultra small form factor).  👍 Multiple Monitors. 👍 RAM 8 cores (I am pretty sure LOR can not use very many, so the rest is for other stuff).

Add more USB cards (the reason for NOT Small form factor). IMHO they are better than External Hubs.

[k6ccc]

Phil gave a good answer on a sequencing computer.  For a show player, you can run a FAR less capable computer.  Until a couple years ago my show player PC was running an Intel Pentium 4 with Windows XP.  It was replaced as much as anything to get away from XP.  Ran my approx 12,000 channel show just fine.  I replaced it with a Intel i5 based desktop that I got as a lease return refurb from TigetDirect.com for a little under $200.  That computer is only powered up from mid October through early January.  During the off season, my nightly landscape lighting show is driven by my file server (it stays powered 24x7x365 anyway).

My primary family room computer - where I do essentially all my sequencing is a fairly high end gaming computer (for mid 2018 when I bought it).  It has a Intel i7-8700 with 16GB of RAM.  The C: drive is a 256GB SSD  which only has the OS and programs on it.  The D: drive is a 2TB spinning disk that is only used for backing up my server.  In my case, all my LOR files are stored on my file server.  For video I have a Nvidea GTX 1070 Ti card that is driving four 24 inch 1920 x 1080 monitors (three landscape, one portrait).  Having multiple monitors is absolutely wonderful!

As a follow on to what TheDucks said, I would agree that native USB is better, but if you do use a USB hub (I do when running the show from the server), get a POWERED hub.

 

[ItsMeBobO]

I have owned several of the ultra small and was satisfied with them TheDucks.   I still have one in use running the show for the lights I set up in the kids basement.

Interesting you mention a usb CARD.  I think the extra USB jacks on this computer are just plugged to the other board making it an internal USB hub. 

[dibblejr]

5 hours ago, ItsMeBobO said:

I have owned several of the ultra small and was satisfied with them TheDucks.   I still have one in use running the show for the lights I set up in the kids basement.

Interesting you mention a usb CARD.  I think the extra USB jacks on this computer are just plugged to the other board making it an internal USB hub. 

I have 2 External 7 Port USB Hubs and ran 11-13 Networks without problem. With 85% RGB now my networks are decreasing a tad. I am making me a Network Bod it has 10 red adapters.

But mine is a laptop running the show so even if I wanted to I cant add an additional card.

 

JR

[k6ccc]

BTW, my preference for built in vs external USB hubs has nothing to do with performance.  It's all about logistically dealing with a hub or two vs built in ports.  I do it both ways.  I have 3 LOR networks.  On my server, there are only 4 USB ports, and three were already in use (KVM, Audio adapter, and a USB over Cat-5 extension to get USB for that computer extended into my family room ).  My show computer has enough USB ports (and only one is use - the KVM).

 

[dgrant]

I'm still using my Dell T5500 which has dual Zeon 6-core processors within and 72Gb of Ram. I'm driving four monitors which helps indeed! Two are actually 4K- 43 inch televisions and two 19 inch monitors. The two big screens are for the sequencer and the preview screen whereas the other two are for whatever files I need open or internet access. I've always been of the mind that if you provide the motherboard with more resources, it'll provide a better processing. I am using 2 RS485 networks and 1 TCPIP network.