I am in the process of setting up a computational materials chemistry research group at a small college just north of Boston.

I have been asked to put together a proposal of hardware/software needs to get the group off the ground.  Money is limited of course and this is the direction I am going in so far.  There seems to be a budget for buying up to 4 workstations.  I would like to buy 4 fairly high end workstations such as the Dell T7610 with 6 cores in each.  I am also looking at purchasing the quantum materials studio package along with the basic package.

Systems the group is going to look at is still not clearly thought through, but most likely in the broad area of heterogeneous catalysis.

Opinions on suggested set up would be welcome.  I have used materials studio primarily as a visualizer in the past.  So I haven't used it to run calculations.  The four stations will be on the same network, does this mean a single calculation could be run over all 24 cores available, or would calculations only run on a single workstation.

As I put together my proposal, your input would be most welcome!!

Many thanks