Posted by
Frederick Ross on
URL: http://imagej.273.s1.nabble.com/Advices-on-computer-hardware-tp3701254p3701255.html
On 10/19/06, Christophe Leterrier <
[hidden email]> wrote:
> I would like to get answers to the following question : what would be
> the best choice for a post-aquisition, image processing computer ? It
> will run ImageJ and possibly other image processing and visualization
> software (depending on the OS). I'm wondering which processor,
> archirtecture, OS to choose (let's say I have to keep it under 5000€,
> possibly less, so no fancy workstations here):
Shouldn't be hard to keep the price below this. I do most of my image
processing on an old Powerbook, though that has started to feel kind
of constrained, and I dropped $1500 for a souped up Dell. Now if
you're doing rotation of 3D surface renderings in real time you need
slightly more, but not hugely so. Though if you're planning to run
Huygens on massive time lapse videos of 3D stacks, you'll want to drop
in the neighborhood of 5000 for a big ol' quad processor machine.
> - what about 64 bits architectures ? Are the OSes ready yet (XP, Vista,
> OS X, Linux ?) Can I expect a real difference in speed ? Are the
> applications already optimized (I've heard about Volocity 64, I've heard
> about the problems for ImageJ) ?
The OSes have been ready for a long time (well, I don't know about
Windows, but Linux has been running on 64 bit architectures for well
over a decade at this point). You can't expect a difference in speed
from having 64 bits. Indeed, it will make very little difference to
your perception of speed. If you were doing high precision integer
calculations, it would get you out of the arbitrary precision package
more often, and it makes boxing/unboxing issues in pure functional
languages slightly nicer, but for just churning through 16 bit
unsigned integer data, it's completely indifferent.
> - PC or Mac ? Are the new Mac Pro an option ? What are the options for
> high-end PCs ?
The Macs are pretty, but if you intend to write your own code, they're
very hell to program on. I keep a Linux installation next to OS X on
my Powerbook for this purpose, but I unfortunately use MATLAB quite a
bit at the moment and their Linux version is only for x86
architectures. You'll get a really pretty computer for the price from
Apple, but you'll get every bit as much computer for half the price
from one of the PC vendors. Also, OS X doesn't manage memory well, so
you will have to restart from time to time to clear it out if you're
going through large datasets. Linux is in many ways a better option,
unless you're attached to OsiriX. 2D graphics in Java at this point
is much slower on OS X than on Linux, though I think that's supposed
to be rectified soon. ImageJ certainly feels faster on Linux.
> - To what features and specs should I particularily pay attention,
> keeping in mind the image processing use (RAM, writing speed of hard
> disks, others ?)
Frontside bus speed, disk speed, and RAM size are the three that
you'll notice. You also probably want to indulge in a nice video
card. If you go a route where there's driver support and you're
planning to do 3D, a volume rendering board might be a good option.
--
Frederick Ross
Graduate Fellow, (|Siggia> + |McKinney>)/sqrt(2) Lab
The Rockefeller University
Je ne suis pas Fred Cross!