PC requirements for 120 channel (2xMEA1060) recording?

Hi. We're considering buying a second MEA1060 system and would like to record them both simultaneously (all 60 channels of each, not 60 channels total). (This would be using the MC_Card upgrade and not the USB 128ch system.)

Already, our preparation--typically mouse retina--using a single 60 channel amplifier can reach close to the limits of the performance or our PC (an E6750 clocked at 2.66 GHz) when we use peak detection and a spike sorter in the rack.

What PC specifications are recommended for the 2xMEA1060 configuration to record 120 data channels + 2 or more analog or digital channels?

What is the performance bottleneck, the CPU alone?

To run this, do we run separate instances of MC_Rack? Does each instance use only one core of the processor or will MC_Rack run in multiple threads in this configuration (meaning we would be better off with a quad-core processor)?

Thank you for advice on this.
Best,
Rene' Renteria
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

Dear Dr. Renteria,

I have just sent you by e-mail our current suggestions for PC configurations.

The performance is in many cases limited by programs running in the background, slow operating systems or even a virus scan kicking in during the recording. So I would say in addition to pure CPU issues a "cleaned up" PC helps as well.

If you upgrade your MC_Card to 128 channels you will just run one instance of MC_Rack with two sets of displays and other instruments in the rack refelcting the two MEA1060 amplifiers connected.

Only with the USB data acquisition it is possible to control two amplifiers completely independent by running two instances of MC_Rack (or even 4 in the case of a USBME256 DAQ).

I suggest instead of looking at pure power of the PC to stick as close as possible to the components specified in the file I sent you by e-mail as those are used, tried & tested to work with Mc_Card and provide a reliable quality.

Greetings

Thomas

Hi, Renteria


Though we do not have a complete second set of MEA1060 system, we do have few experience concerning the computer (under the generous help from MCS).

In my opinion, a computer with the configuration recommended by MCS works smoothly. The configuration of our newly-setup box may offer an alternative plan :

CPU: Intel i7 920
M/B: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
with DDR3 6G RAM and Hotkey X7 900 power supply.

(OS: Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Standard)

It runs smoothly even when multiple instances of MC-Rack run at the same time (only one can access MC-Card).


Best regards,
Jiangbo Pu

rrenteri wrote:Hi. We're considering buying a second MEA1060 system and would like to record them both simultaneously (all 60 channels of each, not 60 channels total). (This would be using the MC_Card upgrade and not the USB 128ch system.)

Already, our preparation--typically mouse retina--using a single 60 channel amplifier can reach close to the limits of the performance or our PC (an E6750 clocked at 2.66 GHz) when we use peak detection and a spike sorter in the rack.

What PC specifications are recommended for the 2xMEA1060 configuration to record 120 data channels + 2 or more analog or digital channels?

What is the performance bottleneck, the CPU alone?

To run this, do we run separate instances of MC_Rack? Does each instance use only one core of the processor or will MC_Rack run in multiple threads in this configuration (meaning we would be better off with a quad-core processor)?

Thank you for advice on this.
Best,
Rene' Renteria
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio