I'm hoping to get some advice about Windows x64. I've
got money to buy a new desktop and I'm looking to get
a pretty fast computer to reduce my time waiting for
Stata do-files to finish. I have recently been
running a computationally intensive analysis that
takes about 48 hours to complete on my run-of-the-mill
desktop, but more often I'm running analyses of large
datasets like 1.5 million observations from the
Current Population Survey, which can take 45 minutes
to an hour to run.
I think I have the computer picked out, a Dell
Precision 490 with two dual-core processors (our
school only buys Dells). I'll get Stata/MP for
4-processors to compliment the system.
My final decision is whether to go with regular
Windows XP or with Windows XP x64 for a 64-bit system.
I know many of you are Linux folks, but I'm not
really up to making that plunge right now. From what
I understand, Windows x64 offers the potential to be
faster, but it also creates some software and hardware
compatibility problems. It seems like some of the
compatibility problems are being solved over time, but
it's not clear to me whether the gains of Windows x64
outweigh the potential headaches. The choice of
operating systems doesn't impact the cost.
So, I'm wondering if folks have experience with
Windows x64. If so, does it make a big difference in
running Stata? Is it worth the trouble negotiating
all the other compability problems?
Thanks for your input.
Matissa
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