http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/PC-requirements-tp7587774p7587788.html
speeds, several times slower than PCIE. The only dual Xeon board I have
three x8) and I have read unfavorable opinions on its reliability. I am
advantage. In terms of CPU power it basically doesn't matter, a
for the dirty work. If you need multiple add-on cards (and huge amounts
of RAM), however, dual Xeon is a must. If the computer will be doing
motherboard that has dual M.2 (PCIE) slots. Use the money saved (by not
> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy> Post images on
http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
> *****
>
> Dear Craig,
>
> There are few motherboards which can fill your need. For example, Tyan S7070 A2NR-M2 has an M.2 slot and 16 DIMM slots with maximum 512GB total RAM.
>
>
http://www.tyan.com/Motherboards_S7070_S7070A2NR-M2 <
http://www.tyan.com/Motherboards_S7070_S7070A2NR-M2>
>
> Also, many motherboards for AMD Threadripper has 8 DIMM slots and M.2 socket even though they are single CPU system. As an example, check
>
>
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-ZENITH-EXTREME/ <
https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/ROG-ZENITH-EXTREME/>
>
> The maximum RAM capacity is limited to 128GB but the board can take ECC RAM, which is a must feature (at least for me). AMD Threadripper offers nice CPU core count with decent floating point performance at a lower price.
>
> Best,
>
> Satoru
>
>> On Jan 15, 2018, at 9:02 AM, Craig Brideau <
[hidden email]> wrote:
>>
>> *****
>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy>> Post images on
http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>> *****
>>
>> Comment on the M.2 drives: They are significantly faster than SATA SSDs,
>> but for full speed the motherboard must support NVMe which is a dedicated
>> protocol for M.2 drives featuring a dedicated slot on the motherboard.
>> Annoyingly, most dual-CPU-socket 8-DIMM slot motherboards don't feature
>> this, so it is not an available option if you also want >64GB of RAM. If
>> anyone happens to come across an NVMe board that also has 8-DIMM slots
>> please let me know!
>> I use an M.2 NVMe for a system at home and it boots absurdly fast with only
>> an older i5 core.
>>
>> Craig
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 8:06 AM, Menelaos Symeonides <
[hidden email]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> *****
>>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>>>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy>>> Post images on
http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>>> *****
>>>
>>> Hi Peter,
>>>
>>> If you have ever built your own PC, or know someone who has, you can
>>> benefit greatly from building it custom. Off-the-shelf systems can be
>>> upmarked considerably and often use outdated components or skimp on
>>> important things like a good power supply. Of course, the benefit of that
>>> would be presumably a warranty on the whole system, in case you are not
>>> able to diagnose things yourself, but if you build a custom system, each
>>> component will come with its own warranty. It would just be up to you to
>>> determine which component is faulty and claim the warranty on it yourself.
>>>
>>> I recently built such a computer for light sheet data acquisition and
>>> processing/analysis. Here is the configuration:
>>>
>>> Motherboard: Asus Z10PE-D16 WS
>>> CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2650 V4 (x2)
>>> CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12DXi4 (x2)
>>> Memory: Samsung M393A2G40EB1-CRC 16GB DDR4 2400MHz ECC-Reg (x8 = 128 GB
>>> total)
>>> OS drive: Samsung 960 EVO 500GB M.2-2280 SSD (on a PCIE M.2 adapter
>>> because the motherboard runs its onboard M.2 at SATA speed)
>>> Data drive: Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SATA (6 drives in RAID10 configuration)
>>> Video card: GeForce GTX 1080 Ti 11GB
>>> Case: Phanteks Enthoo Primo
>>> Power supply: EVGA SuperNOVA P2 1200W 80+ Platinum
>>>
>>> You will obviously also need monitors, keyboard, mouse, Windows license,
>>> and some kind of data server - you should assume that you will not be
>>> storing your data on this computer if you are generating 1TB datasets. I
>>> got a Synology DS1817+ 8-bay NAS with a 10GbE adapter and loaded it with 8
>>> Western Digital Gold 10TB drives (WD101KRYZ), and run them in SHR2
>>> (basically RAID6, for double-parity, i.e. you can lose two drives and still
>>> be able to recover). I also got a 10GbE adapter for the workstation PC,
>>> this allows utilization of the maximum transfer rates the RAID array is
>>> capable of, which is 3-4 times faster than standard Gigabit Ethernet. This
>>> data server is costly but, for light sheet data, basically necessary if
>>> your institute does not provide substantial data storage.
>>>
>>> Another thing to note is that component prices can fluctuate quite a bit.
>>> I bought the video card in the summer for under $740. Right now they are
>>> out of stock everywhere (1080 Ti of any brand), and when they are in stock,
>>> they go for anywhere up to $2,000 (you have bitcoin mining to thank for
>>> that). You can get a Titan Xp for less than that now so the
>>> price/perfomance advantage of the 1080 Ti is no longer there, but look for
>>> the Titans to also disappear off the market really quickly as mining
>>> expands higher up the range.
>>>
>>> All told, I spent around $9,000 for the workstation and $4,500 for the
>>> data server. Comparable off-the-shelf workstations cost around $12,000 -
>>> $15,000 (and possibly even more now with the GPU market up in the air and
>>> RAM prices currently rising), and off-the-shelf data servers of similar
>>> capacity would cost much more than that.
>>>
>>> Assembly and setup of the PC was not trivial, so you will want someone
>>> with experience to help you. Workstation (Xeon) motherboards can be very
>>> finicky, and the installation manuals for some components can be pretty
>>> incomprehensible. Also be aware that if you need multiple PCIE slots
>>> available for data acquisition cards etc., the GPU only takes one but
>>> actually occludes at least one more slot (my card took up three slots
>>> total) so your choice of case/card should be made carefully. I ended up
>>> cutting a hole in the back panel of the case and mounting the GPU
>>> vertically with a 2-slot PCI bracket and PCIE riser cable, as I needed
>>> every last PCIE slot on the motherboard. Some cases come with vertical GPU
>>> mounting positions, but some of those will block the regular PCIE slots, or
>>> will be incompatible with SSI-EEB format motherboards (which is what most
>>> dual CPU boards will be).
>>>
>>> Good luck!
>>>
>>>
>>> Mel
>>>
>>>
>>> On 1/15/2018 7:22 AM, Owens, Peter wrote:
>>>
>>>> *****
>>>> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
>>>>
http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy>>>> Post images on
http://www.imgur.com and include the link in your posting.
>>>> *****
>>>>
>>>> Dear listers,
>>>>
>>>> I am looking into purchasing a high end image processing PC , that will
>>>> be capable of processing large multidimensional data sets up to 1 TB in
>>>> size.
>>>> Does anyone have any recommendations on a PC configuration that would be
>>>> suitable?
>>>> Do people build custom PCs or buy off the shelf?
>>>> Are high spec gaming PCs up to this task?
>>>>
>>>> thanks for any advice on this .
>>>>
>>>> all the best
>>>>
>>>> Peter
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Peter Owens
>>>> Centre for Microscopy and Imaging,
>>>> National University of Ireland Galway.
>>>> P: +35391494036 m: +353863326749
>>>> W: www.imaging.nuigalway.ie e:
[hidden email]
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>> Menelaos Symeonides
>>> Post-Doctoral Associate, Thali Lab
>>> Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
>>> University of Vermont
>>> 318 Stafford Hall
>>> 95 Carrigan Dr
>>> Burlington, VT 05405
>>>
[hidden email]
>>> Phone: 802-656-1161
>>>