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Re: Hardware question

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg60259] Re: Hardware question
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 04:06:59 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <dfp4ca$icf$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Manuel Schmidt wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> does somebody know, what hardware is best for a huge mathematica
> calculation, that needs lots of memory? 
> I think of minimum 8GB memory and the fastest possible processors
> (probably opterons???).
> 
> However, it should be a personal computer. 
> 
> Is it better to run it under Linux or Windows?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Manuel Schmidt
> 
Hello,

Really, that is equivalent to the question "How long is a piece of string".

One thing that is important is that if you are going to get 8GB of 
memory, you must make sure you install the 64-bit version of Windows (or 
whatever) and the 64-bit version of Mathematica - otherwise, most of 
that memory will just sit there idle.

I would tend to go for Opterons, if only because AMD took a big risk in 
introducing a rational 64-bit architecture and forcing Intel to follow 
them - they deserve to get the business!

Before spending a lot of money, it may be worth getting someone to look 
at your code because it is very easy to write Mathematica code that 
works, but is horrendously inefficient.

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk