Hello ,

I want to buy an IPC station with PCS 7 V9.0 software,but it is very expensive!!

(SIMATIC PCS 7 IND.WORKSTATION IPC847D

Core i5-4570TE - ES / OS Single Station RAID1, 1 TB (2 x 1 TB HDD SATA, data mirroring);0.5 g Vibration, 5 g Shock;internally mounted 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM (2x 8 GB), Dual Channel,(CP1623),

PCS 7 V9.0 + SP2 pre-installed, Win 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB, 64bit, 110 / 230V industrial power supply with Namur;PS cord Europe)

I have some question:

1- I want to know what mean PCS 7 V9.0 preinstalled?

2- Do I also buy the PCS 7 V9.0 software or is the preinstalled enough?

3- If I buy a regular HP PC, how do I replace the PCS 7 V9.0 preinstalled?

Cordialement.

It will be better if you get PCS 7 Pre-installed station because

1. Come with image restore DVD for your CLIENT. 

2. ensure your PCS 7 successfully installed without any weird issue happened during the installation. 

3. disk partition will be configured based on the PCS 7 readme guideline.  Power option will be configured. 

4. not worth the engineering time to troubleshoot the PCS 7 installation in case the pcs 7 installations failed or have some issues in the future during development. with the pre-installed, you will less likely doubt on the installation issue. 

If you purchased pre-installed PCS 7 V9.0 SP2, yes, you do not need to purchase the software media package for PCS7 V9.0 SP2 anymore. But if you would like to upgrade to PCS 7 V9.0 SP3, then you will still need the software media package for the latest service pack. 

Hope it is useful for you.  

Hello Oreca and Jaz Tai,

So, If I buy my own PC

1- You have to download the software for free and install it?

2- I only buy the PCS 7 V9.0 software license ?

Thank you for help

Yes, if you buy your own PC, you have to buy a software media package (Or borrow from your colleague?) and buy software licenses. 

Remember to read the PCS 7 bible first. 

Read me

Licenses related

After you installed pcs 7 , you may update the software to latest service pack/hotfix

Software Update

Frankly speaking, I do not like IPC647D/847D. They are an old model. However, IPC647D carried a lot of certification which is needed by a lot of industries. 

So, if your industry does not require certain certification, you should select a better model like IPC647E / 847E. 

This is the IPC847D spec that I used for the engineering station. The reason I chose IPC847D instead of IPC647D is that 847D has more rooms for expansion of Network Adapter. I used 847D for Engineering station. For OS Server and OS Clients, I chose IPC647D instead.   

6ES76606GW203BE6

SIMATIC PCS 7 Industrial Workstation IPC847D; (Rack PC, 19", 4HU), Interfaces: 2x Gbit LAN (RJ45), 1x DVI-I, 2x Display Port; 1x COM, 2x PS/2, Audio; 2x USB 3.0; 2x USB 2.0 on rear, 1x USB 3.0; 1x USB 2.0, on front; 1x USB 3.0 internal; Temperature and fan monitoring Watchdog; card retainer; Xeon E3-1268LV3 (4C/8T, 2.3 GHz, 8 MB cache, TB, VT-D, AMT); ES/OS Single Station; RAID1, 480 GB (2 x 480 GB SSD (EMLC) SATA, data mirroring) in removable frame, hot-swap; on front; 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM (2x 8 GB), Dual Channel; BCE; PCS 7 V9.0 SP1 pre-installed Windows 10 IoT Enterprise 2015 LTSB, 64 bit, MUI (en, de, fr, it, es, cn) Bus module 11 slots: 3x PCI, 3x PCIE X4, 5X PCIE X16, DVD +/-RW (slim); + multi monitor 2 screens VIA Onboard interfaces + 1x adapter cable (Display Port according to DVI-D); 2 x 110/240 V redundant power supply unit; Without power supply cable

Hello,

But, what about price and quality comparison between IPC Work station and ordinary HP Work station.

Because the customer requested three proposals on the specifications (Siemens, HP and DEL) 

Thank you,

Hi, 

Here are the link for PCS 7 Catalog

PCS 7 Catalog

If you look at page 28, it explains the benefit of IPC workstation. 

I used Dell workstation before. In term of specification, I think Dell/HP is better than Siemens IPC in term of hardware specifications. But my experience of using Dell system back in the year 2014 was not that good. In term of reliability for "PCS 7 software", I prefer IPC workstation as I seldom faced weird PCS 7 Installation issue. 

IPC647D/IPC847D is "Proven in use" and tested for compatibility in PCS 7 environment. When do network adapter/graphics card expansion, we know which part number to purchase and guarantee the compatibility. Our documentation such as installation manual, drawings and system is based on IPC, hence, less engineering efforts in the documentation.

1. Pre-installed PCS 7 IPC workstations gave you troublefree PCS 7 system with recovery CD ready for the customer.

2. You may find the BIOS Configuration， IPC manual, Firmware Update in the same Siemens platform.

3. Pre-configured SIMATIC Profile in PCS 7 IPC workstation. 

4. When weird behaviour happened on the PCS 7 system/ IPC workstation, we can look for IPC Department Siemens Technical support. Or you can ask for support in the forum. 

Conclusion, if you want better spec, look for other brands. If you want fewer troubles/configuration work / spent less engineering efforts, use IPC. 

Hope it helps.