[BioC] Thoughts on computer purchase

[Seth Falcon]

"Lance Palmer" <lance.palmer at stonybrook.edu> writes:

> I will get to purchase a new computer and have about $3500.  Ijust wanted
> some advice on a couple options.  Ideally I would want something that would
> be optimal for things such as Bioconductor and Genespring.
>
>  
>
> In general, I will probably get a system with 4G of RAM and will probably
> use the 32 bit Windows XP Pro OS.

Are you sure that Windows will be able to use that 4GB of RAM?  If you
read posts to this list and to R-help you will see many threads
discussing how to get a Windows system to access more than 1.5GB or
so.  No such threads for Linux; its memory system is much more useful
for scientific computing.

> If I get the systems lower on the list I could get a 256MB graphics card,
> instead of 128.  How big of a difference will this make compared to the
> difference in processor power?  Also I could get two monitors with some of
> the cheaper processors towards the bottom.  
>
>  
>
> Also I believe the systems towards the top have more maximum memory
> available (if I go to 64 bit system)
>
>  
>
> Any thoughts?

Go with a 64-bit system.  
Consider running a 64-bit flavor of Linux.
Graphics card memory will almost certainly be irrelevant.

+ seth