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Re: Hardware question

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg60317] Re: Hardware question
  • From: Ronald Bruck <bruck at math.usc.edu>
  • Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 06:06:50 -0400 (EDT)
  • References: <dfp4ca$icf$1@smc.vnet.net> <dfrg7q$fol$1@smc.vnet.net>
  • Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com
In article <dfrg7q$fol$1 at smc.vnet.net>, David Bailey
<dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk> wrote:

> 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.

How long--and how wide :-)

I have the fastest AMD chip in existence, the FX-55 (unless the FX-57
is now available), but I couldn't find a mother board that could take
more than 4GB of RAM.  (And if I put that much in, it would only see
3GB of it--a limitation of the bridge chip.)

Also, does even Linux x86-64 allow 8GB without tweaking?

--Ron Bruck
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