What hardware do Itasca consultants use to run Itasca software?

Hardware
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Itasca Consulting Group engineers run their models on “crunchers,” which are powerful PC computers. Our IT team currently (as of October 2021) defines the following system configurations as crunchers. These are only general recommendations, as Mainboard Bios versions and other software/firmware will affect the systems performance. For more information about hardware, visit the hardware FAQ on our website.

Custom Spec/Built Intel-based System :

  • Intel i9 9980xe, 18 Core/36 thread CPU
  • ASUS Prime X299-A II LGA 2066 Intel X299 SATA 6Gb/s ATX Intel Motherboard
  • 2, 64 GB kits of: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16Q-64GVKC GB of Crucial 3200 mhz DDR4 RAM.
  • A 2 TB NvMe Solid State Drive (the Corsair MP600 Core M.2 2280 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D QLC Internal Solid-State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F2000GBMP600COR has worked well)
  • An 8 or 10 TB 7200 RPM, 256 MB of Cache Storage Hard drive
  • EVGA CLC 360 400-HY-CL36-V1 All-In-One CPU Liquid Cooler
  • A EVGA GeForce 1050 Ti or GTX 1650 (or better) Video Card
  • A 850 Watt “Gold” Evga or Seasonic Power Supply
  • A Mid Tower case that accepts the 3 Fan water cools (360mm) radiator. (Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P_BK Computer Case has worked well)
  • Windows 10 Pro

Custom Spec/Built AMD-based System :

  • AMD ThreadRipper 3970x CPU with 32 cores/64 threads
  • ASUS PRIME TRX40-PRO S sTRX4 AMD TRX40 SATA 6Gb/s ATX AMD Motherboard
  • 2, 64 GB kits of: G.SKILL Ripjaws V Series 64GB (4 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3600 (PC4 28800) Desktop Memory Model F4-3600C16Q-64GVKC GB of Crucial 3200 mhz DDR4 RAM Kits
  • A 2 TB NvMe Solid State Drive (the Corsair MP600 Core M.2 2280 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 x4, NVMe 1.3 3D QLC Internal Solid-State Drive (SSD) CSSD-F2000GBMP600COR has worked well)
  • A 8 or 10 TB 7200 RPM, 256 MB of Cache Storage Hard drive
  • EVGA CLC 360 400-HY-CL36-V1 All-In-One CPU Liquid Cooler
  • A EVGA GeForce 1050 Ti or GTX 1650 (or better) Video Card
  • A 850 Watt “Gold” Evga or Seasonic Power Supply
  • A Mid Tower case that accepts the 3 Fan water cools (360mm) radiator. (Phanteks Enthoo Pro Series PH-ES614P_BK Computer Case has worked well)
  • Windows 10 Pro

Laptop System :

As far as a “Laptop cruncher” we recommend that for heavy duty “Crunching” that you use a desktop system as Laptops just don’t have the CPU/Power/Cores or the 128 of RAM Capacity that you can get with the x299 Intel Mainboard spec.

However, we do have some of our engineers using this Dell XPS 9510 laptop spec for smaller models that need 64 GB of RAM or less:

  • Dell XPS 15 9000 Series-9510
  • 64GB DDR4-3200MHz, 2x32G
  • 11th Generation Intel i9-119000H CPU (24MB Cache, up to 4.9 GHz, 8 cores)
  • 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
  • Windows 10 professional
  • NVIDIA GeForce RTX-3050TI

While we are currently running the machine configurations listed above in a production environment, and they are working well, this information is provided only as an example of any of 100’s possible configurations, and therefore is provided only “as is”.

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  • ASUS MB ROG B650 AM5
  • 2x M.2 1TB SSD - RAID 0
  • AMD 7950X w Noctua air cooling (~75degC at extended max load)
  • 4 x CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 RAM 32GB (base speed 3800)
  • NVIDEA RTX 2000
  • 850W PSU

NOTE: XMP Setting in BIOS for memory overclock.
FLAC3D 9.00.161 and FLAC 7.00.159
THM problem (config T & H)

  • Operators run at maximum CPU
  • Thermal runs at maximum CPU (set mech, flow off)
  • Flow runs at maximum CPU (set mech, thermal off)
  • Mech runs at 5% of CPU (set hydro, thermal off)
    ISSUE w MECH Solver when raising clock on memory about default values. Tested on two of these identical systems only.
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Hi, and thanks for the info.

@ddegagne, I see that you are using machines running on Windows.
Do you also use the Linux versions of Itasca softwares?

Thanks for your answer!

Regards

Théophile

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Hi @Theophile. For the most part Itascans use Windows OS to run models. Do you have any questions about working with #linux? - Cheers, Dave

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Hi @ddegagne.

Thanks for your answer!

I do not have any question about Linux versions since we’ve been happy with the Windows builds so far.

I was just curious if you had a chance to compare Windows and Linux versions and observed any performance increase.

Regards

Théophile

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Hi @Theophile. The Linux version isn’t necessarily any faster. Although you can see a number of benchmark tests for both Windows and Linux machines one our Benchmark site, or even run your own.

We’ve added Linux in order to eventually support cluster computing (modeling one model across several machines); with the added benefit of supporting academic institutions who are currently running Linux systems. Plus Linux is a less expensive OS than Windows for cloud computing applications.

Cheers - Dave

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Hi @ddegagne

Thanks a lot for the info and for the link to the benchmarking tests !

Regards,

Théophile