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Next semester, I intend to start doing research in combinatorics. I have used and fallen in love with Mac computers and Wolfram Mathematica 8, and I intend to get these for use with this project and in college. I will be a Physics and Mathematics double major. Because I have a limited budget, I was wondering which would take priority for my applications: Having a four core processor instead of a two core processor, or having a SSD instead of a hard drive?
1I took the liberty of editing the question title to perhaps a little more to the point and potentially sway any knee-jerk votes to close based on not asking a substantive question. I personally feel this is a good question for this specific application. – Shinrai – 2011-10-13T19:24:32.883
3I'd actually say firstly go for as much RAM as possible. – liori – 2011-10-13T22:25:45.600
1I agree with adding more RAM. i have very little understanding of combinatorics but they may be a suitable for GPU based calculations. if it can be mass-threaded then it will likely run much much faster on a GPU using CUDA or equivalent (many magnitudes faster on md5 cracking then top of the range CPU's). – Silverfire – 2011-10-14T06:19:43.147
I'm curious why this is getting close votes - what do you guys find objectionable about the question? – Shinrai – 2011-10-14T14:18:40.877