The Mac Pro I've been using is the standard 4-core 2.67 GHz model
with 2 Gb of RAM and the X1900 video card. I've used it for many
different tasks, including rendering movies of virus capsid expansion
in Chimera, using a multi-threaded and multi-core enabled version of
CNS compiled by Dave Gohara, and occasionally running Windows via
Boot Camp and Parallels. It has run perfectly with no heat problems
at all (fans remain at slow speeds, very quiet); thus, I highly
recommend this workstation. It is a fun challenge to keep it busy
because of it's speed and I generally run out of RAM before I've
utilized all four cores. If your whole group will use it constantly
(or with multiple parallel processing apps), it might be worth
getting 8 cores, but be sure to load it with enough RAM (e.g. average
job size x 8 for single core jobs).
I haven't run a lot of Coot or O on it, so can't give specifics
there. Also, I try to keep up with Apple hardware and software
related news since we have a number of their machines now. I haven't
run across any items related to the X1900 video card, so can't
comment on that either. So far so good with this one.
Cheers,
Jeff
On Apr 24, 2007, at 10:23 AM, Mischa Machius wrote:
Y'all - We are currently contemplating the purchase of a couple of
Mac Pros. Apple has three graphics cards available. Initially, I
was leaning towards the ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB, but read a lot
of horror stories about that card overheating when taxed. I was
wondering if anyone had such a setup and how it fares regarding
general crystallographic work, i.e., running Coot, O, Pymol, etc.
Would the NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT be a better choice? I don't think
we'll be going for the NVIDIA Quattro FX 4500. Also, I would
appreciate it very much if anyone is willing to share their
experience with other graphics cards, or to discuss whether it is
worth getting an 8-core machine as opposed to a 4-core. Thanks so
much. Best - MM
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Mischa Machius, PhD
Associate Professor
UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
5323 Harry Hines Blvd.; ND10.214A
Dallas, TX 75390-8816; U.S.A.
Tel: +1 214 645 6381
Fax: +1 214 645 6353
