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I have a modern PC with XP and 3 Creamware cards and let me tell you it wasn't easy setting it up. I had to use Standard PC mode not ACPI as this was the only way to assign the IRQ settings. Furthermore, 2 of my PCI slots are forced to use the same IRQ by the motherboard. I had to disable my onboard Ethernet (I now use USB for that) and disable the onboard soundcard and put the 3 CW cards on the same IRQ. Most people set up ACPI as they are installing XP but I found a way to do it after:

On Windows XP, all you have to do is go into Device Manager, right click on "ACPI Computer", and use the "Update Driver..." button to replace the driver with "Standard PC". Unlike Windows 2000, this will NOT cause your machine to die a miserable death upon reboot. Instead, XP is smart enough to rebuild the HAL registry tree by reinstalling all your devices after you reboot.

If you are doing multimedia you should be using SATA hard drives. They are the same speed as SCSI and much cheaper. I have the RAID built into my motherboard. It's an ASUS 2 gigahertz with Intel Pentium 4. It's a delicate balance to get the IRQ right but now it works. When you boot up you can see which IRQ numbers your motherboard is using. Write them down and assign the CW slots in the BIOS to an unused IRQ. Maybe it's not a good idea for a Mac person to buy a PC because it is not easy and Mac people are used to everthing being easy.

I had to have 2 cards next to each other and then skip a slot. The Creamware ribbon cable was able to do this but just barely, also 2 of my Creamware cards are a little wider than most cards (CW why did you do this???)and the screwless locking mechanism in my case does not lock. Once a card wasn't properly seated and I got the message when I tried to boot the SFP (Don't Mess with the Copy Protection!). That was damn rude. Another problem I have is that the SATA cable plugs in between 2 of the CW cards. The cable design is poor. It gets pulled out so easily and then I have to remove a CW card to plug it back in!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: braincell on 2004-06-30 16:44 ]</font>

horror, really.

agreed
that isn't sophisticated but pure nonsense and a big waste of time ...
I already regretted the P4 servers for the office, sh*t what an idiot I was

cheers, Tom

In terms of where to buy, DAWs definitely repay total control over the parts etc. - which means getting a custom build. They may look more expensive when you've got people like Dell selling high-spec'ers for £600, but nothing beats high-quality, well chosen and well matched parts.

So in terms of shopping in the UK, it is worth touring some of the computer fairs - http://www.britishcomputerfairs.com/ - they are surprisingly legitimate, and all seem to be geeks themselves - I found their advice to be pretty solid when I bought my machine a few years ago. Many can be persuaded to build / format the machine as well as sell you the parts. The company I opted for charged £50, which I think was fair for building / formatting / testing (though I would build it myself these days).

Hope that helps.

Will.

i always thought those computer fairs were a bit dodgy - guy standaing in the corner of Tottenham Court Road with big placard "Computer Fair This Way", you know the ones mr swim but i'll certainly look into them, thanks for the tip.

Braincell - what can i say? That's why i still love my G4. It works, it's simple and elegent and the cards fit! i've seen some dead cheap reconditioned G4s in an SOS advert and i'm tempted to get one as they're better specified than my current machine!

As to buying a custom machine - as i said this thing will be be DAW second, if at all - i'd certainly like to try the PC version just to compare to my Mac interface. Most custom music PCs, like Red Submarine etc. seem to come in easily over a grand and a half - which seems silly as you could just get a Mac and it would work! i'm sure they source their components cheaply so do they really need to charge so much?

Thanks for the continued responses in this thread (i'm cross-referencing with the People's Systems thread here too to build up the ultimate lit of what should work).

Mr A

With one card you would probably have no problems if you are lucky but with 3 and on a modern board with lots of built in crap you really need to wrestle with the IRQs to get it properly configured, otherwise expect it to bomb every 10 minutes.

the late revenge of the early Mac OS, abandoned by it's own makers...
you know it's nothing personal, Braincell, but you just nailed it down so nicely

cheers, Tom

Dear Mr A,
I am by no means an expert but had been considering upgrading for awhile, and then Prescott came along, followed by news of the new Intel 775 platform. I decided to wait and see, and as a stopgap bought a ready made from Dell for about £600; all the components are of good quality [buy any upgrades cheaper from wxw.ebuyer.com] I installed me Luna, sp4 and it works with ACPI and HP enabled... I rarely seem to have the horrendous problems read about on this, and especially Creamware forums. Although I only have an ageing Luna and through my ineptitude rarely ask to much of it, after 3 years of ownership I still only understand a fraction of what it is capable of. So depending on the urgency of your upgrade this may be a safe way to test the water. I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the planet members for sharing the wealth of knowledge that they so freely give, creating a warm friendly environment for anyone who cares to visit. Well done and thank you all.

On 2004-07-01 06:20, Mr Arkadin wrote:
i always thought those computer fairs were a bit dodgy - guy standaing in the corner of Tottenham Court Road with big placard "Computer Fair This Way", you know the ones mr swim but i'll certainly look into them, thanks for the tip.

yeah I know them all too well (I study round there ...). But I was actually really impressed with their quality once inside the community centre / sports hall or whatever ! And they seem to be quite well regulated too - any complaints and they get kicked off the fair's books.

As to buying a custom machine - as i said this thing will be be DAW second, if at all - i'd certainly like to try the PC version just to compare to my Mac interface. Most custom music PCs, like Red Submarine etc. seem to come in easily over a grand and a half - which seems silly as you could just get a Mac and it would work! i'm sure they source their components cheaply so do they really need to charge so much?

simple answer: 'no' ! Places like submarine are only limitedly 'custom', as it were ... and part of what they are charging for are the audio 'tweaks' to XP or whatever that they do, and that you can do for free by going to one or two easy-to-follow sites on the web (well, easy for PCers !)

I don't think I'd ever go with a company-custom build (unless I had all the money in the world in which case I'd go for a Carillon - http://www.carillondirect.com/clnweb/in ... country=UK )

If you go to one of these fairs you should be able to pick up a high-quality spec computer plus CRT monitor for about £800 ... (with building / formatting included). I reckon that's pretty good value.

(by the way it was that very tottenham court road one where I bought my machine !)

Hope that's helpful,

Will.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: mr swim on 2004-07-01 12:18 ]</font>

it's not THAT hard guys....

No it's not! And Mr Arkadin, once you've built your own pc you'll be a knowledge level above your Mac mates because you'll know how a pc/mac works!