Recently, I had to place an order for a work desktop (and of course you all know that I work with neuroimaging data). So, I had to specify the minimum requirements that I needed in the system. Anyone who has done something like this before would understand the complications (and the joy) associated with this.
There are a number of parameters to choose from especially when you don’t have a very strict restriction of money. This is complicated by the fact that there are no guidelines that tell you how to proceed. Since, I went through this (and had nothing else to do), I decided to write this post about how I went ahead with the specifications. Note: Following are mere guidelines!! First of all, you need to ask certain questions. 1. Type of work: What kind of data processing do you require? Does your work include basic fMRI processing (resting state and task related), structural analysis, DTI analysis or connectivity analysis etc. Certain kind of analysis would require more processing and RAM while others don’t. My work involves basic task related analysis of fMRI data as well as some structural analysis. 2. Amount of Money: How much money are you allowed to spend? This might sound trivial, however, money is a very big constraint and you would preferably try to reduce the costs (I will give both high end as well as less expensive options both of which should work fine). 3. Assembled or not? Do you have the required technical skills to assemble a desktop from basic parts? In most cases, this may not be valid, as most of you would have a purchase/technical store that would get assembled computers from manufactures. Getting an assembled configuration gives you lesser choices but is already optimized by the provider company so that you don’t have to worry about compatibility issues. So here are my recommendations. I believe it’s always better to get a system better than your current requirements (as they are sort of investments and are not bought frequently). The three things that you need to pay the most attention to are : CPU, RAM, Graphics card. CPU: There are two major providers of CPU- Intel and AMD. I personally don’t have experience with AMD processors. Intel produces a large variety of CPU processors and there are a number of them to choose. The most famous being the i series processors for laptops and desktops. What you should prefer, however, are the Intel Xeon processors. These are workstation processors designed for stability and continuous work (which I believe most of the neuroimaging folks would relate to!!). Xeon processors are classified according to the series (no surprises there!!). E5 I believe are the latest (as of March 2014). CPU benchmarks (passmark) is a great tool to know how the processor you have chosen performs compared to other processors in the market. You should also check their price performance (compared to price how good they are). My choices for the CPU: 1. Intel Xeon E5-1660 v2 @ 3.70GHz 2. Intel Xeon E5-1650 v2 @ 3.50GHz 3. Intel Xeon E5-1650 @ 3.20GHz 4. Intel Core i7-4930K @ 3.40GHz RAM: RAM is a critical component of the system and you would require lots of it especially for neuroimaging analysis!! Generally, the more the better. A RAM of around 16 GB (preferably divided as 8x2 or better 4x4 ) should work for most of the analysis. Also, it’s important to get the latest and the best in the technology. I would suggest getting DDR3 (third level of RAM technology) at 1866MHz. My choice: 1. 16 GB DDR3 1866MHz Graphics Cards: Many researchers would say that graphics cards are not necessary component of a neuroimaging system. However, recent advances in image processing and use of heavy visualization softwares requires using atleast a mid level graphics card. It’s important to note that while many of us would be tempted to get the best graphics card from GeForce or Tegra or Tesla (mostly so that the system can satiate our gaming needs as well!!) , Quadro are the preferred graphics cards for neuroimaging analysis. These are designed to be workstation graphics cards and are stable and can work continuously for hours. My choices: 1. NVIDIA® Quadro® K2000 2GB GDDR5 CUDA core 2. NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000D 3. NVIDIA® Quadro® 600, 1 GB, 96 CUDA cores, There are other requirements that are not so critical like hard disk, operating system, monitor. But they depend more on your preference. I would recommend 2 mechanical Hard disk 1TB or 2TB each (SSDs are new, not so stable, have had issues with Linux!!). I personally prefer Ubuntu 12.04 (Long term support) and a high resolution 23 inch (1920x1080) monitor. I took considerable help from these additional resources: 1. http://www.reddit.com/r/neuro/comments/1f94nu/building_a_pc_for_neuroimaging_data_analysis/ 2. https://sites.google.com/site/mritutorial/iii-neuroimaging-workstation-tutorials/tutorial-1-hardware-recommendations (has suggestions for dell based systems and other suggestions) 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV3YBhrD_D4 4. http://www.newegg.com/ 5. http://cpuboss.com/ 6. www.nvidia.com/content/quadro_fx_product.../TB-04631-001_v04.pdf
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About meI am a neuroscientist working on social cognition. (I was told not to be fancy.) Archives
June 2016
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