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Re: Hardware recommendations

Posted by Gabriel Lapointe on Mar 17, 2009; 8:54pm
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Hardware-recommendations-tp3693269p3693274.html

>
>> Personnaly I would build my own Desktop. [...]
>
> I looked into that but since it is a university purchase we are kind
> of forced into some of the big brands... The computer shop that was
> doing custom things and was contracted by the university now send
> ready-made Lenovo configurations :( Hence my choice for Lenovo BTW.
> Otherwise we basically have the choice between Dell and Apple.
I was suspecting that kind of things. We suffer from the same plague.


> In addition, an issue I have with building it from scratch would be
> compatibility of parts and support by Linux. I did that a few years
> back and Linux support took 6 month to come, with the next kernel. We
> don't have that kind of time. But a few years might be centuries in
> Linux time and maybe the days of kernel recompiling are long gone now!
I never complied Linux kernel, I started using linux in 2007. It is true
that hardware support for bluetooth devices, iphone and the latest 3D
graphic cards is still a bit sketchy but for the essentials there is no
problem.



>>> - fast harddrive (SAS?) [...]
>> Go for multiple fast (usually small) Sata II and put them in RAID0.
>> [...] not be used
>> for long term storage, go for Raptors (Western Digital) they are the
>> fastest around but they have a small capacity.
>
> I was thinking about 2 SAS 15000 rpm in RAID 0 and a big external
> storage. These seem faster than the Raptor (10000 rpm) or is there an
> inherent difference between SAS and SATA that I am overlooking?
Last time I check, SAS drive and interface card were more expensive. My
understanding is that they are good for things like database server but
I'm not sure they are worth it on an imaging workstation. But I maybe
wrong. It takes only a couple of seconds to load my stacks (400-800 Mb)
from a 4 disk at 7200RPM RAID5 array (ext3). I would ask myself if it is
worth the extra cost.


>
>>> - Mac OS X or Linux
>> Custom build mean Linux, it's also free, takes less resources and is
>> more secure than Mac-OSX. Peace of mind and better performance come
>> sometimes at the price of more configuration. But free also means more
>> money for better hardware.
>
> I am OK with Linux ;)
> I was kind of surprised however by how relatively "cheap" the Macs are
> for what you get inside. I built some configurations identical to a
> Mac Pro with Dell and Lenovo and both are more expensive than the Mac
> Pro (>$4500 vs $4000 for the Mac!), while still making compromises on
> some components (slower RAM, less ports, not as good monitors, etc.).
Comparing big brand to big brand it is true that, for the quality, Mac
are often cheaper than the others.