Looking for CPU/OS advice

MineralMike

Well-known member
I'm looking for a different PC to run PI, since my AMD FX-8310 with Windows 8.1 gives me a "program has stopped working" error every time I exit PI.

A while back, Juan posted,
"Since version 1.8.7, PixInsight for FreeBSD, Linux and macOS requires a processor with SSE4.2 instruction support. This excludes AMD processors launched before 2011 (Bulldozer micro-architecture)"

And,
"...Kubuntu 18.04 LTS...GNOME also works well, but KDE provides a much better integration of bundled PixInsight projects."
"...one of the latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper (third generation) or AMD Ryzen 9 processors."


It's unlikely I'll ever see one of those CPUs, but Linux is an option. The replacement PC would have 32GM of RAM and a SSD of at least 500GB.


Questions:
* Does an Intel i7 CPU meet the PI requirements?
* Is Linux preferred over Windows 10 Pro?

It would be great to go with a top-shelf computer, but I need to look at mid-range instead.

Thanks for all insights and advice.

--- Mike
 
a modern i7 should be OK; i think they all have SSE4.2. more ram than 32GB is a pretty good upgrade for any machine running PI - integratiing large CMOS images can really put some serious stress on the memory system.

as for linux vs windows, i think a large component of this is your personal comfort with a change of operating systems. if you've never used linux before there will be a learning curve... and although KDE and Gnome are GUIs for linux, you may find yourself having to use command-line windows to get stuff done from time to time.

as a lifelong macos user it pains me to say that linux is a better implementation of unix than macosX, but it is true. performance-wise you won't go wrong especially vs. windows 10. and if you look around here you'll see that probably 80% of the support requests are from people running windows who have driver conflicts and library conflicts which cause problems with PI.

rob
 
Kubuntu 20 with the KDE plasma desktop is really good and super fast....most stuff is GUI driven and if you need change a parameter, then google is your friend.
 
a modern i7 should be OK; i think they all have SSE4.2. more ram than 32GB is a pretty good upgrade for any machine running PI - integratiing large CMOS images can really put some serious stress on the memory system.

Thanks, Rob. Good to know.

As for linux vs windows, i think a large component of this is your personal comfort with a change of operating systems. if you've never used linux before there will be a learning curve... and although KDE and Gnome are GUIs for linux, you may find yourself having to use command-line windows to get stuff done from time to time.

I've installed Linux on five or six home servers, and a couple of home desktops, so I'm familiar with the OS, mostly command-line, but some Gnome/KDE experience.

I'm currently using Debian 10 (buster) on the home server and a Debian/KDE workstation to periodically backup the server. How does Ubuntu/ Kubuntu differ from Debian? I thought Ubuntu was a fork of Debian.

It would be easy for me to buy a refurb i7 PC with Win 10, then wipe that and install Debian. But not if Kubuntu offers significant benefits.

Thanks again.

--- Mike
 
ok then you are good on the linux front.

ubuntu is a debian fork i think - uses apt for package management. iirc ubuntu is sponsored by google (although there is something called ‘gubuntu’ as well) and they usually have a version of each release they refer to as “LTS” version (long term support). support for these can be extended past EOL by subscription, but for home users that subscription is free.

i don’t know how debian differs from ubuntu on daemon config and launch but that seems to have changed a few times in ubuntu. and the whole networking system has changed in recent versions of ubuntu to a YAML-based config system (netplan.) that kind of threw me for a loop.

i guess you might try with debian first since it’s the devil you know. from time to time there are linux support questions on different distros and it seems like people get them resolved. juan is pretty helpful with this since he uses linux as his primary platform.

rob
 
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