Re: [PyMOL] Graphics Workstation

[Roger R. <rro...@ma...>]

Buz Barstow wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I'm considering purchasing a new graphics workstation for molecular
> graphics and macromolecular refinement. I'm considering buying a
> machine with 2 quad core xeon processors, and a nVidia Quadro FX
> graphics card with 1.5 Gb of memory.
>
> Can the current generation of software, and maybe the next generation
> of visualization software, make use of a system with so many
> processors, or am I better off spending the money elsewhere?
>
> Thanks! and all the best,
>
> --Buz
>
>
>
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>   
Pymol will use all 4 cores of my Q9300 processor, but most XRD 
applications (CCP4, O, EPMR, etc.) will only use one core at a time 
currently. Of course, with more cores, you can run more jobs at once 
without significant penalty (depending on how memory- or disk-bound they 
are). I built my last Linux workstation around a very inexpensive DG35EC 
Intel motherboard and a value-oriented Intel Q9300 quad-core CPU, and 
attached a 9600GT graphics card (non-stereo-enabled) and a 24" LCD 
panel. For less than $1500 this configuration is pretty quick for 
routine crystallography tasks. You don't really need much in the way of 
hardware for XRD data processing. For image processing and movie-making 
in Pymol, for example, the extra cores really shine, though.

Cheers,


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger S. Rowlett
Professor
Colgate University Presidential Scholar
Department of Chemistry
Colgate University
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