hardware

Hi,

It all depends on the budget you want to spend. If speed doesn't really matters, then I will recommend you using a AMD cpu, if speed does matter, go for Intel Corei7. A 6-core AMD costs around 300 Euros, a 6-core Intel is around 1000 Euros. The difference between them two is that Intel cpu does have hyperthreading, which means that one core is recognized as two cores, this has something to do with the instructions in the Intel cpu (in total 12-core). Next year, AMD will come with the bulldozer cpu, a new architecture. AMD puts two integers into one core, the software will recognize this as two cores. The difference here with Intel's hyperthreading is that this is done in hardware instead as software. For the same amount of money, AMD provide much better performances. However, Intel cpu's are much faster in the price range where AMD does not operate, which is above 300 Euros. Any cpu of Intel above that price is faster than any AMD.

Another suggestion. IF you are good in programming, look for Nvidia Cuda, maybe you can port those programming codes for solvers to Cuda. Each GPU consists of many tiny processors. I have looked for some info, the execution time in Cuda can be 10 times as fast compared to the fastest cpu at the moment, which is the Corei7 980X (1000 Euro)from Intel.