[Chimera-users] question about mac laptops / workstations and chimera stability

[Tom Goddard]

Hi Jeff,

  I just got my MacBook Pro with 2 Gb memory and 160 Gb hard-drive 
yesterday.  It's been working well with Chimera volume display, surface 
and solid.  Performance is roughly a factor of two better than my 4 year 
old Dell Precision M50 with Quadro 4 GoGL 500 graphics (a very heavy 
machine, ~10lb).  I just took a look at a 2k by 2k by 76  tomogram and 
performance was as expected.

  2 Gb memory is adequate for my uses.  I went for the 160 Gb harddrive 
instead of the 120 Gb since volume data and video can take some space.  
The 200 Gb option was a 4200 rpm drive which I suspect would be slower 
than the smaller 5200 rpm models so I avoided it.

  If you'd like to try my laptop before you order you are welcome to 
come over to my house in SF.

    Tom


Jeff wrote:
> Tom,
>
> is the base 2 GB memory sufficient, and do you have any reservations 
> regarding transfer speed from the harddrive?
>
> I am going to place an order, wanted to check with you first about 
> those 2 things before going ahead.
>
> (I figure, if you are developing on it, this is not a bad idea.)
>
> -Jeff