Anything wrong with this setup?

[Liquid Len]

Motherboard : Intel DP35DPM, Intel Socket 775, ATX Motherboard, Audio, PCI Express, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0 & Firewire, Serial ATA, RAID (2.75 lbs)

CPU : Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor BX80570E8400 - 3.0GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Wolfdale, Dual-Core

Memory : 4X1024MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory

Video : EVGA GeForce 9400 GT Video Card - 512MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, VGA Support

Case : NZXT HUSH Black ATX Mid-Tower Case

PSU : Apevia / 500-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm LED Fan

CD/DVD : Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA

[garyb]

be sure that the memory you use is 1.8vlt.
the video card is much nicer than needed, but not a problem.

you'll likely have to disable a controller or two to have the needed free irqs if you are using multiple cards, but it should work very nicely.

[Liquid Len]

"you'll likely have to disable a controller or two to have the needed free irqs"

You mean the firewire, onboard audio, that sort of thing?

My biggest concern is that the new setup should be able to house a Creamware Pulsar II as well as a UAD-1 card. And I plan to get another Pulsar II soon. Will this motherboard have room for these cards? Looking at it, it seems to have 3 slots for PCI...

And if I buy a second Pulsar II card, where do I get the connecting STDM cable?

Thanks for the help and advice.

[Cochise]

I don't know anything about that specific PSU, nor if PC quietness is a matter in your placement, but I had a double 80mm fan PSU sounding somehow like a jet plane when turbines are set on.
The Enermax Liberty 500W the reseller gave me as a silent replacement, with its 120mm fan wasn't much more quiet, though.
The current 80+ series from Enermax is very quiet.

As for Led, I discovered they're good for lighting working surfaces. Just... hundreds of 70mW units are needed for a whole workspace.
More recent units can go above 3W.

[next to nothing]

A couple of comments;

I would go for 2x2GB RAM instead of 4x1GB, in case of future expansion. Price isn't much different.

I would avoid a PSU with LED fans, and rather go for a quality PSU with one 120mm fan underneath it.

If the computer is purely for music, i would choose a videocard with passive cooling.

[garyb]

"you'll likely have to disable a controller or two to have the needed free irqs"

You mean the firewire, onboard audio, that sort of thing?

My biggest concern is that the new setup should be able to house a Creamware Pulsar II as well as a UAD-1 card. And I plan to get another Pulsar II soon. Will this motherboard have room for these cards? Looking at it, it seems to have 3 slots for PCI...

And if I buy a second Pulsar II card, where do I get the connecting STDM cable?

Thanks for the help and advice.

yes, you can use 3 cards with that motherboard.
you won't need to disable firewire. onboard sound should be disabled in the bios along with serial and parallel ports(unless you need them). after that, you'll need to disable a few usb controllers and maybe something else, depending on what the cards end up sharing irqs with....

[ScofieldKid]

Just a side note: I don't know which CPU HEATSINK will show up but be prepared... the last Intel CPU HEATSINK that I got was truly awful. They went back to those expanding-poke-in-plastic-arrow posts. Bleh. If you get those, make sure you line up precisely, exactly, perfectly the first time. You don't get a second chance on that retention system... or at least, don't expect a second chance.

I had a Zalman ALCU heatsink, and so ended up switching to like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118118
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6835118219

Got a nice temperature reduction as well.

2 cents.

[Cochise]

Wolfdale stock fan is pretty quiet. Going for a silent solutions, PSU and graphics are the priorities in the submitted setup.

I don't know anything about that specific PSU, nor if PC quietness is a matter in your placement, but I had a double 80mm fan PSU sounding somehow like a jet plane when turbines are set on.
The Enermax Liberty 500W the reseller gave me as a silent replacement, with its 120mm fan wasn't much more quiet, though.
The current 80+ series from Enermax is very quiet.

As for Led, I discovered they're good for lighting working surfaces. Just... hundreds of 70mW units are needed for a whole workspace.
More recent units can go above 3W.

Today I replaced cooler and fan on the graphic card inside my 2nd machine.
The card is an Ati X600; the new cooler is a copper one from Matsuyama. Due to the better performance of the copper heatsink, I'm driving the fan with 7Vcc (3500rpm); it's spinning quiet and the GPU temperature is 3°C lower than before .
Well, I realized that more than 50% of the jet plane sound was from the old GPU fan.

I wasn't aware when I bought this cooler but... it comes with a red and a blue led below the fan....


About IRQs: two Luna II installed on a DP35DP didn't require any adjustment here; They have each one its unshared IRQ...
(the serial port has always been disabled, since I didn't installed the bracket at all on the chassis. IR port disabled too)

[Liquid Len]

Thanks everybody for your input.

I'm trying to figure out how to determine if the memory chips are 1.8v or not. I don't see those attributes listed anywheres. I am trying to order all the parts from tigerdirect.ca for simplicity's sake - I program computers all day, and I don't really want to mess around with them when I get home. (I won't be putting these parts together either). If I want 4 G of memory - and I agree with Piddi that it would be better to get 2X2048 than 4X1024 - which of these is the best choice?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... age12.y=17

I'm less worried about the video card taking 1% more power than it should, than that it works stably with the other parts. As for the PSU - I would think that 500W is plenty of power, but once again :

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... &srkey=psu

Which is a good deal? Keep in mind that I don't NEED the top-of-the-top-of-the-line, this is for basement recordings and I have no intention of making music a money enterprise. And I have ZERO plans of upgrading from XP to anything else. I want a system that works, my current system has too low PCI bandwidth to run Sonic Timeworks' reverbs and choruses without crashing.

(BTW scope4live if you are reading this - have you tried the P100 reverb yet??? I'm guessing you haven't or we would see a thread of ecstatic claims mixed with pictures of beautiful women...)

[next to nothing]

I kinda like Corsair modules, and I think these should be fine:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ ... CatId=3412

Based on this:
http://www.corsair.com/configurator/pro ... er_modules

They also have a lifetime warranty, but i dont know the specifics around that.

[garyb]

great! corsair has started selling 1.8vlt modules!

the full specs are always available from the manufacturer's website. if not, don't buy their stuff....

[Liquid Len]

Downturn in the economy resulted in cancelling or waiting to order the new computer. Motherboard failure resulted in cancelling the cancellation.. Right now I have a list of parts that seem to work together, but now I can't get a Intel DP35DP motherboard, so I went with the A5Q, apparently that is in the same league.


Motherboard : A455-2826 :: Asus P5Q-E Green Motherboard - Intel P45, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, S/PDIF, Dual Gigabit LAN, Firewire, USB 2.0, eSATA, RAID (3.45 lbs)

Hard Drives :
TSD-160AAJS :: Western Digital Caviar SE 160GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, SATA-300, OEM (1 lbs)
TSD-500AACS :: Western Digital Cavair GreenPower 500GB Hard Drive - 7200, 16MB, SATA-300, OEM (1.7 lbs)

Power Supply :
ULT-LSP650 :: Ultra LSP650 650-Watt Power Supply - ATX, SATA-Ready, SLI-Ready, 135mm Fan (5.1 lbs)

Memory :
C13-6072 :: Corsair XMS2 DHX 4096MB Dual Channel PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2 x 2048MB) (0.05 lbs)

DVD :
S167-4520 :: Sony DRU-V200S/BR DVD Rewritable Drive SATA - 20x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 12x DVD-R DL, 12x DVD-RAM, 16x DVD-ROM, 48x CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 48x CD-ROM, Black (1.95 lbs)

Case :
A406-1081 :: NZXT HUSH Black ATX Mid-Tower Case (15.25 lbs)

Graphics :
E145-9400 :: EVGA GeForce 9400 GT Video Card - 512MB DDR2, PCI Express 2.0, (Dual Link) Dual DVI, HDTV, VGA Support (1.15 lbs)

CPU :
CP1-DUO-E8400 :: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Processor BX80570E8400 - 3.0GHz, 6MB Cache, 1333MHz FSB, Wolfdale, Dual-Core, Retail, Socket 775, Processor with Fan (0.6 lbs)

[garyb]

i don't see why that shoudln't work. let us know!

do you have a 14/15dsp card? i'm curious about the case.

[Liquid Len]

!sob! I can't believe I just hit "Yes, charge me for all this gear". Oh well, look at the bright side, a nice new PC that's more powerful than the current one. My computer screen just went black, and I tried rebooting to no avail. Removed all the music cards, tried replacing the video card, no signal (like bios screen) when the computer powers up, the motherboard lights but there is no video output. Also tried removing the memory, and when i powered the PC up, got no warning beeps. Motherboard is toast, it's been flaky for years and lately it's been freezing up randomly, so All Things Must Pass, I guess.

[garyb]

true. true.

[Liquid Len]

Just a 6 dsp card. At least with this new computer I will be able to add cards.

[Liquid Len]

Is there any thread someone can point me to for 'optimizing XP'?

And, do I HAVE to run my new PC in Standard mode, disable USB ports, stuff like that? I'm upgrading from a 1.4/768M to 3.0/4096M, so I expect to see an eensy-weensy increase, and if the system runs stably, I don't have the energy to chase after that 5% of performance increase.

[garyb]

acpi should work just fine.the main xp tweek is in control panel/system/advanced/performance settings/adjust for best performance. 99% of improvements happen there. as to disabling usb, yes, you will likely have to disable a usb CONTROLLER or two(not all of usb, there will still be 3 or 4 controllers running, which can handle a number of devices so don't worry) in the device manager. i'll be happy to help when the time comes.

[dawman]

I would advise enabling 1 port only and using a Hub w/ it's own little PSU.
Intel thought a board w/o PS/2 would be another leap forward, but even though the USB specs seemed sufficient, it just doesn't seem that way in the real world.
You'll notice all the boards since that seem to have PS/2 again.
It depends how many devices you will run into the USB ports. Dongle's, DVD, USB keyboards, USB Memory sticks, etc. just killed me. The extra zip from a little PSU powered Hub was exactly what was needed.

[Liquid Len]

Drat! I just looked twice at that A5Q motherboard and realized it only holds two pci cards.

I'm going to send it back and get this motherboard instead :

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... CatId=3355

That is, if it will work with all the other components?