Switching to PC: My configuration.

Nisse · Post by **Nisse** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:05 pm

Hi lads!

My trusty (5 year old) Mac recently retired due to a nasty cough and aching joints.

I have decided to switch to PC due to purely economical reasons and Id appreciate if some of you PC tech wiz people could take a quick look at my setup and tell me what you think.

*dramatic pause followed by a drumroll*

Case:
Black Thunder Miditower Black/Silver 300W ATX 695:-

Motherboard:
ASUS A7N8X Deluxe/GD nForce2 5PCI 1AGP8x 3DDR-DIMM ATA133 LAN USB 2.0 6CH-Audio SocketA ATX

Processor:
AMD Athlon XP3000+ Barton 2167MHz/2.16GHz 128/512Kb 400MHz 0.13 bulk SocketA

Processor cooler:
CoolerMaster Aero 7+ SocketA (max XP3200+)

RAM:
Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO 2x512Mb (tot. 1024Mb)DDR PC3200 CAS2 400Mhz PRO Series with activity LEDs

CD/DVD:
LITE-ON LDW-411S DVD +R/RW -R/RW 4X DVD+R 4X DVD+RW 4X DVD-R 2.4X DVD-RW 40X CDR 24X CDRW RETAIL IDE

Graphics:
Matrox Millennium G650 64Mb DDR Dual Head DVI bulk AGP

Hard drive:
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB IDE
ATA/100 2MB cache 7200RPM

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 3:28 pm

hi Nisse,

its better to ask for advice before you buy,
what if people tell you what you bought is no good? When you're happy with it, it will do! To be honest its got some elements that are very good, others would not have been my choise.

regards

Nisse · Post by **Nisse** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 4:41 pm

Hiya Virtual, my post must have been misleading because I havent bought any of the stuff yet.
The setup you see above is a suggestion by a PC using sound engineer colleague of mine.

Im very interested to hear in detail what things you think are good/bad, and why.

AndreD · Post by **AndreD** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 4:59 pm

my choice would be:

<a href="http://www.chieftec.de/?page=products_s ... anguage=uk" target="_blank">chieftec</a>

<a href="http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket4 ... erview.HTM" target="_blank">asus p4 p800</a>

<a href="http://www.enermax.de/eg365ax-ve-fma.htm" target="_blank">enermax</a>

grafic-card and fan are well-selected...
liteon is loud very often...

you need 1gb of ram to run your system without crackles @ high cpu-load!

cu
andre

[ This Message was edited by: Andre Dupke on 2003-11-24 17:18 ]

marcuspocus · Post by **marcuspocus** » Mon Nov 24, 2003 5:00 pm

Everything looks perfect to me, maybe except the AMD + nForce + power supply

I would choose intel cpu + asus or intel board, and a more powerfull powersupply.

But everything else is just perfect.
Especialy the video card. Which is a great choice. Because this particular model of Matrox (p650) doesn't have any fans, and that's good

virtualstudio · Post by **virtualstudio** » Wed Nov 26, 2003 10:52 am

I'm also going for a new DAW, like I said some elements would be very good
especially the Matrox p650, like marcopocus said ,

I for sure would go for intel chipset(after everybody telling me I made bad decision on via chipset.)
I'm considering asus P4-800P or p4800c deluxe I'm still not clear on wich one is better, different opions here in forum.

the chieftec I already bought. 360 watt, also on advice by some people here(more power)

ram: someone told me take the one with low latency

cd/dvd: you can't go wrong there they getting cheaper and cheaper so very easy to replace.

harddisk: I always have Western Digital and never any problems but other people are very happy with their Seagate

anyway what ever you buy I hope you going to be happy with it, one thing is for sure; You got one of the greatest boards/ soundcards to make it work.

regards
Kor Terranova- Amsterdam

Marc de Ruiter · Post by **Marc de Ruiter** » Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:47 am

I would user two HD. On for OS, applications , swapfile and to backup audiofiles. The other only to record audio. I would go for models with 8MB onboard. The Maxtor Diamondmax 9 seems the less noisy one.

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Dec 04, 2003 5:48 am

300Watts is too small, you need at least 400 to be sure your system runs stable.

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe/GD just a very good choice motherboard.

:
AMD Athlon XP3000+ Barton 2167MHz/2.16GHz 128/512Kb 400MHz 0.13 bulk SocketA Fantastic! Extremely fast, just make sure you get a better fan that the one that comes with the box. I would suggest a thermaltake.

CoolerMaster Aero 7+ SocketA (max XP3200+), ups, i didn’t realise you already have cosen a cooler. The CoolerMaster is good, but not as good as a top range thermaltake for AMD. We all know that AMD has one problem, and this is heat, nothing else… they are fantastic processors. If you want to be “quiet” and real “cool”, get a thermaltake, it is more expensive, but it will keep you relaxed and your computer will run better when hot.

Corsair TWINX1024-3200C2PRO 2x512Mb, top of the range, best available RAM at the moment, I have the same ones and they are very capable and stable.

LITE-ON LDW-411S DVD, can’t comment on this.

Matrox Millennium G650 64Mb DDR Dual Head DVI bulk AGP, I have not tried it myself, but everybody here seems to have sort of a religion with it… so I’m pretty sure you are well furnished with it.

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB IDE, no doubt, great drive.

I can only say your system will be perfect if you build it correctly, and if you configure it correctly as well.

Be careful with the way you install everything, search following an intelligent path of priorities, and please: DO MAKE IMAGES OF YOUR C DRIVE as soon as you have an stable system, I would recommend for you to use TrueImage, it’s a fantastic app that works flawlessly.

Good luck!

_________________
Music is the most Powerful Language in the world! *INDEED*

[ This Message was edited by: Nestor on 2003-12-04 05:53 ]

Nisse · Post by **Nisse** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 5:45 am

Thanks for all the feedback guys

Just a question:
Nestor wrote: "300Watts is too small, you need at least 400 to be sure your system runs stable."

Can anyone explain to me why I need this?

Post by **garyb** » Fri Dec 05, 2003 11:55 pm

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=19&4

Marc de Ruiter · Post by **Marc de Ruiter** » Mon Dec 08, 2003 6:50 am

When I bought my new configuration, I used the 300 watt powersupply that came with the A-open case. The result was I was tweeking all day long to get rid of all the clicks and plops, asio overloads and sync problems. After I replaced it with an Anatek Truepower 330 Watt PSU all these problems were gone. Another benefit was the reduction of noise coming from the unit. Believe me you can only take advantage of hight processor clock rates and low latency if the power supply is really stable.

[ This Message was edited by: Marc de Ruiter on 2003-12-08 06:52 ]

Astral Fridge Magnet · Sun Dec 14, 2003 12:03 am

Hello,
This response is probably no good to you, but here is my two bobs worth:

I spent a year or so asking questions about what would be the best motherboard, hard disks etc...After finally settling on all the components and getting it put together I had nothing but hassle, after hassle. Maybe I was unlucky. But for the last month I have been making music not on my "supercharged, amazing, tweaked to perfection, thermaltake tower 1 Gb of Corsair Ram powerhouse PC", but on a simple PC where I have all kinds of junk, such as games, internet, all kinds of software that is not related to music making at all and various peripherals attached. All the things that you shouldn't have if you want a "professional, music system." Yet despite all this, I was making music virtually, completly problem free. As an audio/midi interface I have been using a TASCAM US-122 and it did the trick. Maybe not as flexible as a Pulsar, but it got the job done. This is not a criticism of Pulsar, but of being too fussy with getting the "right stuff". I was making music on my Dell 450 and one Pulsar card for years with no problems. Since updating to a so called powerful set-up I have had nothing but headaches, but hopefully it has finally sorted itself out now.
You figure out what the moral of the story is.

Regards