Forums - Computer music & technology
Subject: Please enlighten me about...
Original Message 1/13 08-Jun-03 @ 05:00 PM Edit: 08-Jun-03 | 08:31 PM - Please enlighten me about...
I think I'm looking for a MoBo for a fast P4 with the fastest FSB and a huge cashe, able to handle 2gig of fast memory (what are the diferent flavors these days: DIMM, DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM?), SCSI for my current HD, CDrom, CDR/W, 3xUSB for my US428 and Midiman interfaces, RAID to experiement with, firewire, as many slots as possible but no onboard sound or video and probably a few other things I'm not aware of as yet. I do know It wants to be fast fast fast fast fast!!! Oooohwheeeeheeheehee!! I want to be able to use plug-ins like Waves & GRM Tools, and Kantos, which seem to take up a lot of CPU resources.
I would like to keep it under a grand (US) for the MoBo, power supply, CPU, heat sink, memory and case. I'll use my old monitors hard drives, keyboards, mouse, etc., for now. Later I'll be interested in removable HDs, I don't know if that makes a difference regarding the case's form factor.
I'm asking a lot?
Thanks as always, I'll be checking back in between surfing 'round for ideas.
Yours in unenlightened confusion,
Mick
PS: Any thoughts on these recommendations?
http://members.rogers.com/mlomas/2PCDAW.html
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,997602,00.asp - "Core plumbing", "display", "storage", "house and power plant" only.
Message 2/13 08-Jun-03 @ 06:48 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
I want to know whats the deal with P4 CPU's 800mhz FSB specs? what does it mean when you stick it on your MoBo? does that simply mean it supports mobo's with 800mhz FSB or ... ?
also, has the denormalisation problem been sorted out with new P4's (2ghz+)? are they safe?
thanks
Message 3/13 08-Jun-03 @ 07:38 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
Message 4/13 08-Jun-03 @ 08:15 PM Edit: 08-Jun-03 | 08:29 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
I've heard good things about the speed of RAID 0 and RAID 1/0 regarding speed that it seems like something I would want to look into. I guess theres no need for anything faster than 15,000rpms nor larger than 36gig unless one is working with long orchestral arrangements and/or high bit and sampling rates, though. I don't see any reason to go with anything other than 24/44.1 or 24/98 (at the most) although Cubase does do 32 bit which may be a consideration.
One of the reasons I've put off upgrading is I hate the research side of it all. So many fecking options. I kinda understand the Mac mentality at time like this.
Message 5/13 08-Jun-03 @ 09:30 PM Edit: 08-Jun-03 | 09:54 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
But I can help with various other bits and pieces. The on-board RAID is definitely worth the money. It is cheaper than SCSI, and now with Serial ATA, it it looks like SCSI may soon become obsolete anyways (it has certainly shifted out of the limelight recently). But what you need to know is that Serial ATA will cane your audio data at rates far exceding the requirements of a modern DAW (the introduction of the technology brought 150mbps transfer rates, and we all know that this will improve a GREAT deal within the near future, such is the nature of technology). When using the onboard RAID channels, it is probably best just to use the on-board RAID as extra IDE channels and leave the RAID settings for Servers as continuous backing up of data is not necessary on a DAW and you won't see any major performance gain.
As for RAM, DDR is till the choice of champions. Your 2gb requirement may be a little OTT. 1gb of PC3000 DDR RAM should be more than enough.
So, for example, you could go for a setup based around the Abit NF7-S(v2) (nForce2 chipset [reliable, fast, low-temp], 2xSATA, 2xATA133, Firewire, Dual DDR RAM Controllers, 2xUSB2 [with an extra 2xUSB2 extension]) with the XP2600+ (2ghz) Chip, 2x SATA 80gb drives (Maxtor and Seagate are good here) and 1gb (a bit OTT) PC3000 DDR RAM. This would cost around £380 (UK). I'm not sure about the US pricing.
This would be more than fast enough and reliable. Add some SATA drives and your track count (using a sequencer such as Logic) will easily get into the 30s + enough effects to well-and-truly scare your audience to death.
The rest of the technology, such as CDR Drives and video cards, is much the same as it was a few years ago. With the obvous exception of DVD. For video, just go for a 2d low spec AGP with enough colours and reliability to do the job (the more powerfull the graphics card, the more load on the CPU); the Matrox G550 is great! Its reliable, low-temp, cheap and features dual head. I'll leave the dillemas regarding Audio cards up to you as that is more of a personal choice.
I know it doesn't cover your entire query, but I hope this at least helps.
Regards.
Steve.
Message 6/13 09-Jun-03 @ 03:00 AM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
I'll be back...
Message 7/13 09-Jun-03 @ 02:46 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
RAID... You just don't need it, unless you want the redundancy to back up your data. My Maxtor UATA-133 drive will stream 90 tracks at once, according to ProRec's little diskbench utility. I used to mix more than 30 on my Athlon 700 with an ATA-33 hard disk.
-Craig
Message 8/13 10-Jun-03 @ 09:37 AM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
Message 9/13 10-Jun-03 @ 10:23 AM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
Bang for buck NOW is my mantra...
Message 10/13 10-Jun-03 @ 01:15 PM - RE: Please enlighten me about...
Pages: 1 2
There are 13 total messages for this topic
Reply to Thread
You need to register/login to use the forum.
Click here to Signup or Login !
[you'll be brought right back to this point after signing up]
Back to Forum