Hi Collin, If you prefer both fast system and 3D coot or pymol, using Linux. I do not know if you can set up 3D in Mac. On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 9:47 PM, Ray Changrui Lu wrote:

Dear Colin,

I agree with everything Tim and Kay said above. i5 or i7 of the same frequency and core count will perform similarly with Xeons (even across all generations of intel core/xeon processors). Adding more cores will help the refining process (under linux and mac only), but unless the computer is being used simultaneously by multiple users, I do not see the cost-effectiveness in running a 36-core/72-thread dual Xeon E5.

As to the OS choice, another interesting point regarding cost arises. Top performance Mac you can buy as of April 2016 is a 12-core 2.7Ghz Xeon (a 3-year old processor), setting you back a whooping 9000 USD. With the help of a tech-savvy student or postdoc, you can easily build something that runs circles around that mac pro with 1/3 of the cost. However you will have to live with Linux, which is not half bad if you get used to it.

I personally still prefer OSX and I run an old dell optiplex with a quad-core i5 (apple won't be happy but it is their fault for not updating their product). It only took me half a day to put OSX and all crystallization software I need on it and everything run like a dream. Due to the lack of performance and high price of Mac Pros, if you want a fast Mac, building a hackintosh is your only choice as of today.

Hope it helps.

Changrui

On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 3:57 AM, Kay Diederichs < [email protected]> wrote:

...

Colin,

check out the first option in the FAQ at https://www.phenix-online.org/documentation/faqs/refine.html

A core i7 and a Xeon of the same generation are equally fast if their frequency is the same. The main differences are that - Xeon E3 supports ECC memory (most core i* don't) - Xeon E5 supports Dual-CPU (core i* is just one) - Xeon E7 supports multi-CPU and is very expensive - most Xeons don't have built-in graphics whereas most core i* do There are many other small differences but most of them irrelevant; inspect the Wikipedia pages!

Xeons won't be faster with phenix.refine; a core i7 already has enough cores - to increase their usage you'll have to recompile as per the FAQ.

HTH,

Kay

...

Message: 1 Date: Mon, 11 Apr 2016 07:56:39 +0000 From: Colin Levy To: "[email protected]" Subject: [phenixbb] Hardward phenix.refine Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Dear all,

Having read the FAQ regarding hardware I have a few ideas but would

greatly appreciate any input from the community or developers.

...

Would anyone like to suggest the best configuration of hardware for

running phenix.refine? I mainly operate in OSX but have no issue with switching operating system if I can get a faster setup. My current thoughts are either something running a 4GHz Quad core i7 or an alternative would be a 3.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5 (iMac v Mac Pro) or equivalent Linux builds.

...

I know that the i7 is reasonably fast as I have this setup in a

different machine and phenix.refine runs reasonably quickly but as ever I would like it to be faster. Budget is not unlimited by any means but I would be interested in learning what an optimal setup might look like.

...

Many thanks,

Colin

Manchester Protein Structure Facility

Dr. Colin W. Levy MIB G034 Tel. 0161 275 5090 Mob.07786 197 554 [email protected]mailto:[email protected]

Manchester Institute of Biotechnology | University of Manchester |

3.020 Garside Building | 131 Princess Street | Manchester | M1 7DN

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