AW: AW: Xeon vs i7 and ECC vs SDRAM

From: Norman Geist (norman.geist_at_uni-greifswald.de)
Date: Wed Jun 25 2014 - 01:47:38 CDT

> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: Gianluca Interlandi [mailto:gianluca_at_u.washington.edu]
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. Juni 2014 08:15
> An: Norman Geist
> Cc: Namd Mailing List
> Betreff: Re: AW: namd-l: Xeon vs i7 and ECC vs SDRAM
>
> Dear Norman,
>
> Thanks for your explanations. I think that I am leaning towards the
> Xeon
> server. I am still undecided though about the video card. Lenovo gives
> me
> only choices of NVIDIA quadro for their Thinkstation, but I'm not sure
> it
> is worth it to spend $700 more for the K4000 (or $400 for K2000). If

No.

> I'm
> just using it for visualization (no CUDA computing) does it bring any
> advantage to have anything faster than e.g., a quadro K600? Later on,
> if I

No.

> want to do any CUDA computing I can always add an inexpensive GeForce
> GTX
> card.
>

Yes. ;)

> The alternative is to replace the quadro card that comes with the
> Thinkstation with a higher end GeForce GTX right from the beginning,
> but
> I'm not sure whether it is worth it, if I'm only using it for VMD
> visualization (max 200,000 atoms).
>
> Thanks!
>
> Gianluca
>
> On Wed, 25 Jun 2014, Norman Geist wrote:
>
> > BTW. all modern RAM is SD, ECC enabled or not, that?s the history:
> >
> > SRAM = Static RAM : +very fast -very expensive (used eg. in Caches)
> > DRAM = Dynamic RAM : -slower than SRAM (CPU must wait for refreshes)
> +much
> > cheaper
> > SDRAM = Synchronous DRAM +faster than DRAM (CPU don't need to wait
> for
> > refreshes, as synchronized) +still cheaper
> > DDR-SDRAM = Double Data Rate SDRAM ...
> >
> > Regarding your question, Xeon is a workstation/server CPU while i7 is
> a
> > consumer CPU. Therefore Xeon is more expensive but also more
> reliable. The
> > ECC feature does improve that even more. A Xeon won't wonder about
> 24/7 use,
> > I wouldn't put my shirt on the i7 in this regards. In case of
> performance, I
> > think there's no major difference.
> >
> > BUT, if you want to run NAMD and VMD on this machine, why not taking
> more
> > care about getting a strong Nvidia GPU?
> >
> > Norman Geist.
> >
> >> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> >> Von: owner-namd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu [mailto:owner-namd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu] Im
> >> Auftrag von Gianluca Interlandi
> >> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 25. Juni 2014 03:03
> >> An: NAMD list
> >> Betreff: namd-l: Xeon vs i7 and ECC vs SDRAM
> >>
> >> Dear NAMD users,
> >>
> >> I need to purchase a new workstation for trajectory analysis, i.e.,
> >> using
> >> VMD and NAMD. I am leaning towards Lenovo but I am undecided between
> a
> >> Thinkcentre and a Thinkstation. The former comes with i7-4770 and
> non-
> >> ECC
> >> memory, the latter with e.g., Xeon E5-1620 v2 and ECC memory.
> >>
> >> The first question is: does Xeon (in particular the larger cache)
> bring
> >> any advantage for running VMD or NAMD? Is it generally true that
> Xeon
> >> run
> >> cooler and thus more stable than i7?
> >>
> >> The second question is: is it worth to pay for ECC memory when I
> plan
> >> to
> >> have a maximum of 16 GB? I know that there is a lot of debate about
> >> this.
> >> Since I plan to run the server 24/7 my main concern is stability.
> >>
> >> The last question is: does it make sense to have a Xeon CPU with
> non-
> >> ECC
> >> memory or would it be a waste? I have read that for example SDRAM is
> >> the
> >> safest non-ECC memory and it would be a lot cheaper.
> >>
> >> I would appreciate any opinions on this.
> >>
> >> Thanks in advance!
> >>
> >> Gianluca
> >>
> >> -----------------------------------------------------
> >> Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
> >> +1 (206) 685 4435
> >> http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/
> >>
> >> Research Scientist at the Department of Bioengineering
> >> at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> >> -----------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
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> >
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
> +1 (206) 685 4435
> http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/
>
> Research Scientist at the Department of Bioengineering
> at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> -----------------------------------------------------

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