Any newer computer in general should have the cpu horsepower to run the BeerBotz system well. The application is capable of using 4 cpu threads simultaneously (multi-threaded), so choose a cpu with at least 4 threads (eg. Intel Core i5, i7, or AMD equivalent). Also, desktop systems are always faster than their laptop counterparts. This is because laptops are designed to provide an acceptable speed using the lowest possible power/battery usage.

The cpu power/speed becomes an issue only when the Excel spread sheet becomes large (many rows). Each time you add a row, Excel recalculates all of the cells in the entire spreadsheet. If the BeerBotz system tries to add a row during this process the app will notice that Excel is unavailable. The BeerBotz app will then do a back-off of the sample rate (eg. it will go from 60 samples/minute to 30 samples/minute). The faster the cpu, the greater the row number at which this occurs.

You can test this! Try setting the samples/minute to 60, and the samples to combine to 10 (10 second row generation). Run the data acquisition until you get a sample rate back-off. Next do the same test with samples to combine set to 20 (20 second row generation). It will do a sample rate back-off at a greater number of Excel rows. These results will differ depending on the cpu power/speed of your system.

It is recommended to use 5 minute row generation (samples to combine = 300) during batches, so this issue is greatly minimized.