Re: [ccp4bb] off topic: advice for crystallography workstation/server

[Roger Rowlett]

Ronnie, The main rub is that any of the graphical software will have to be run on the local CPU to take advantage of accelerated video graphics. The approach I've taken is to have a central server (which is actually my office workstation) that serves up a home and software directories to satellite workstations that then run software on their own CPUs. Users get a portable desktop this way. The data traffic to my server is actually quite low. I'm running Linux, though. My central server (which is really nothing special in terms of hardware) has extra disk storage and a quad-core CPU, and handles the nightly backups. The clients all have dual core CPUs and their own accelerated graphics cards. Cheers. On 12/15/2010 11:26 AM, Ronnie Berntsson wrote: Dear all, We are currently considering buying a computer which can be used by multiple people, via our existing network, as a workstation for crystallography purposes. My thoughts are currently going towards a 8-core Apple Pro (or 12-core) with a lot of RAM, with OS X Server, which in theory should be able to handle multiple (up to 4) users simultaneously running crystallography software. The idea would be to have the users access this computer using their own laptops (starting their own virtual sessions?) connected to the same network. Does this sound like a viable strategy, or should it be setup in a different way? In that case how? Would it need advanced setup and maintenance, or would it be possible to jsut set up a number of user accounts in OS X Server, and let it run? I'm reasonably computer savvy, but haven't really done something like this before, so I would very much appreciate your advice or personal experiences regarding this matter. I know that I could probably get a cheaper computer if I went for a pc with linux, but I have more experience with OS X, and would therefore want to stay with it. Thank you in advance, Ronnie Berntsson ---------- Ronnie Berntsson, PhD PostDoctoral Fellow Department of Biochemistry Groningen Biomolecular Sciences and Biotechnology Institute & Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials University of Groningen Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, The Netherlands -- Roger S. Rowlett Professor Department of Chemistry Colgate University 13 Oak Drive Hamilton, NY 13346 tel: (315)-228-7245 ofc: (315)-228-7395 fax: (315)-228-7935 email: rrowl...@colgate.edu