Re: Advice for offline image analysis computer

Posted by Craig Brideau on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Advice-for-offline-image-analysis-computer-tp1109084p1110992.html

Oh, just remembered something regarding step 4; don't use 'found new hardware wizard'; the driver cd should pop up an installer when you put the disk in so use that.
Also, you might be wondering how you can open the CD drive to put in the driver disk for the CD drive opening button on the keyboard... In 'My Computer' right click on the DVD drive and choose 'eject' from the drop down menu to open the drive. @:-)

Craig

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 5:26 PM, Craig Brideau <[hidden email]> wrote:

No performance slowdown whatsoever; Mac has gone with Intel processors now, so XP runs natively even though it's 'mac' hardware.  A little driver CD comes with the machine to help you install XP:

Step 1, make sure you have the driver CD (comes with your mac)
Step 2, make sure you have a copy of windows XP (32 or 64 bit -pick one)
Step 3, run bootcamp (either comes with your mac under utilities somewhere or you can download it from the mac site)
Step 4, Install windows XP; this is where you need that driver CD.  When the 'found new hardware wizard' comes up looking for motherboard and video card drivers just point it at this driver CD.  It even installs a function so that your mac keyboard and mouse will work properly with all the buttons enabled. (This is important since the DVD drive eject button is only on the keyboard!)

During the Bootcamp install the system will let you partition your HD into Leopard and Windows partitions (default is a 50/50 split but you can change this during setup).
Once you're done with bootcamp and have installed windows on the new partition you can choose to boot into either Windows or Leopard.  When you boot, hold down the 'option' key and a screen appears which lets you select what partition you want to boot from; one Windows, the other Leopard.  It's also possible to add Linux, although there's a couple other steps to get this to work.  Check around on the web first for Linux tips if you choose to go that route.

I strongly suggest printing out the help document that comes with bootcamp before you do the install.  It has a step-by-step procedure in it you should follow closely.

Craig

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 4:19 PM, <[hidden email]> wrote:

Hi Craig,
So, no compromises on performance running WinXP on the MacPro?
thanks,
Rosemary

-----Original Message-----
From:   Confocal Microscopy List on behalf of Craig Brideau
Sent:   Tue 9/23/2008 3:56 AM
To:     [hidden email]

Cc:
Subject:        Re: Advice for offline image analysis computer

We use Mac Pros with eight cores.  Mine dual-boots into WinXP and in this
mode it works quite beautifully with Matlab, ImageJ, and Zemax (an optical
modeling program).  We also have a few in-house utilities for Mac (works
with Tiger or Leopard) called ImageTrak and MasterlabDB for image analysis
(ala ImageJ but better for our use) and Database management.  Again these
run quite well on the Mac Pro.  Leopard is 64 bit native, but I'm using XP32
at the moment.  If I get more RAM in my machine (current only 4GB) then I'd
need to switch to XP64, or hopefully Windows 7 when it eventually comes out
will be native 64 bit.

Craig


On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 9:42 AM, Jon Ekman <[hidden email]> wrote:

>  I would recommend the Vista 64bit, 8 core with an Open GL "workstation
> grade" video card and 16GB of RAM. Eventually the software you use will grow
> into multi-core processing. Ignore the GPU options they are mainly for 3D
> graphics and games.
>
>
>
> As for Video, Nvidia Quadro cards and ATI Fire GL cards are the way to go
> with 256MB-512MB of RAM for a new science imaging analysis workstation. We
> build all our own workstations here with Quadros (FX 1500 and FX 3450s
> mainly) and use RAID striped drives 2-4 disks (500GB to 1TB each disk) we
> place 4GB RAM (XP) -16GB RAM (Vista). We also use Intel boards for our
> single processor systems(2-4core) and Supermicro boards for our dual
> processor machines (4-8cores). We stopped using AMD CPUs about 3 years ago
> in favor of Intel. We also use 600W to 800W power supplies to feed these
> systems.
>
>
>
> Hope this helps.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
>
>
> Jonathan M. Ekman
>
> Imaging Technology Group
>
> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
>
> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
>
> 405 N. Mathews Avenue
>
> Urbana, IL 61801 USA
>
> Tel: [phone]
>
> Fax: [phone]
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Confocal Microscopy List [mailto:[hidden email]]
> *On Behalf Of *Christophe Leterrier
> *Sent:* Monday, September 22, 2008 3:33 AM
> *To:* [hidden email]
> *Subject:* Advice for offline image analysis computer
>
>
>
> Dear listers,
>
> I have to buy a new computer for our team that will be used as for offline
> image analysis. The software required (ImageJ, Metamorph, Matlab) require to
> build a Windows/Vista machine. The cost would be around $5,000 / 5000€. The
> job would be processing (a lot) and rendering. My questions are :
> - Should I go for a "traditionnal" computer, I mean a 32-bits, dual core,
> XP computer with maxed RAM (I guess it is 3GB or so) ? Is it usefull to go
> to more fancy stuff like 64 bits, 4 or 8 core, 8 to 16GB RAM machine ? Would
> ImageJ/Metamorph/Matlab really benefit from it (I would love to have an
> answer from the Metamorph/Matlab people) ?
> - What about graphic cards and GPU ? What is the best choice ? I've heard
> about new strategies to speed up processing by making the GPU churn data as
> well as graphics, but I don't think it is really commercially available now
> or implemented in commercial software yet.
>
> Thanks for your advices !
>
> Christophe
>