Re: Xeon vs i7 and ECC vs SDRAM

From: Gianluca Interlandi (gianluca_at_u.washington.edu)
Date: Tue Jun 24 2014 - 23:07:02 CDT

I need to update something. After searching around, I found that ECC
memory is actually not that much more expensive than non-ECC, when
purchased from third-party vendors. I wonder why lenovo charges an
enourmous price for memory upgrades. I guess that at this point my
question is just about xeon vs non-xeon for running VMD/NAMD on a
workstation.

According to cpubenchmark.com the i7-4770 is slightly faster than Xeon
E5-1620 v2, but I wonder whether the larger cache of the xeon makes up for
it in the case of molecular dynamics.

Thanks,

      Gianluca

On Tue, 24 Jun 2014, Gianluca Interlandi wrote:

> Dear NAMD users,
>
> I need to purchase a new workstation for trajectory analysis, i.e., using VMD
> and NAMD. I am leaning towards Lenovo but I am undecided between a
> Thinkcentre and a Thinkstation. The former comes with i7-4770 and non-ECC
> memory, the latter with e.g., Xeon E5-1620 v2 and ECC memory.
>
> The first question is: does Xeon (in particular the larger cache) bring any
> advantage for running VMD or NAMD? Is it generally true that Xeon run cooler
> and thus more stable than i7?
>
> The second question is: is it worth to pay for ECC memory when I plan to have
> a maximum of 16 GB? I know that there is a lot of debate about this. Since I
> plan to run the server 24/7 my main concern is stability.
>
> The last question is: does it make sense to have a Xeon CPU with non-ECC
> memory or would it be a waste? I have read that for example SDRAM is the
> safest non-ECC memory and it would be a lot cheaper.
>
> I would appreciate any opinions on this.
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> Gianluca
>
> -----------------------------------------------------
> Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
> +1 (206) 685 4435
> http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/
>
> Research Scientist at the Department of Bioengineering
> at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
> -----------------------------------------------------
>
>

-----------------------------------------------------
Gianluca Interlandi, PhD gianluca_at_u.washington.edu
                     +1 (206) 685 4435
                     http://artemide.bioeng.washington.edu/

Research Scientist at the Department of Bioengineering
at the University of Washington, Seattle WA U.S.A.
-----------------------------------------------------

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