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Our primary image processing suite is written for Mac, so we usually just
buy Mac Pros for our heaviest lifting since our in-house software benefits
the most from multiple cores.  For secondary purposes, we do have some
PC-only software and I have built several systems for our lab and other
colleagues for running NIS Elements (Nikon), or Olivia (Olympus).
 Generally a good i7 with as much RAM as possible is the way to go.  Either
16 or 32 GB is quite feasible these days.  Since most PCs have four memory
slots you have to choose between 4x4GB for 16 GB total, or 4x8GB for 32 GB
total.  Since the 8GB memory modules (DIMMS) are at a slight price premium
right now 32 GB is still a bit expensive, but 16 GB is quite affordable.
A few other considerations:

Ports on the Motherboard: Does it have USB3.0/eSata/Firewire800/Gigabit
Ethernet/whatever you use in-house to move your data around?
Card Slots: Are you going to use GPU (video-card) acceleration?  If so make
sure you have the PCI-e slots on the motherboard to socket in multiple
video cards.
Case Size and Front Ports:  Does the case have plenty of room internally,
with a good layout for routing cables without getting in the way of fans,
cards, or drives?  Does the front of the case have the kind of ports you
would want easy access to so you are not always climbing behind the
computer to plug in your portable hard drive?
Power Supply: Don't skimp on wattage, especially if you are going the
multiple-video-card route.  Your processor will also draw extra power when
it runs in turbo (i7's have scalable clock speeds, so they run faster and
suck more power when demand increases)
Cooling: An aftermarket processor fan module is probably a good idea as it
will allow your chip to run in turbo more often with less risk, especially
if the room has questionable ventilation.  Make sure your case is large
enough to house the fan and run cables around it.  If you have multiple
hard disks putting a large-diameter fan in the case in front of them is
often a good idea.
Solid State Drive:  Get a medium-sized (250-500GB) Solid State drive to
install the operating system on and all your programs.  You should also
have space left over to act as 'scratch' space when you are manipulating an
image.  Move the file over to regular hard-drives when you are done working
on it.
Monitor: Make sure you can actually see what you are working on without
burning out your retinas.  A good price/color/brightness compromise is
Samsung's SA850.  It has good color reproduction and some nice features to
help reduce eye fatigue, etc.  We have a couple of them and they are very
nice to work on.
Keyboard/navigational peripherals:  Ergonomic/comfortable mouse is a must.
 For working with 3D stacks some sort of 3-D manipulator device like
the 3dconnexion MAY be useful for you.  If you are working in the dim, a
keyboard with backlit keys can be useful.

And that's my 2-cents.

Craig


On Fri, Mar 8, 2013 at 10:24 AM, Arvydas Matiukas <[log in to unmask]>wrote:

> *****
> To join, leave or search the confocal microscopy listserv, go to:
> http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy
> *****
>
> Dear listers/microscopists,
>
> I assume there is good time to update new trends in
> image analysis hardware. The last discussions on image
> analysis computer were in 2006-8. Though the basic
> principles of CPU, RAM, hard drive, video card, monitor
> selection still hold some new types of hardware became
> popular/available, e.g. SSD drives, APU, water cooling.
> Now a decent gaming computer (~$1k) has the processing power
> of a 2006 expensive workstation (~$20K). I was suprised that
> I was able to completely overhaul my 8 year old ATX case
> to a quad core 2GHz APU, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, 160GB SATA-2
> SSD, water cooling, USB3 and SATA3 Gigabyte motherboard,
> and 4 monitor 1GB video card.
> for under $300 (online, after rebates).
>
> Now I am wiling to upgrade/overhaul my work computer which
> is used to run ImageJ, Fiji, Deconvolution (Autoquant, Huygens),
> Matlab, PV-Vawe, Labview, Origin. Please advice/share you thoughts
> what best configuration is possible to buy for $2-3k (monitor
> excluded).
> My first choice would be  to go with a fast gaming computer, e.g.
> Dell-Alienware Aurora
> Windows* 7 Ultimate, 64Bit, English
> 2nd Generation Intel* Core* i7-3820 (10M Cache, Overclocked up to 4.1
> GHz)
> 16GB (4 X 4GB) Quad Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz
> NVIDIA* GeForce* GTX 660 1.5GB GDDR5
> 1TB RAID 0 (2x 500GB SATA 6Gb/s) Solid State Hybrid
> 19-in-1 Media Card Reader
> No Monitor
> Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
>
> The second  choice would be to buy all components online and
> build a computer myself (I have done this about 50 times over
> 25 years). This option typically saves money or buys better
> components,
> and provides you full specs of the hardware. The con of this
> approach is that it wastes some of your time to debug/make all
> the hardware work together and with your software. However,
> as the computer is for me not just a box but a tool I am ready
> to make this sacrifice.
>
> BTW, is there any solid preference towards CPU Type (Intel ix/AMD/Intel
> Xeon)
>
> Thanks for your input/advice/thoughts,
> Arvydas
> --------------------
>
>
>
>
> Arvydas Matiukas, Ph.D.
> Director of Confocal&Two-Photon Core
> Department of Neurosci& Physiology
> SUNY Upstate Medical University
> 766 Irving Ave., WH 3167
> Syracuse, NY 13210
> tel.: 315-464-7997
> fax: 315-464-8014
> email: [log in to unmask]
> >>> Tim Feinstein <[log in to unmask]> 3/7/2013 5:13 PM >>>
> *****
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> *****
>