Posted by
Chris Tully on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/Ratiometric-FRET-on-Fluoview-tp7579865p7579918.html
*****
To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy*****
Arvydas,
I have always felt and still feel that when buying a new computer the most
important question is how much can you afford to spend? Once you answer
that question, the next is what will get you the most bang for the buck?
For image rendering most of the gaming systems install very high end video
cards so that most of the rendering calculations can be off loaded to the
GPU. I am only currently aware of some very specialized and usually custom
applications in image analysis that can take advantage of GPUs. The biggest
bottle necks in image analysis have been memory access. Windows 7 Pro 64
bit allows access to 192 GB of memory so that bottle neck is largely gone.
I would expect the remaining bottle neck to be CPU speed.
My order of preference for maxing performance would be:
1. Enough memory to hold at least two copies of the largest image I
expect to process on a regular basis fully in live memory.
2. Best CPU you can afford, keeping in mind that multithreading
capabilities of the software you will be using. Most image analysis
programs are still single threaded as far as I know.
3. I don't worry too much about SSD's because in my experience image
access time is less of an issue than swapping (which we just eliminated
with 1.). Instead I would put my money into a decent SATA card with RIAD 5
capability and at least three drives for data integrity. Given that images
are constantly getting bigger and experiments also seem to be getting
bigger (meaning that we are seeing more and more images per experiment) I
would also look for the highest capacity storage solution.
4. Given the number of dialogs most imaging applications have I think
multiple monitors are a given, the only question being two or more?
As for buy vs build, my general rule of thumb is if the computer is at
least 50% mine then I will build it; if it is less than 50% mine then I
will buy one from a major vendor and include a service contract in the
purchase so I don't have to support it. Keeping in mind that the more other
people use a computer the less I know about what is happening on the
computer and the harder it is for me to support.
Chris Tully
Microscopy and Image Analysis Expert
[hidden email]
[hidden email]
240-475-9753 (c)
[image: View my profile on LinkedIn]<
http://www.linkedin.com/in/christully/>
On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Arvydas Matiukas <
[hidden email]>wrote:
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy> *****
>
> Dear listers/microscopists,
>
> I assume there is good time to update new trends in
> image analysis hardware. The last discussions on image
> analysis computer were in 2006-8. Though the basic
> principles of CPU, RAM, hard drive, video card, monitor
> selection still hold some new types of hardware became
> popular/available, e.g. SSD drives, APU, water cooling.
> Now a decent gaming computer (~$1k) has the processing power
> of a 2006 expensive workstation (~$20K). I was suprised that
> I was able to completely overhaul my 8 year old ATX case
> to a quad core 2GHz APU, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, 160GB SATA-2
> SSD, water cooling, USB3 and SATA3 Gigabyte motherboard,
> and 4 monitor 1GB video card.
> for under $300 (online, after rebates).
>
> Now I am wiling to upgrade/overhaul my work computer which
> is used to run ImageJ, Fiji, Deconvolution (Autoquant, Huygens),
> Matlab, PV-Vawe, Labview, Origin. Please advice/share you thoughts
> what best configuration is possible to buy for $2-3k (monitor
> excluded).
> My first choice would be to go with a fast gaming computer, e.g.
> Dell-Alienware Aurora
> Windows* 7 Ultimate, 64Bit, English
> 2nd Generation Intel* Core* i7-3820 (10M Cache, Overclocked up to 4.1
> GHz)
> 16GB (4 X 4GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
> NVIDIA* GeForce* GTX 660 1.5GB GDDR5
> 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA 6Gb/s) Solid State Hybrid
> 19-in-1 Media Card Reader
> No Monitor
> Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
>
> The second choice would be to buy all components online and
> build a computer myself (I have done this about 50 times over
> 25 years). This option typically saves money or buys better
> components,
> and provides you full specs of the hardware. The con of this
> approach is that it wastes some of your time to debug/make all
> the hardware work together and with your software. However,
> as the computer is for me not just a box but a tool I am ready
> to make this sacrifice.
>
> BTW, is there any solid preference towards CPU Type (Intel ix/AMD/Intel
> Xeon)
>
> Thanks for your input/advice/thoughts,
> Arvydas
> --------------------
>
>
>
>
> Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
> Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Core
> Department of Neurosci& Physiology
> SUNY Upstate Medical University
> 766 Irving Ave., WH 3167
> Syracuse, NY 13210
> tel.: 315-464-7997
> fax: 315-464-8014
> email:
[hidden email]
>