MacBook Pro Late 2008 & X-ray crystallography

By plvdac1 at Wed, Dec 10 2008 3:56am |

Dear all,
my name is Marco and I come from Italy (Sicily)...for me this is the first topic in this mac-forum.
I have a very big doubt! Somebody could try to solve it? :-)
So...I have an iBook G4 and I would like to change my laptop with a professional one (e.g. MacBook Pro 2.5Ghz): my PhD work is about X-ray crystallography of membrane proteins. Could be a good idea buy a MacBook Pro 2.5 Ghz or is quite similar buy another model of them? Do you have any suggestion for me? Is useful buy a new laptop for making X-ray crystallography calculations? Do you think that will be a real difference with the better GPU inside new MacBook Pro for my work?

Best regards,

Marco

‹ My mac does not participate in xgrid sharing Install Plone and MysQL ›

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Wed, 2008-12-10 18:01 — Bin Hu

If you have enough money,

If you have enough money, better buy a pro model. The difference is huge when because you have better video card, which is important for your work. It is not just the CPU that makes a pro model.

Thu, 2008-12-11 03:51 — wgscott

Do you need to have a

Do you need to have a laptop? If not, the iMac gives more bang for the buck. I've never owned any of the "pro" lineups of laptops. Currently I have a Macbook Air and that is plenty fast. If cost is a significant issue, running linux on a PC laptop might be a more economical option.

I've made a guide to installing some of the crystallographic software on os x should you need it: link.

Fri, 2008-12-12 11:34 — LeninWTigger

Why laptop?

I agree with Scott, if you really need a laptop go with the MacBook Pro. But you cannot go wrong with the iMacs. Even the 20" is just gorgeous and I think the come with a video card at least as good as the one in the newest MacBook Pros (http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp05.html).

Sat, 2008-12-20 19:13 — d235j

Keep in mind that the iMac

Keep in mind that the iMac (as well at the Mac Mini) is about to be updated, so I'd suggest to hold off on a purchase of one of those for a bit.

Wed, 2009-02-11 23:03 — jadelman

Along these lines, does

Along these lines, does anyone have any experience running VMD on the macbooks with the nvidia 9400M graphics chips? I'm about to replace an old 1.25 Ghz G4 Powerbook, and am weighing my options between a Macbook Pro vs Macbook. I know the argument in terms of graphics card, but unfortunately the MBP does not come in the smaller 13" form factor.

I do most of my visualization and analysis on my Quad G5 in lab, but I often need to check on simulations on the weekend and in the evening, so I at least need to be able to comfortably visualize systems on my laptop.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

Sat, 2009-02-14 19:44 — ghutchis

VMD is just fine...

I can't necessarily speak to performance, since my VMD use is generally with small molecules. But VMD runs just fine on my MacBook which I purchased in Aug. 2008.

If you'd like me to try a file and test for performance, I'm happy to give that a try.

Sat, 2009-02-28 03:07 — Michalraise

i thing macbokk pro 2.5 GHZ

i thing macbokk pro 2.5 GHZ is good for you and your work.

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eeepc 901

Tue, 2009-06-16 02:16 — max123

tin whiskers

Hi,
For crystals, of course, the unit cell is three-dimensional. A very wide variety of arrangements is exhibited by different substances, and it is the great triumph of X-ray crystallography to have provided the means for determining experimentally what arrangement is involved in each case.
tin whiskers