Beckhoff C6920 Industrial Control Computer Selection and Expansion Guide

Beckhoff C6920 Control Cabinet Industrial Computer Selection and Expansion Configuration Guide

In the field of industrial automation control, the computing power, scalability, reliability, and environmental adaptability of the controller directly determine the performance boundary of the entire control system. The Beckhoff C69xx series control cabinet industrial PC, with its compact aluminum casing, flexible multi generation processor selection (6th/7th generation Intel Core i7/i5/i3/Celebron), rich onboard interfaces (4 x USB 3.0, 2 x Gigabit Ethernet, DVI, RS232), and optional dual PCI/PCIe expansion slots, has become an ideal hardware platform for TwinCAT automation software operation. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the hardware architecture, processor and memory upgrade path, storage medium selection strategy (HDD/SSD/CFast comparison), PCIe/PCI expansion card installation specifications, RAID 1 data redundancy configuration, and UPS battery pack configuration scheme of the industrial computer based on the technical manual C6920-0060. It will provide a full stack technical reference for system integrators and on-site engineers from selection planning to deployment and maintenance.

Chapter 1: Overview of Product Positioning and Hardware Architecture

1.1 Core positioning of control cabinet industrial PC

C6920-0060 belongs to the Beckhoff C69xx series of control cabinet installation industrial PCs, designed specifically for mechanical engineering automation scenarios that require compact size, high computational density, and flexible scalability. Its core design philosophy can be summarized as "three highs" - high performance, high scalability, and high reliability. This model uses a 3.5-inch Beckhoff independently developed industrial motherboard, with all interfaces (4 x USB 3.0, 2 x Gigabit Ethernet, 1 x DVI, 1 x RS232) located on the same side of the chassis for easy wiring inside the cabinet.

Quick overview of physical parameters:

Dimensions (excluding mounting plate): 65mm (width) x 235mm (height) x 121mm (depth)

Weight: Approximately 1.9kg (basic configuration)

Protection level: IP20 (only applicable for installation inside enclosed control cabinets)

Installation method: Optional rear wall mounting plate or right side wall mounting plate (switched through option C9900-M653)

Heat dissipation method: The right panel is equipped with built-in heat dissipation fins, supporting fanless operation, and the maximum ambient temperature can reach 55 ° C

1.2 Key differences between different generations of processors

The basic configuration of C6920-0060 is equipped with the sixth generation Intel Celeron G3900TE (2.3 GHz, dual core), but can be upgraded to multiple sixth or seventh generation processors through factory selection. It is worth noting that processor upgrades are not just about computing power - seventh generation (Kaby Lake) processors require Windows 10 64 bit or Windows Server 2016 operating systems to no longer support Windows 7. This detail is particularly important when migrating old systems.

Option code, processor model, number of cores, TwinCAT 3-level operating system limitations

Basic configuration Celeron G3900TE 2.3 GHz 2 TC3: 50 None

C9900-C607 Pentium G4400TE 2.4 GHz 2 TC3: 50 None

C9900-C608 Core i3-6100TE 2.7 GHz 2 TC3: 60 None

C9900-C618 Core i3-7101 (T) E 3.4 GHz 2 TC3: 60 requires Windows 10 64 bit or Server 2016

C9900-C609 Core i5-6500TE 2.3 GHz 4 TC3: 70 None

C9900-C619 Core i5-7500 (T) 2.7 GHz 4 TC3: 70 requires Windows 10 64 bit or Server 2016

C9900-C610 Core i7-6700TE 2.4 GHz 4 TC3: 80 None

C9900-C620 Core i7-7700 (T) 2.9 GHz 4 TC3: 80 requires Windows 10 64 bit or Server 2016

Selection Tip: TwinCAT Level 3 (TC3: 50/60/70/80) reflects the relative performance level of the CPU in real-time tasks. The higher the level, the more stringent the number of supported axes or cycle cycles. The quad core i7 (level 80) is suitable for complex motion control and large-scale data processing scenarios.

Chapter 2: Memory Expansion and Storage Media Configuration Strategies

2.1 DDR4 Memory Capacity and Upgrade Path

The basic configuration of C6920-0060 is 4 GB DDR4 RAM, but it can be expanded to a maximum of 32 GB through factory options:

Option code capacity description

C9900-R270 8 GB replaces 4 GB, suitable for medium-sized visualization and logic control

C9900-R271 16 GB suitable for multi axis motion control and local database caching

C9900-R272 32GB recommended for large data processing, virtual machine deployment, or complex HMI projects

Engineering constraint: Memory upgrades must be optional at the factory and do not support users to replace them on site (involving motherboard BOM changes). It is recommended to determine the memory capacity based on the TwinCAT project scale and third-party software requirements at the beginning of the project to avoid subsequent factory upgrades.

2.2 Storage medium selection: HDD vs SSD vs CFast

The basic configuration of C6920-0060 includes one 2.5-inch hard drive/SSD slot and one CFast slot. The configuration can be changed to 2 CFast slots (abandoning 2.5-inch disk slots) through options C9900-D190. Each of the three storage media has its own applicable scenarios: