Computer Advice for IDEA

MagiBzh

Forums

Hi, If my post has not its place in here, I will remove it. I would like to be advised on the computer characteristics essential for Idea software. Indeed, I have the possibility to change my work PC soon the which has 8 GB of RAM. We have now millions of data to analyze, and my portable PC takes a lot of time to execute one task. And it kind of became monotask...Could you tell me which characteristics need to be optimized for IDEA software ? -Memory RAM ?   -Processor ? -Type of hardrive ? -Portable computer or desktop computer ?
Or others characteristics ?
I would really appreciate your help on this and look forward to hearing anyone advice !
Thanks in advance,
MagiBzh

Steven Luciani Fri, 10/09/2015 - 09:24

I'm running an Intel Core I7 3630QM @ 2.4GHz with 16 GB of Dual Channel DDR3 @ 800MHz and a 512GB Seagate SSD in a laptop running Windows 7 64 bit.

This machine chews through millions of records with ease.

If you are looking to complile a machine I'd recommend a CPU with a large amount of L2 Cache. You will gain more sacrificing clock speed over L2 Cache size.

The more RAM you have available, the larger the IDEA file size you can read into RAM for faster processing. However, you will get a bigger bang for the buck putting more money into a better CPU or a faster SSD so don't blow your budget on a crazy amount of RAM. I would base the RAM requirements on the average size of your IDEA files ensuring you allow for what Windows and other applications regulalry use. For example, if your average IDEA file size is 10GB and allowing for 2-3GB of RAM for O/S and other application usage, you would build a machine with 16GB of RAM just make sure you are running a 64 bit version of Windows to ensure you are making use of all that RAM.

 IDEA is I/O intensive so an HDD with the largest IOPS rating is what you are looking for in this component. As prices of SSD's have dropped and their capacities have gotten larger you should be looking for the fastest and largest SSD your budget will allow. If space in your machine and funds permit multiple SSDs in a RAID array with a dedicated RAID controller will really boost your performance.

Hope that helps get you started.

Cheers,

Steve  

MagiBzh Mon, 10/12/2015 - 11:16

Hi Steve, Thank you for your advice. I think you have narrow my problem: the hard drive ! I started looking at SSD with encryption thanks to you :)
Guada.

MagiBzh Fri, 11/06/2015 - 11:39

Hi there, Just wanted to say that I received a SSD hardrive, it is expensive... but it changes everything, simple summarization that could take more than 8 hours... only take 20 mn now !So thanks you, we found a solution. Many thanks for the advices Steve ;)