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What's better for COMSOL fluid and temp sims: a new laptop or an old server?

Posted Jan 28, 2021, 11:24 a.m. EST Fluid & Heat, Chemical, General Version 5.6 3 Replies

Joshua Guertler
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Here are the relevant specs:

HP Laptop 15-dy1xxx:

Intel(R) UHD gpu, 12 GB of RAM (non-upgradable) DDR4, 2666 MHz, 4 cores, 1.3 GHz clock rate (max is 4.0 GHz), HP 86C9 motherboard, Intel Core i5 10th gen. Released around 2017.

IBM/Lenovo x3850 x5 server:

Nvidia Grid k1, 64 GB of RAM (DDR3, 1333 MHz), 32 cores, 2.0 GHz clock rate (2.3 GHz max), Intel E7-4830 processor (quad core). Released in 2010.

I'm planning on doing fluid simulations and a few temperature simulation on the chemical end (physical properties like viscosity).

Any advice?

3 Replies Last Post Jan 28, 2021, 2:08 p.m. EST
Robert Koslover Certified Consultant
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Posted: 3 years ago Jan 28, 2021, 1:18 p.m. EST

Well, your old server has more RAM and more cores. See https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866 for Comsol's view.

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Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA) Inc.
www.comsol.com/partners-consultants/certified-consultants/sara
Well, your old server has more RAM and more cores. See https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866 for Comsol's view.
Joshua Guertler
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Posted: 3 years ago Jan 28, 2021, 1:50 p.m. EST

Well, your old server has more RAM and more cores. See https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866 for Comsol's view.

My concern is that it's much older. Will the older, slower cores and older, slower RAM be an issue?

>Well, your old server has more RAM and more cores. >See https://www.comsol.com/support/knowledgebase/866 for Comsol's view. My concern is that it's much older. Will the older, slower cores and older, slower RAM be an issue?
Robert Koslover Certified Consultant
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Posted: 3 years ago Jan 28, 2021, 2:08 p.m. EST
Updated: 3 years ago Jan 28, 2021, 2:08 p.m. EST

Sure, older is slower! But if you start running out of RAM and then have no choice but to rely on the slowest incremental solvers (to reduce the required RAM), and/or swapping memory out to disk, then you will run enormously slower! (Been there, done that.)

Best Solution: Persuade your sponsor/customer to pay for a really powerful, modern workstation loaded with everything you need. :)

-------------------
Scientific Applications & Research Associates (SARA) Inc.
www.comsol.com/partners-consultants/certified-consultants/sara
Sure, older is slower! But if you start running out of RAM and then have no choice but to rely on the slowest incremental solvers (to reduce the required RAM), and/or swapping memory out to disk, then you will run *enormously* slower! (Been there, done that.) Best Solution: Persuade your sponsor/customer to pay for a really powerful, modern workstation loaded with everything you need. :)

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