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post #61 of 67
9/29/10 at 1:06am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milpool View Post
Here is some more information on some of the software I'll use:

NetBeans / JDK (for java coding)
gcc / some other C/C++ compilers
GDB / DDD for debugging
MPICH2 (message passing for parallel coding)
Python and Fortran are probably good ideas due to the availability of Fortran stuff, and the ease/speed of throwing together something in Python.

Matlab

Paraview

Various other math packages.

With that in mind anyone have thoughts on hardware specs? I'd rather not buy more hardware than I'll need, yet it seems like I'll be able to use every bit of hardware that I buy.

If you are only using this for compiling and running math simulations, there are many custom choices available to you as well as pre-built solutions. Dell, surprisingly, has a very strong computational desktop: http://www.dell.com/us/en/enterprise...0&cs=555&s=biz . That should give you an idea of what you may want to look into. As much as I love AMD and hate Intel, unless you're going to get a server motherboard and put on a few of their amazing Opteron chips, stick to the Xeon.
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post #62 of 67
9/29/10 at 7:13am
Thread Starter 
I'm strongly leaning towards buying complete. However, I'm wondering if anyone can give me some idea on how to spec the machine.

On my laptop I ran a battery of statistical tests that ensures everything is operating properly and that my software installation is ok.

It took just about 2 clock hours to run on a Core 2 Duo 2 ghz processor with 1 gb of ram (WinXP3). This was run on the command line with the output getting written to files instead of the display.

It was a relatively light test, so I'm really looking to drive that time down. How do I figure out what the bottlenecks were and figure out what needs to be faster or bigger or better when I buy the workstation?
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post #63 of 67
9/29/10 at 9:38am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milpool View Post
I'm strongly leaning towards buying complete. However, I'm wondering if anyone can give me some idea on how to spec the machine.

On my laptop I ran a battery of statistical tests that ensures everything is operating properly and that my software installation is ok.

It took just about 2 clock hours to run on a Core 2 Duo 2 ghz processor with 1 gb of ram (WinXP3). This was run on the command line with the output getting written to files instead of the display.

It was a relatively light test, so I'm really looking to drive that time down. How do I figure out what the bottlenecks were and figure out what needs to be faster or bigger or better when I buy the workstation?

The problems with your machine will be two-fold (well, more factors come into play, but I'm going to assume you have a SATA 3.0 hard drive, so bandwidth to/from the hard drives won't be the limiting factor). When you do lots of calculations and operations, you quickly use your memory up -- doing any sort of complex analysis on 1GB of RAM is a commendable feat, because your hairs will gray. Your first problem was simply that, unless you're unloading your memory after every call, you're going to quickly burn through it all. And even if you are unloading it, you have to waste the extra time reading/writing to the memory. The second issue is scalability. Did you use Matlab's built in parallelization function? Otherwise, especially in WinXP, you may not be getting the most available processing power for your dual core. If you take a look at the machine I showed you, throw some research funds at it and buy some memory that you can install [on your own, Dell's memory is batshit expensive]. It should last you several years and speed up your runs to be in the 30 minute range (or less) if you optimize your algorithms.
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post #64 of 67
9/29/10 at 10:56am
lol, Dell as this option on their Precision T7500n Dual Processor machine:

192GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1066MHz, ECC (12 DIMMS) [add $47,645.00]

LOL they want $41 for essentially an $18 DVD-RW drive...

I say that since this will be used for work, go with a Dell or similar machine. You do not want to deal with OEM manufacturers if shit breaks, which can take weeks. You want Dell to send someone out the next day to replace parts. That alone will be worth it.

I agree to get something dual processor and skimp on the ram from Dell. Buy and install your own ram and you'll be good to go.
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post #65 of 67
9/29/10 at 5:16pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by deadly7 View Post
The problems with your machine will be two-fold (well, more factors come into play, but I'm going to assume you have a SATA 3.0 hard drive, so bandwidth to/from the hard drives won't be the limiting factor). When you do lots of calculations and operations, you quickly use your memory up -- doing any sort of complex analysis on 1GB of RAM is a commendable feat, because your hairs will gray. Your first problem was simply that, unless you're unloading your memory after every call, you're going to quickly burn through it all. And even if you are unloading it, you have to waste the extra time reading/writing to the memory. The second issue is scalability. Did you use Matlab's built in parallelization function? Otherwise, especially in WinXP, you may not be getting the most available processing power for your dual core. If you take a look at the machine I showed you, throw some research funds at it and buy some memory that you can install [on your own, Dell's memory is batshit expensive]. It should last you several years and speed up your runs to be in the 30 minute range (or less) if you optimize your algorithms.

On these runs, Matlab wasn't used. I'll basically only use Matlab for post experiment analysis. The actual calculations are done using various proprietary software. I'm using the standard Win binary right now, and I don't see much advantage to compiling it using VC++ on my laptop, especially since I plan on getting the workstation relatively quickly.

Obviously, on the workstation, I'll compile several versions using different compilers and optimizations to find the most efficient setup while being accurate and precise. I'll be on Linux for that.

The key I'm getting at is where the money is best spent. If this is a zero sum game, how do I find the optimal balance between processor and ram? Obviously, with unlimited funds, maxed out CPUs and maxed out RAM is the answer. Unfortunately, I don't have unlimited funds, nor am I drawing in enough consulting business at this point to throw a big wad of cash at it without doing some serious analysis first.
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post #66 of 67
9/29/10 at 5:20pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by whiteslashasian View Post
lol, Dell as this option on their Precision T7500n Dual Processor machine:

192GB, DDR3 RDIMM Memory, 1066MHz, ECC (12 DIMMS) [add $47,645.00]

LOL they want $41 for essentially an $18 DVD-RW drive...

I say that since this will be used for work, go with a Dell or similar machine. You do not want to deal with OEM manufacturers if shit breaks, which can take weeks. You want Dell to send someone out the next day to replace parts. That alone will be worth it.

I agree to get something dual processor and skimp on the ram from Dell. Buy and install your own ram and you'll be good to go.

Yeah, support is going to be a big deal for me. I plan on buying Red Hat just for that reason. I want people I can call and get shit done because I'm a paying customer.

I'm really an math guy, and know enough software and coding to do the math work I need to do. I really don't know how to spec hardware though and that is what I'm struggling with now. Guessing at which processor(s) and how much ram is likely to waste money and be inefficient.
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post #67 of 67
9/29/10 at 5:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Milpool View Post
Yeah, support is going to be a big deal for me. I plan on buying Red Hat just for that reason. I want people I can call and get shit done because I'm a paying customer.

I'm really an math guy, and know enough software and coding to do the math work I need to do. I really don't know how to spec hardware though and that is what I'm struggling with now. Guessing at which processor(s) and how much ram is likely to waste money and be inefficient.

Why don't get a middle of the road (for those Precision workstations anyways) Dual Proc setup and 8gb of ram to start. That way you know you're getting some pretty good processing horsepower and can easily upgrade the ram as needed (though I'm not sure how many DIMM slots are on those Dual Proc boards, I assume 6)
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