[3dem] Upgrade K2 server to improve Serial EM data collection speed on the 200kV microscope

[Lifei Fu]

Dear all,

Our microscope data collection speed is about 100-150 movies/h with the old K2 server,

Each movie saves frames in Dose Fractionation mode in TIFF files with LZW compression with the unsigned 16-bit integer, each shot
takes usually 16-21 sec according the recording time, including the exposure time (5-7s), Camera timing, movie compressing and
saving, 

Some other groups can collect the movies faster with K2, at the rate about 160-200 movies per hour.

We think the old K2 server has the hardware limitations. The image acquisition time can be reduced with more powerful GPU, in the
process for the compression and storage, display time. 

Here is the hardware configuration of old K2 server (guess assembled in 2012) :

CPU: Intel E5-2690 Xeon 8 Core processor 2

(2,9 GHz, Sockel 2011, 20MB Cache, 135 Watt, Cores 480, Bus Width 128 bit) 

RAID controller: LSI MegaRAID SAS 9271-8i RAID Controller Card (8 PORT 6GB/s SATA + SAS,PCI Express 3.0)

SSD: Intel 200 GB SSD SC S3700 Series 2,5", 6Gbps ( X8 = 1.6TB) 

HDD: Western Digital WD Re WD2000FYYZ 2TB SATA Hard Drive, 6.0Gbps 7,200 RPM

GPU: AMD FirePro V4900 Grafikkarte (1GB, GDDR5 Speicher, 1 GPU)

Ethernet Adapter Chipset :

1. ASIX AX88178 USB 2.0 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Chipset

2. Intel X540-T2 Dual Port 10G RJ45 Ethernet Server card (2x RJ45, PCIe Gen2.1 x8)

3. Myricom Myri-10G Network Adapter 2 ports 10G

Is it easy to replace and GPU, such as like replacing on the slot 4 with a single-height graphics card, PNY Quadro RTX 4000
Graphic card 8GB GDDR6 

or should we upgrade with the powerful CPU, high speed SSD capacity, which is compatible with the old mainboard too ?

Do you have any better advice that how to upgrade the K2 server and improve data collection speed ? 

Thanks

Lifei
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