I need a serious workhorse computer for complex simulations

[Bremen]

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If you can talk to the programmer why not just ask him what would be best?

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He doesn't know anything about hardware. He didn't even know how to hook up a bluetooth printer adapter. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] But, on the bright side, he's supposed to be the best grad student in the CS dept when it comes to programming C++ and Java. Go figure.

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Dear lord, he should at least know what the memory usage is. They don't teach kids anything these days. *grumble grumble*

Anyway you'll need a system with enough memory to contain the program (if you don't have disk activity while running than whatever you have is good enough). Which leaves just getting the fastest processor you can get. With your budget you might be able to swing dual quad core Xeons.