the high-end iMac is certainly a suitable computer, but a MacPro has
more processors, which I find useful in running different applications
in parallel or the same one with different parameters (i.e. refmac
with different weights, phaser with different starting models or copy
numbers). I admit there is some "let's think less and just try all" in
this approach though.
Mac is somewhat more expensive than Linux, but you save time
configuring the computer and installing software/drivers etc. is still
a bit more straightforward. Of course, if, unlike me, you like
building computers, Mac takes away this part of the fun...
Mark J. van Raaij
Dpto de Bioquímica, Facultad de Farmacia
Universidad de Santiago
15782 Santiago de Compostela
Spain
http://web.usc.es/~vanraaij/
On 17 Nov 2008, at 22:47, William G. Scott wrote:
Hi Anna:
I'd recommend Mac OS X or Linux over Windows as operating systems
compatible with crystallographic software. Linux flavors are a
matter of taste, but Ubuntu is popular (and free), and Gentoo is
another one worth looking at. Mac OS X uses a variant of FreeBSD
unix, and you can pretty much do anything with it that you can with
Linux, so it comes down to a matter of taste. If you go the Mac
route, you can also use Parallels or VMware to run windows and/or
linux in a virtualized environment nested within OS X should you
need to, so you don't have to give anything up. If you don't need
stereo, I would go for the largest iMac. That is now the fastest
computer in my lab.
Bill
On Nov 17, 2008, at 1:00 PM, Anna S Gardberg wrote:
Dear list,
I haven't seen the "crystallographic computing platform" thread
come up for
a while, and I've got a chance to upgrade my desktop to a
workstation, so I
thought I'd ask the CCP4BB for advice on:
1. Mac vs. Linux (which flavor?) vs. Windows
2. Graphics cards
3. Displays
4. Processors - multiple processors, multiple cores? Speed?
About half of what I do involves ~1.0 A X-ray structures - data
processing,
rebuilding in Coot, refinement, and so forth - so my current desktop
(Optiplex GX745, Radeon X1300) machine drags on graphics sometimes.
I don't
seem to need stereo these days, for what it's worth.
Anybody have suggestions or specs they'd like to share? Thanks in
anticipation of your advice.
Regards,
Anna Gardberg
