Re: Re: $10K Mathematica Machine
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg77022] Re: [mg76935] Re: $10K Mathematica Machine
- From: Arturas Acus <acus at itpa.lt>
- Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 05:32:26 -0400 (EDT)
- References: <f3gqm6$41g$1@smc.vnet.net> <200705300923.FAA13236@smc.vnet.net>
Dear Mark Tr, 2007 05 30 05:23 -0400, Mark Westwood ra=F0=EB: > Scott > > I will happily sell you the excellent computer on my desk for $10K > > but if that isn't an attractive enough offer I would look at these > factors: > > a) Go 64 bit > b) processor speed -- the faster the better; > c) RAM -- more is better; > d) there is no d in my list. > > So, just buy the fastest 64-bit processor you can find, and stuff as > much memory into the can as you have dollars left to spend. Salvage a > keyboard, mouse and CRT from an old PC and away you go. Don't forget > a Mathematica licence. > > I haven't done any comparison of Mathematica on different O/S's, > though others have and you might like to consult their data, do a > search in this group for performance comparisons. > > I'd need some convincing that multi-core processors are a necessity or > even a nice-to-have. The big question would be 'does Mathematica take > advantage of multi-cores for the kinds of computation that I am > doing ?' And I'd want to see some data on this. Well, we use Mathematica on 2 procesor motherbord with two core processors (Xeon) each. Slamd64 linux box sees 8 processors (hyperthreading effect). The main advantage is that this machine continuously run 3-4 processes (some Mathematica, some image processing, 99.99% cpu each) and this completely have no effect on intensive file system usage (copying, Dvd burning, etc). I was so greatlly exited about this unexpected behaviour, that all our other choices will be only dual core machines. Together with hardware virtualization support this opens really new possibilities for the same price. You wont believe, but for machine described above (hardware only price) we payed ~$2K. Actually we have just installed one more cheaper machine ~1K. core-duo processor. We run two OS on this machine (both linux, one 2.6 (host), othe 2.4 (guest) kernels: ScientificLinux4.4 and ScientificLinux3.08). The machine is intended to be used as a grid CE and SE elements + nfs server). So far I just can say that guest system (CE) works fine using kernels virtual machine module. The performance is great. As far as concerns Mathematica performance. Even if it doesn`t use more that 1 core, the other core would enable You to have normal response desktop for your other work! This is most important if your computations will run for weeks (like mine). Thats the point! Sincerely, Arturas Acus > > Regards > Mark Westwood > > > > On 29 May, 10:10, Scott <sguth... at gmail.com> wrote: > > I have $10K to spend on a computer dedicated to running Mathematica. > > I mostly do long number theory computations with lots of very big > > integers and rational numbers. I seek to do bigger ones faster. > > > > Your suggestions as to the nature of the best computer configuration > > for this purpose are solicited and greatly appreciated. > > > > Cheers, Scott > > -- Arturas Acus <acus at itpa.lt>
- References:
- Re: $10K Mathematica Machine
- From: Mark Westwood <markc.westwood@gmail.com>
- Re: $10K Mathematica Machine