Computational requirement for small RNA and mRNA data analysis

[TomMicroRNA]

Hi People

I am working on plant miRNAs and was hoping some of you might be able to give some advice on computational requirements for RNAseq analysis.

I am currently sequencing smallRNA and mRNA on illumina with a view of identifying novel miRNAs and their targets. However, I am aware that I will need considerably more computer power than what I currently have. Whilst I am comfortable with the software available and using it I have absolutely no idea what kind of machine might suffice. And price is an issue since I have only a limited grant from which to buy one.

Whilst Alignment against the genome will be done elsewhere (which I gather is the most demanding aspect, computationally), I am totaly in the dark as to what might kind of memory, RAM etc.. be needed for just generally analysing the data.

Sorry to be so vague (I'm pretty new to all this bioinformatics) but any advice on what kind of thing might provide suitable for this kind of bioinformatics would be very much appreciated. I wouldn't want to buy something not powerful enough or go over the top on something absurd)

Thanks!

Tom

[GenoMax]

I will refer you to a recent discussion on this topic in general. http://seqanswers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24772

If you have access to central computing resources then using them is preferable. That keeps you (I assume you are a biologist) out of the business of having to worry about purchasing, administering and maintaining IT infrastructure. It will also give you access to more powerful computing resources that you can personally acquire.