Hardware configuration examples¶

Here is XIMEA tested hardware configuration that works.

Our internal tests were run on this setup with Win10 x64 OS:

Motherboard : ASRock MB Sc LGA2066 Fatal1ty X299 Gaming K6, Intel X299, 8xDDR4
Memory : Corsair Vengeance RGB series, 2x16GB, (1066.7 MHz)
Processor : Intel® Core™ i7-7800X 3,5 GHz 8,25 MB L3 LGA2066

Other configuration examples¶

Motherboard : MSI MPG Z390I Gaming Edge AC
Memory : 32GB DDR4-3600 (Dual Channel)
Processor : Intel® Core™ i7-8700 3.2 GHz 6-Core LGA 1151 12 MB

Note: Newer configurations, based on Intel chipsets from the Haswell, Broadwell, Coffee Lake and Skylake generation, as well as AMD X399 and X570 are compatible.

Copper Cable option¶

• xiB-64 PCI express Gen3 camera
• 3-7m, PCIe Gen.3 x8, copper cable: CBL-PCI-X8G3-COP-3M0
• PCIe Gen.3 x8 extender host adapter for copper cables: PEX8-G3-X1-IOI
• xiB-64 power supply 24V: BACS30M-24-C8
• 3m xiB-64 series I/O Sync and power cable: CBL-MT-PWR-SYNC-3M0
• (optional) Canon 50mm EF-mount lens with EF-mount adapter or C-mount lens with adapter
• (optional) xiB series tripod mounting bracket: MECH-60MM-BRACKET-T

Optical/fiber cable option¶

• xiB-64 PCI express Gen3 camera
• 10-50m, PCIe Gen.3 x4, fiber optics cable: CBL-PCI-FIB-10M0
• PCIe Gen.3 x8 extender host adapter for fiber optics cables: PEX8-G3-X1-DOL
• xiB-64 power supply 24V: BACS30M-24-C8
• 3m xiB-64 series I/O Sync and power cable: CBL-MT-PWR-SYNC-3M0
• (optional) Canon 50mm EF-mount lens with EF-mount adapter or C-mount lens with adapter
• (optional) xiB series tripod mounting bracket: MECH-60MM-BRACKET-T

Power supplying options¶

There is a possibility to supply power to the camera directly from the PC without the need to use a power supply.
If you have a Firewire connector on your PC motherboard, you can use, for example, this Firewire=>12V cable:

http://newnex.com/straight_firewire.php

If you don’t - you can install a Firewire Adapter Card and again use the same cable.
Alternatively, you can search for a similar cable for eSata – they should also have 12V on the connector (pin12-13)

General recommendations¶

Overall, the computer requires an available PCIe Gen3 x8 interface slot, and those 8 lanes need to be free for camera use.
The CPU is less important, but any newer Intel i7 or Xeon processor or any of the AMD Ryzen or Epyc models would be preferred.

The image data is written directly into the RAM (DMA style) and that implies that a large amount of RAM is always helpful.
It is also possible to move the data directly from the RAM to a storage device, but for the high bandwidth, very fast hard disks are a must.
Typically, an array of NMVe drives (PCIe based SSDs) can be used.
These cameras produce around 4-6GB/s, which means that at least two NMVe drives with 2-3GB/s write speed (sustained) will be required.

For testing and experimenting with all the parameters XIMEA offers our free viewer application, called CamTool
This tool also allows loop recording into the RAM and to multiple disks.