Re: st: Best laptop specifications to run version 9.0 and 10

[David Kantor <kantor.d@att.net>]

At 03:45 PM 10/2/2008, Adrian wrote:
> [...]
>
> I want to know what are the best specifications for a laptop in 
> order to run Stata with a big dataset, that keeps growing.  I am not 
> doing a lot of statistical simualtions, but from time to time need 
> to run some marginal effects for logits/ probits and when I RESHAPE 
> some of the databases, it takes over 20 minutes in my current laptop 
> (over 3 years old).
>
> One of the main issues i am facing in my current laptop, is that if 
> keeping other applications running (excel, or outlook) makes stata 
> to fail to save files back in my hardisk
>
> Laptop is important because I telecomute and mobility is a plus.  I 
> guess the question can be framed as what is more important RAM 
> versus proccessor speed?  Or AMD versus Intel processors?  Speed of hard disk?
>
> is there any other configuration specification that I am overlooking?
>
> I you have bought a new laptop recently to run stata, i appreciate 
> if you can let me know the particular specs and budget
>
> thanks
>
> Adrian
Let me step around your question. When you experience these episodes 
of slow performance, you might be using virtual memory. If so, then a 
memory upgrade may be what you need, rather than a whole new 
computer. Generally a memory upgrade can significantly improve 
performance in many situations, and is much more economical than 
getting a new computer.

You said that the presence of other applications causes Stata to fail 
to do certain things. That shouldn't happen; it might slow thing down 
to a crawl, but it shouldn't cause any other effects within Stata. If 
that's really happening, I'd call it an operating system problem.

On the other hand, when I need to use large amount of memory, I'm 
inclined to close down all those other applications (and run only one 
instance of Stata) -- to avoid those problems.

If you do get a new computer, and if you run procedures that involve 
a lot of temp files (e.g., -reshape-), then you may want to go for a 
fast hard drive.

If you do get a new computer, and it's a PC, you may be forced into 
getting Vista, which some people find to be a disadvantage. That's a 
whole other story.

HTH
--David

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