For future proofing your computing platform , I would go with a 64 bit system. You will not regret it. All crystallography applications live very happily on a 64bit platform .
There were a few teething troubles , but nothing an email to ccp4bb , phenixbb , coot or pymol newsgroups cant fix. We recently upgraded all our computers to 64bit Here we use two Mac Pros running Leopard OSX -64bit , after a few teething problems we are at equilibrium. Our third machine is a 64bit dual - quad- core , 16GB workstation from Appro Linux with a nvidia graphics card that they installed for us during the build and it does stereo ( Quadro 3450 bought from ebay for $250 OR Quadro 4600 newer version for a whole lot more $2300-major overkill) . It runs Ubuntu Hardy-Heron 64 bit , installed from downloaded iso image and almost minimal tweaking. Since most projects release builds for ubuntu , I am partial to Ubuntu . But Gentoo is also a great distribution. Just my two cents Hari On Tue, Nov 18, 2008 at 12:15 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I followed Kay's advice (after deciding that I knew better, of course, > but we won't elaborate on that :-) and I am very pleased AND have had no > trouble (knock on wood) to get everything working just fine. We make sure we > have both 64 bit and 32 bit libraries and so far everything has worked out > of the box, no hassle. And that includes coot. > > Mark > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kevin Cowtan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: CCP4BB@JISCMAIL.AC.UK > Sent: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 3:21 am > Subject: Re: [ccp4bb] Crystallographic computing platform recommendations? > > And I would give exactly the opposite advice, unless you are or have a > guru who can devote time to fixing all the little things which still don't > work under 64 bit OSs. > > (Does anyone else have any clues on why 64-bit compiled coot can't > calculate a map? I need to look into it, but have a huge backlog of work at > the moment.) > > Kay Diederichs wrote: > > Dear Anna, > > > you didn't ask about that, but I would definitely recommend a 64bit > > operating system. > > > My specific recommendations are mostly in the articles > > "Computer_hardware" and "CentOS", to be found under the more general > topic > "Xtal_computing" of the CCP4 wiki > (< > http://strucbio.biologie.uni-konstanz.de/ccp4wiki/index.php/Xtal_computing>) > > > > HTH, > > > Kay > > > Anna S Gardberg schrieb: > >> Dear list, > >> I haven't seen the "crystallographic computing platform" thread come >> > up for a while, and I've got a chance to upgrade my desktop to a >> > workstation, so I thought I'd ask the CCP4BB for advice on: > >> > >> 1. Mac vs. Linux (which flavor?) vs. Windows > >> 2. Graphics cards > >> 3. Displays > >> 4. Processors - multiple processors, multiple cores? Speed? > >> > >> About half of what I do involves ~1.0 A X-ray structures - data >> > processing, rebuilding in Coot, refinement, and so forth - so my >> current > desktop (Optiplex GX745, Radeon X1300) machine drags on >> graphics > sometimes. I don't seem to need stereo these days, for what >> it's worth. > >> > >> Anybody have suggestions or specs they'd like to share? Thanks in >> > anticipation of your advice. > >> > >> Regards, > >> Anna Gardberg > > > > > ------------------------------ > Instant access to the latest & most popular FREE games while you browse > with the Games Toolbar - Download > Now!<http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212904500x1200818240/aol?redir=http://toolbar.aol.com/games/download.html?ncid=emlweusdown00000004> >
