PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Hello all....
Let me start by saying I am a PC idiot.

I have been a Mac user since 1987 so I know nothing about PC's....

That being said...I am really really really REALLY tired of waiting for CW to release SFP for OSX. So I am thinking about buying a PC to put my cards (multiple) in.

I can get a used Dell Optiplex tower version for cheap. (VERY CHEAP) With 256mb RAM and a 733 P3 processor.

I have a Pulsar II and a SRB board (2 cards....21 DSP)

I will not be running ANY OTHER software than SFP in this machine. All my sequencing and recording will be done in Logic 6 on my Mac.

Will this system work? How crappy will the performance be?

Thanks for your inputs.

In fact, not crappy at all… I run a PIII 550 at the moment, and it’s not bad at all, particularly considering that you are going to use ONLY SFP. It’ll run more than well.

My only concern, and this is not subjective at all, is that you have very little ram, you need at the very least 512. If you plan to use lots of samples the you NEED to go farther with your ram, to even 768.

If you are going to use exclusively FSP, you should format the system first, so you get everything clean and fresh.

Anyway, the most important is to tell you that there is no problem, you have enough power to go with Creamware Boards.

Thanks Nestor...that's just the feedback I needed.

I run all my samples on the EXS24 in Logic. I would only use the Pulsar boards for the synths and effects.

I think that version of the Optiplex can be upgraded to at least 512mb.

I am thinking of running XP (home edition) ....and problems with this?

Thanks again for your feedback.

I think it’s alright, as long as you take care of doing all the twic everybody in there does… I mean, the ones suggested by Subhuman and all the others that follows:

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... forum=3&75

and

http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... &forum=3&8

I would prefer, if I were in your situation, to use only windows 98, cos you are going to us it exclusively for SFP, so, why complicate your life? Perhaps it’s more convenient for you. Think about that.

Nevetheless, if you run all yours samples in your Mac, in Logic, well… there should not be problems at all. Synths and FXs will only take DSP, but very little CPU processing, and some ram only.

Please, tell me, which is your MOBO and kind of RAM supported?

well...
I don't know the mobo type....

but it says it has the Intel 810e chipset and 256kb L2 cache running at the processor speed.

and it supports 100mhz synchronous SDRAM up to 512mb (has two RAM slots)


Does this help?

The system is coming with Windows 2000 pro installed...but I just thought that a clean install of XP would be better since it would be the most current.

Also....

I am wanting to install a KVM switcher so that I can use my existing keyboard and mouse and monitor and just switch between my Mac desktop and the PC desktop at will....

Is this possible? My Mac keyboard and mouse are both third party but they are USB. The Dell has built in USB ports but it also has PS/2 style ports.


Sorry for all the questions....and thanks for your help.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Kamurah on 2003-05-07 19:28 ]</font>

There exist many MOBOs with the Intel 810e chipset. It’s always nice to know which is your motherboard, cos you can fix certain incompatibilities, tweak things up a bit, downloading its manual from the Net.

Well, so all you will probably need is to go 512 MBs adding a second stick of 256 MBs with the same memory specification as the first.

If you already have Windows 2000 installed, I would not touch it at all, unless the system was used for a long, long time being dirty with many little pieces of software that are flouting between the bits, if we can say so…

Sorry, can’t help with the KVM, cos I’ve never used one, but somebody else will… you bet.

Sorry for the questions? You should read some of mine, you’ll rather be surprised at how many I have in this forum…

No problem with the kvm switch, no problem with the PC itself, and no problem with XP...

BTW, between W2K and XP, choose XP! Specialy for music...

I bet this is gonna be a very nice setup:
Mac OSX & Logic6 + a PC & SFP3.1C ... cool

I would consider a midi interface for midi communication between logic6 and SFP.

Am gonna go with an AMT8 for the MIDI interface.

I hope it works well....

I am trying to work out the perfect Audio interface too....

Am torn between a Metric Halo Mobile I/O and the Motu 828 and the Motu 896.

I don't need 96khz recording....
But my Apogee Rosetta can use the AES EBU inputs to go straight to the Pulsar (I have the Plus config), and then ADAT out to the interface card....

Of course if I spring for the 2408 I could have THREE ADAT banks (two for the Pulsar and one extra).

but I want to (hopefully) get everything out of the recording / mixing room into a machine room. So I was going to go Firewire so I could distance the CPU's from my desk via cable extenders.

Oh such decisions.

An update....

I decided to go with the Metric Halo 2882 Firewire interface...it was just more flexible with the I/O options and passthru for monitoring.

I also dug out my old Opcode Studio 4 serial interface and hooked it up. I had not tested it with OSX because my Stealth port didn't have MIDI drivers until recently.

Well it works like a charm so I am going to use that as my MIDI interface with the PC running SFP.

I also ordered the KVM switch and extender so I will be testing that out when it arrives.

....and a company called Hear Technologies (www.heartechnologies.com) makes an ADAT optical extender system using CAT5 cables that I am going to use to get the audio from the PC to the Metric Halo I/O (which I will use next to my keyboard and mic pre / AD).

If this all sounds convoluted....IT IS!!!

I have been racking my brains for the past day or so trying to figure it all out.....

I'll let you all know if it works or not. Please help me if I do something stupid PC-WISE.

I have D/L all the SFP updates and my keys file so as soon as the PC gets here I can begin installs.



sigh....

Got the Dell today.

Reformatted drive.
Installed XP (home edition)
Removed cards from Mac.
Installed cards in PC.
Installed SFP 3.1a
Installed SFP 3.1a to 3.1c update
Transferred all devices and presets from Mac.
Everything is working perfectly. (Knock on wood)

waiting on the Metric Halo interface and my kvm switcher (the Mac keyboard and mouse worked fine on the Dell)

I'm back in business....
Thanks guys for the input and help. I do appreciate.

Cheers

Go on and play!

Nice Squeezebox!