Help with HIGH end image procesing computer.

[pizl0]

I built my first homeade system about a week and a half ago and have been extremely happy with its performance. I have also been very happy with the support from this community. Now to the questions, there are a lot so if you can answer any of them please do. Today my dad (runs a lab at the Uni of rochester) came to me about building a computer for the lab, and the exciting part it it needs to be an absolute beast for managing HUGE images. The Images are compilations of pictures end up being over 500 MBytes. The spec list from the company that makes the software is pretty vague, here it is...
Dual quad core cpu's
4GB of ram
dual one terabyte drives in raid 1 configuration
dual Gigabit ethernet adapters
A video card with support for 2 1600 by 1200 screens (at least 128 mb Vram (hehe)
Windows XP pro (easy)
DVD burner (easy)
2 lcd monitors 1600 by 1200

So now that I've given you all the info I have I will proceed to the questions. What is a good motherboard that will support 2 quad cpus?
Are duel CPUs as simple to get working as singe ones?
What is Raid one, and what is the best way to achieve this?
Isn't raid 0 faster? how would I do this?
Whats a good vidio card for 2 monitors? (crossfire?)
What are some good monitors at (around) that resolution.
What wattage power supply am I going to need?
Is all this stuff going to fit in a normal atx case?

Thats all I have for now, I think these specs are actually pretty low considering I have a budget of... well 3 grand is a definite, and theres a good possibility of more.


Sorry for asking so many things, but I promise to post some pics/benchmarks of it before my dad can take it to the lab\!

 

[Proximon]

Sounds like fun.

 

[the last resort]

well, let us begin. we will go with INTEL.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151166
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117141
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820134648
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811128023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131113
2x http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
and the power supply is about $300.
So, the total without monitors is ~$3600.

 

[Proximon]

I have no real clue, but I'll throw these out here to start the ball rolling:

Tyan MB:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813151163

Xeon:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117143

 

[skittle]

If your doing ANY kind of work that necessitates correct color, DO NOT use a LCD.

Also you do not need crossfire/sli. A single card will do.

 

[hesskia]

I would up the ante and buy 3 1TB drives and use a RAID5 (you should purchase a nice RAID card too)--this will allow your data redundacy and see improvements in HDD speed. If 'money is no object,' you could move to have 4 or 5 drives in RAID5 to speed things along. if you will be working on 500Mb pictures, it will behoove you to have more than 4GB of memory--you should seriously look at 8GB or more.

 

[pizl0]

Does anyone think that a 4870 will do image processing faster than an 4850?
Thanks for all the help, I have some things I gotto do now but I'll post a preliminary parts list later.

 

[Shadow703793]

Check out this "huge workstation" thread:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/250050-28-huge-workstation-build

Look into the dual-socket Xeon workstation motherboards,
e.g. Intel, Tyan, etc.

A 64-bit OS will also utilize RAM much more efficiently,
and also use ALL of 4GB: XP x32 can't use all of 4GB,
because device drivers get their DMA allocation first
during startup, leaving what's left over for system
and application programs.

I would also load your OS onto a new Western Digital VelociRaptor,
preferably the 150GB model with OUT the "IcePak" cooler (to save a little $):
you can buy a cheap 2.5-to-3.5" bracket, if you need
to install the enterprise VelociRaptor in a 3.5" drive cage.

Then, use your 2 x 1TB SATA/3G RAID 1 for data storage.

Also, there are more advanced cases being made now
by Lian-Li. I would not use the Silverstone that was
chosen for the "huge workstation" build above.


Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Andrew Mitchell, Inventor and
Webmaster, Supreme Law Library
http://www.supremelaw.org/

All Rights Reserved without Prejudice

Exactly what I was thinking!

I agree on RAID5 (providing x64 OS is used) and on the RAM fans. 8Gb RAM is a very good idea too.

@OP: What software are you using? Also what budget?

 

[pizl0]

Well Its verry specific software made by the company that makes the machine, I don't have a any names now, but bassically the machine takes hundreds of pictures of dyed cells flying past the lens ina stream of water, then the computer has to analyze things in the images, like say the ratio of the diameter of the nucleus to the diameter of the whole cell. The company only supports the sofware on 32 bit XP, so since Winodows can only use 3 gigs of ram does that mean this app will also be bottlenecked?

As for budjet, The aim is making it as cheap as possible but at the specs or better of the dell he was going to by. The dell would be 3800 without tax, but with the monitors. The dell would not have any raid, so that is not a must, and would also have a VERY crappy video card so I think I can top it easy.

 

[Shadow703793]

YES! Yo won't be able to use more than 3.5GB with that limitation of XP 32bit. I am still amazed such a high powered software don't use XP x64. Dose it even have a Linux x64 version? It doesn't make sense to bottle neck it with such need for RAM. It would really help if you can give us a link to the software.

Again if you have a $3k+ budget you can get some thing smiler to the one in the thread that supremelaw linked to. Only thing you have to do is cut back on the RAM to 4GB, which should save some money. You could also swap the motherboard to a Skultrail if interested in that.

 

[pizl0]

Heres a link but its very vague http://www.amnis.com/ideas.asp Yeah we contacted the and they said they are working on a 64 bit version but it may be years in the future

 

[resonance451]

A 64 bit OS is not necessary for 4gb, but I'd recommend you going 8gb anyways, depending on what you're doing.

I am part of a business that has a system with dual quad processors, 2tb storage, an nVidia quadro costing $3000.. etc.

The system does work with large images and also does 3d rendering.

And you know what? It was a huge waste of money for hardly any performance gain in these applications. Maybe I stand alone.