R help - Jul 2008 - best quad core configuration?

I am purchasing a quad-core 64-bit system.  My proposed configuration is an
intel core duo quad with 8Gb memory and an ubuntu OS.  I'm choosing ubunto
because I have good local support, but it doesn't seem as well supported as
debian for R.  Will ubuntu limit me in any significant way?   I have noticed
a bias towards AMD machines among R users - are there compelling reasons to
go with an equivalent AMD system instead?  Will I be able to use amd64
binaries on this system, or would I have to compile everything myself?
Would it difficult to install Intel MKL 10.0 BLAS and LAPACK libraries on
this machine?  Would it be difficult to run both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
of R on this machine?  The most computationally-intensive thing I will be
using the machine for is large MCMC simulations, probably using multiple
instances of LinBUGS.  Any advice on configuring by machine for maximum
speed for these simulations?

Thanks,

Alan Swanson

 


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Le mer. 30 juil. ? 13:04, Alan Swanson a ?crit :
> I am purchasing a quad-core 64-bit system.  My proposed  
> configuration is an
> intel core duo quad with 8Gb memory and an ubuntu OS.  I'm choosing  
> ubunto
> because I have good local support, but it doesn't seem as well  
> supported as
> debian for R.
And what makes you think that? First off, Ubuntu is Debian based, so  
every Debian package (well, the R ones at least) is also in Ubuntu.  
Second, we also provide backports of R for Ubuntu releases down to  
Dapper. I consider this is rather good support; see

	http://cran.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/
>  Will ubuntu limit me in any significant way?   I have noticed
> a bias towards AMD machines among R users - are there compelling  
> reasons to
> go with an equivalent AMD system instead?  Will I be able to use amd64
> binaries on this system, or would I have to compile everything myself?
As the README file linked above mentions, we provide up-to-date R  
binaries for i386 and amd64.

For your other points, I will let more competent people answer.

---
   Vincent Goulet, Associate Professor
   ?cole d'actuariat
   Universit? Laval, Qu?bec
   Vincent.Goulet at act.ulaval.ca   http://vgoulet.act.ulaval.ca
>
> Would it difficult to install Intel MKL 10.0 BLAS and LAPACK  
> libraries on
> this machine?  Would it be difficult to run both 32-bit and 64-bit  
> versions
> of R on this machine?  The most computationally-intensive thing I  
> will be
> using the machine for is large MCMC simulations, probably using  
> multiple
> instances of LinBUGS.  Any advice on configuring by machine for  
> maximum
> speed for these simulations?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Alan Swanson
>
>
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
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