We believe it is important for all life scientists to have access to the technology required to assemble and analyze data generated from any next-gen sequencing experiment. We have worked hard to make sure this can happen by designing algorithms that can work in reasonable amounts of time on desktop computers. For larger assemblies (e.g. whole human genomes), we’ve had to ramp up the hardware requirements a bit. However, all the computers we’ve outlined below can be acquired for less than $5,000 and are built on a desktop (vs. a server) environment. While some of the configurations listed below may appear a bit daunting at first glance, we assure you that average life scientists can and have put together these configurations using the instructions we’ve provided. Also, if you ever need help, we welcome your call to help you through the hardware or software installation process.
Hardware requirements for SeqMan NGen are largely dependent upon whether you will be doing reference-guided or de novo assemblies. Please see the following sections for details of the technical requirements for each project type.
Reference-Guided AssembliesReference-guided assembly hardware requirements are largely dependent upon the size of the reference sequence used and the amount of sequence data assembled. Assembling to eukaryotic genome sequences generates large temporary files that require sufficient hard disk space and performance. Increasing processor speed and the number of cores can also improve performance.
De Novo AssembliesDe novo assemblies are primarily dependent upon RAM. Memory requirements increase proportionately to the number of assembled sequences and contigs. Processor speed is less impactful than with large, reference-guided assemblies.
*Hard disks may be internal or external. If external, only eSATA and USB 3.0 provide sufficient data transfer speed. Ask your DNASTAR representative for more information on RAID drives. **Having additional RAM is not necessary, but may improve assembly times by a few percent. ***Note that DNASTAR provides these specifications as a convenience to you, but does not endorse any particular hardware vendor.
For a network version of SeqMan NGen, please see our DNASTAR License Server Technical Requirements. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
software for life scientists
