Close



Results 1 to 7 of 7
  1. #1
    Student
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Oxford, UK
    Posts
    12

    Computer(s) for 3D Printing

    Removed all formatting - pse ignore

  2. #2
    Student
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Oxford, UK
    Posts
    12
    A quick Q.

    What specs do I need for:

    1. CAD design and slicer on a laptop.
    2. Running the printer and doing a job.

    So my aim is to do all the design work on PC1 - and Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 i5/8MB/SSD 256GB.

    And then transfer printing file to PC2, a second laptop, to do the actual printing in a different location.

    So trying to work out what I need for this??

  3. #3
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    you are much better off doing nthe actual printing from an sd card.
    So no actual second computer needed :-)

    If you use openscad for design - any machine will do it.

    I'm currently using an amd Athlon 300g and 16gb ddr4 (overkill - but I wanted dual channel for the console emulatiors I play)
    Basically openscad speed is dependant on single core clock speed and to get a significant speed boost over my £45 apu I'd ned to spend around £200. And even then it would on;ly sped up rendering by about 20%.
    Given that it's now 5x faster than my previous workshop computer - I'm happy.

    But yeah basically any machine will design and slice.

    Printing from sd card or usb stick (depends on machine) is faster, more reliable and easier than pissing about trying to print over usb - windows 10 is not great at that and I find that the usb ports get reset during any print over about 10 minutes.
    Usb is useful while dialling in settings - but no use at all for actual proper useage.

    Also if you still want to go down the usb route - get a raspberry pi 3 or 4 and use octoprint :-)

  4. #4
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    I think,you're thinking laser cutters. I actually built a little pc server for my k40 and that also woirks well.

  5. #5
    Student
    Join Date
    Nov 2020
    Location
    Oxford, UK
    Posts
    12
    SD card would be fine and easy. Happy with that.

  6. #6
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    Most boards come with micro sd slots. Some screens have full size sd card slots - I've got a couple of these plugged into my two mashines that have micro sd card slots.
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/LANMU-Exten...0-e4b4f9bb89cd

    Plus you only need a small old sd card. My sapphire pro card is 2gb - currently got about 50 sliced models on it for a total of 184mb :-)
    I'll wipe it soon as it gets a pita to keep scrolling through to find the print you want.

  7. #7
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Posts
    8,818
    you buy a mini itx board wityh chip and ram from ebay for about £30.
    Screw that to an a4 sized sheet of plywood.
    Then attach a mini psu and a small network switch, I used an old 128gb ssd I had lying around.
    But yoiu can buy them for about £20.

    And that's it :-)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •