<p>Dear community,</p>
<p>I'm planning on buying a new macbook for my first abroad postdoc venture, and I'm currently trying decide what amount of RAM & CPU to choose. My question is a little bit intricate: is there any rule of thumb to estimate the needed RAM versus the number of input atoms for any particular refinement type?</p>
<p>I'm planning on tackling some big (18,000 residues/asu) refinements but I don't have any estimation as to how many GBs of RAM they might require. The maximum amount of RAM I can install is 16GB, but it is a non-standard configuration that might void Apple's warranty.</p>
<p>About the CPU: how scalable are typical phenix processes? Would it be sensible to invest in a quad-core machine with HT? In this particular case, and since HT would present 8 logical cores, would I get any speed up from launching phenix tasks configured for 8 processors instead of 4?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance!</p>
<p>Jon</p>