Re: st: hw advice wanted

[Jeph Herrin <junk@spandrel.net>]

In addition to what Neil suggests:

1. Clock speed matters, get at least 3gHz

2. I've purchased a number of high end machines
   over several years from XiComputer. They seem geared
   more towards the engineering/data market, have very good
   service, and will sell pre-installed Linux (saving
   lots of driver hassle not to mention $ on the OS).

3. Depends on what other applications you want to run.
   Linux is rock solid and very fast, but it's a nusiance
   if you want to use Excel very often. Of the Win OSes,
   64bit XP seems to be recommended over Vista, but since
   I have stuck with the former, I can't say for sure.

hope this helps,
Jeph


Neil Shephard wrote:
> Richard Goldstein wrote:
> > I am starting to plan the purchase of my next machine and am
> > looking for advice, comments, help (etc.).
> >
> > I am just starting to receive some very large data sets
> > (received 1 TB so far) and thus I want a machine that
> > includes at least the following:
> >
> > 64 bit
> > at least 32 GB of RAM (more if I can afford it)
> > several TB of internal hard drive
> >
> > my questions:
> >
> > 1. what other criteria, if any, should I be using?
> Fast bus speeds, these are the speeds at which data is transferred
> between components (such as HD >  Motherboard > RAM).
>
> > 2. are there name vendors that supply such machines or will
> > I need to go to a place that builds them to order? Names of
> > vendors appreciated
> Can't help there I'm afraid, but details of the country your
> located/purchasing in would help.
>
> > 3. what OS????
> I'm not too up-to-speed on the current state of Vista, but I'd hazard
> that with 64-bit and 32Gb RAM you'd be best suited with some sort *NIX
> variant, although if you're not familiar with them it may involve a
> learning curve to get used to the OS (although not with Stata itself
> since this is virtually identical across platforms).
>
> Neil
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