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MS-DIAL / Unsure if MS Dial is working or frozen
Last post by berrytf -- Pooled Samples MS2
- Pooled Sample MS1
- Individual Sample MS1
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We do not convert the data to a common centroided format before ingesting it into MS-Dial. We churn the data on a dedicated Dell work station that has a 6 core/6 hyperthreaded Xeon CPU, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a mechanical HD. For small projects(5 - 30 samples) its fine, but for larger projects (>30 samples) we run into issues. Specifically the issues arise after the individual samples are processed and during the 'peak filling, identification, and alignment' stage. Add gap filling in there too.
The program bogs down the PC to the point where it's unresponsive or slugging. MS Dial's progress bar during that period often freezes at a low %. Sometimes the project completes and other times it does not. It could take half a day or multiple days to complete.
I've pulled up task manager and other monitoring software during the processing to see what's happening. During the initial sample processing the CPU use is most intensive, but since it can multi-threaded in parallel it's quick. During the aforementioned 'peak filling, identification, and alignment' stage the CPU usage drops to almost nothing where as the RAM and the Disk activity shoot up to 90-100%.
I have a few questions
- Are there tips on improving the speed at which larger projects can be computed?
- Would a faster writing data component, like a soild state drive, improve the speed of that step?
- How can we tell if the 'peak filling, identification, and alignment' is actually progressing or the program has stalled out as unresponsive?
I'd be happy to provide any information on our process, computer system, or software if it would help us tackle the problem. We like a MS-Dial a lot, but the slow down and questionable completion of the data processing has us questioning using it further.