[BioC] Thoughts on computer purchase

[Yoder, Sean J.]

Yes, the 64-bit version of Windows would not have a memory problem.
However, the original poster is planning to use 32-bit Windows XP.  He's
also ordering a Dell, so I'd imagine he'll run into the same problems
that I have on my Dell...

Thanks for the info on the bios...I've tried a few things in the past to
address the problem, but had no resolution.

-----Original Message-----
From: Marion Hakanson [mailto:hakansom at ohsu.edu] 
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 1:23 PM
To: Yoder, Sean J.
Cc: bioconductor at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [BioC] Thoughts on computer purchase


The 64-bit Windows (Server 2003) is working fine here;  Let's you
address
more than 4GB RAM.  We're running it on Opteron-based Sun servers.
Another
OS that does BioC well is Solaris-x86, in either 32- or 64-bit mode.
Sun
has long experience with getting the most out of multi-core/multi-CPU
hardware, and Solaris-10 with its (now free) Sun compilers is known to
get more performance out the the same hardware than some other OS's.
Plus it's free.


> You WILL NOT be able to access 4 GB of RAM in Windows for some
reason... 

There is an issue with the way the BIOS maps hardware (PCI) devices into
the memory address space, which can make some of your RAM unavailable
when you get close to the 4GB range.  Google around for "BIOS memory
hole";
Some modern BIOS's have ways around this.

Regards,

Marion




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