On 26/01/2021 22:30, Nick Chalk wrote:
> Hello Owain.
>
> On Tuesday, 26 January, 2021, you wrote
>> My son is in the last leg of his chemistry
>> degree and finding that his laptop is not up to
>> the statistically heavy Matlab calculations he
>> has to do, so he wants a higher spec laptop.
> Does the replacement need to be a laptop? For a
> given price, you will get substantially better
> performance from a desktop.
>
>> In the past I have used PC World and the like
>> with both of my sons and been amazed with the
>> disappointing performance.
> I doubt any general retailers will be able to give
> advice on Matlab performance.
>
> I found this page on MathWorks' web site:
> https://uk.mathworks.com/support/requirements/choosing-a-computer.html
> In summary, their advice is "it depends on your
> application". Matlab is a programming language, so
> the best hardware will depend on the calculations
> that your son needs to perform.
>
> I have no experience with Matlab, unfortunately,
> but I do work for a company which produces a
> compiler for a different statistical programming
> language. Some operations, such as sorting, can be
> run in parallel, so many cores are an advantage.
> Others are inherently serial, so a higher clock
> speed and better IPC are more important.
>
> As for memory, the more the better. Do you have an
> idea of the amount of data your son is processing?
> Ideally, you would like enough memory for both
> source and result datasets, but that may not be
> possible.
>
> If the data is going to exceed available memory,
> then disk performance becomes more important. A
> PCI-e 3 or 4 NVMe drive would be a good idea in
> this case. However, the machine should still have
> as much memory as can be economically fitted, as
> it will act as a cache for data on the disk.
>
> Has your son tried contacting MathWorks' support?
> Our support team regularly answers queries about
> hardware requirements. He may need to supply some
> example programs, or list the algorithms he uses.
>
> Nick.
>
Sorry Nick - your response was singled out to go and live in my Junk
folder, where I found it today. I eventually went with a Novatel
machine, which he reports is doing the job well
Owain
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