Molecular Modelling Infrastructure, how to start

Yes, here we are, without resources to set up a molecular modelling project, but we know what to do.

1. HARDWARE
I suggest to dedicate a full time computer for molecular modelling. It will be all the time turn n¡on and producing results.
After some time, I collected all the hardware components to assemble a computer:

ASRock P4i65G Motherboard
Intel (R) Pentium 4. CPU 3.0 GHz
2 512 MB/166MHz DDR333 modules
ST 380215A 80GB HDD
ST 340015A 40GB HDD
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-m1712
HL-DT-ST GCE-8481B LG cd-rewriter
NVIDIA Corporation NV34. GeForce FX 5500 Graphic Card.
NEC MuliSync FE700+ Monitor

2. OPERATIVE SYSTEM
The lack of resources is an important barrier which can be leape using free software Open source and/or free software (Visit Free Software Foundation). This software is an important strategy to bring information and communication technologies to institutions, areas, countries with limited resources.

As I wrote on a previous post. Among all posibilities of "Free" Operative Systems, I think Debian is actually, the most stable and powerful distro to provide support to molecular modelling programs.


3. TO DEFINE SPECIFIC MOLECULAR MODELLING TOOLS
I think one way to start a molecular modelling project is to join to a "wetware" research group and to offer them theoretical support to experimental data. We have to know the general project and the experimental data and them to design and to write the molecular modelling protocol, where we define specific methods and actions. Based on methods, we will seek specific molecular modelling tools. Again, free software plays key role in our case, a very good reference to read is: Geldenhuys WJ, Gaasch KE, Watson M, Allen DD, Van der Schyf CJ. Optimizing the use of open-source software applications in drug discovery. Drug Discov Today. 2006 Feb;11(3-4):127-32.

We will go on. Good Night and Good Luck