Hello everyone,
I hope this isn't a too demanding request.
I will be very shortly buying a new PC and reinstalling My Pulsar cards from scratch. It's been a while since I have done this so I would really appreciate the help. Could someone talk me through the steps I should take to avoid possible future problems. For example:
a)Do I install Windows XP before or after I install my Pulsar in the PC?
b)Can I custom install Windows XP (to avoid unnecessary applications such as games, Internet Explorer), or should I install Windows as normal and just delete them afterwards?
c)What is this ATAPI thing I have been reading about?
d) Any other useful tweaks or steps I should do?
Basically I would really appreciate a step by step guide on how I should go about it.
While I am here:
As I said I will be buying a new system, so any suggestions on components?
For example, Motherboard, Graphics Card, Hard drive, Power Supply, should I go for a system that has Hyper Threading?
Any information that would be useful really.
I realise I am asking a lot, so thanks in advance for your trouble.
Regards
Weirdo The Weird
Clean Reinstall Of Everything
Hi Weirdo,
you should have a read of Nestor's thread here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... rum=19&109
It got a lot of response and contains some good advice. After trawling through that maybe you have some more detailed thoughts ?
you should have a read of Nestor's thread here:
http://www.planetz.com/forums/viewtopic ... rum=19&109
It got a lot of response and contains some good advice. After trawling through that maybe you have some more detailed thoughts ?
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hubird
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Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
I would be very glad to help in here, cos I have done all the researches lately, and I know what you should get. I've passed four months studying in the Net everything, talking to experts and I'm sure my little knowledge can be valuable to you.
I would suggest to start, as Spirit says, buy reading the other threat. Then, come back with more precise question and please, do not aske too many at the same time, cos people get lost and you get no answer by the end. Let's start the the biginning, that is to say: The Case, then go to the Power Supply.
I would like to know with more presicion what you intend to do with it, how many cards do you need to install, how much are you expecting to spend, where are you in the planet, and finally, which is your knowledge building a computer. For the rest, I'm sure we can help, and I'm going to be very happy to return a bit, of the LOT I've received here by all those great people that had answered so many questions to me, in this process.
I would suggest to start, as Spirit says, buy reading the other threat. Then, come back with more precise question and please, do not aske too many at the same time, cos people get lost and you get no answer by the end. Let's start the the biginning, that is to say: The Case, then go to the Power Supply.
I would like to know with more presicion what you intend to do with it, how many cards do you need to install, how much are you expecting to spend, where are you in the planet, and finally, which is your knowledge building a computer. For the rest, I'm sure we can help, and I'm going to be very happy to return a bit, of the LOT I've received here by all those great people that had answered so many questions to me, in this process.
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Thanks Nestor for being willing to help.
Here are some of the answers to your questions:
a) I intend to have a music only machine with 2 Pulsar cards installed running also Logic and Cubase.
b) Money isn't too much of a problem but I don't want to go too overboard
c)I am in Holland ( though I am not Dutch. I am Australian).
d) I have never built my own computer before so would not really like to try. Anyway it doesn't cost much to get the shop to build it for you and then at least you have a warranty if things go wrong.
I have read the other posts but as you know things in the computer world change quickly.
But, I have more or less got an idea of components:
eg,
1) An ASUS board of some kind (which exactly I don't yet know).
2)A matrox 550 graphic card.
3) 120 GB hard drive a seagate or Western Digital (maybe two of them).
4) A DVD writer ( more capacity to save data with)
5) Power supply I have no idea.
6) Case no idea either.
I often read about recommendations for power supplies and cases but they are not always available in Holland. But I guess a 350 watt supply should do or is 300 enough?
But more importantly I am interested in the procedure for installation, which is what I wrote at the start of the thread. So stuff like:
Do I install Windows after or before I install my cards? Custom install, hyper threading etc... Though any suggestions on components would also be appreciated.
Hubird, a Mac may be a possibility, but a slight one. At least to run Logic ( which I love), but apparently there are issues which haven't been addressed with the Mac platform. Plus most of my software is for PC
Again thanks in advance for your responses and sorry for the long post.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-09 21:35 ]</font>
Here are some of the answers to your questions:
a) I intend to have a music only machine with 2 Pulsar cards installed running also Logic and Cubase.
b) Money isn't too much of a problem but I don't want to go too overboard
c)I am in Holland ( though I am not Dutch. I am Australian).
d) I have never built my own computer before so would not really like to try. Anyway it doesn't cost much to get the shop to build it for you and then at least you have a warranty if things go wrong.
I have read the other posts but as you know things in the computer world change quickly.
But, I have more or less got an idea of components:
eg,
1) An ASUS board of some kind (which exactly I don't yet know).
2)A matrox 550 graphic card.
3) 120 GB hard drive a seagate or Western Digital (maybe two of them).
4) A DVD writer ( more capacity to save data with)
5) Power supply I have no idea.
6) Case no idea either.
I often read about recommendations for power supplies and cases but they are not always available in Holland. But I guess a 350 watt supply should do or is 300 enough?
But more importantly I am interested in the procedure for installation, which is what I wrote at the start of the thread. So stuff like:
Do I install Windows after or before I install my cards? Custom install, hyper threading etc... Though any suggestions on components would also be appreciated.
Hubird, a Mac may be a possibility, but a slight one. At least to run Logic ( which I love), but apparently there are issues which haven't been addressed with the Mac platform. Plus most of my software is for PC
Again thanks in advance for your responses and sorry for the long post.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-09 21:35 ]</font>
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Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Let’s start by the Case, right?
This is one of them, a VERY good, extremely solid and well build case, with a fantastic Power Supply already included. It’s not expensive at all for what it offers, you can go blind buying it. There are better cases, but there is no need for it, unless you are going to run 6 or more HDDs within it, like some special Lian Li, and others… Antec Power Supply are among the best in the market, you can’t go wrong with one of them, if it comes included, but DO NOT get anything less than 400W, even if I plan to talk about it latter, I tell you right know: “do not underestimate the importance of a good and powerful Power Supply, or you’ll regret it”. Here you have a couple of links, so you can read s few reviews:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/article.php?threadid=582
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/antecplus1080amg/
http://www1.dealtime.com/xPR-Antec_Perf ... 3226686084
You have also an even better choice, but unnecessarily more expensive. You’ll see I’ve got one of those, but I got one of those cos I couldn’t get the 1080 I’ve showed before. But… common, they make extraordinarily good cases… I do not regret to have one of them… it’s a fantastic tower… it is, it looks, and it feels to be a great quality. The way they have built it is solid as a rock. The Xaxer III is an incredible good choice, a bit expensive cos there is no PS included, you have to buy it separate… but…
BTW, their Power Supplies are extremely reliable too, and have many save-system features most others do not. They make also, one of the best fans in the market, very silent as well. I have “5” of them, and they are really quiet. And the PurePower Therlaltake Power Supply is virtually silent.
Here you have a few links so you can see them, and read about it:
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v2000a.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xas ... 00plus.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v1000a.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xas ... 0dblue.htm
The case you chose it’s a very important item… It’s not just the place to gather your pieces for the system, but they mean a cool or a hot system. If you chose plastic, it’s hotter, and hotter means shorter life for your components. Plastic cases are also noisier than thick aluminium or other metallic cases, cos they put away height frequencies.
The Antec case 1080 has just a couple of fans… you should add more by yourself, cos it’s not really enough with the ones that come with it. You need to buy a couple more by yourself.
The Thermaltake come always with all their fans, unless stated otherwise. The minimum amount of fans today is 5, for Thermaltake cases. If you can, buy a Thermaltake, but you have to know you are going to buy a product from which you are going to be paying too, the fancy characteristics of it’s beautiful appearance. And… well… yes… they look BEAUTIFUL!
The case you chose means too, lack or spare expandability, and this is important if you plan to expand your system, as well as if you go into your computer. I thought that with my present Thermaltake, I would have a lot of space to work in, but… I was surprised that the space is just enough to be well, but that’s it. So… I said to myself: “fortunately I bought a big case, cos I would have hated to work in one of those midi towers, or small plastic cases, it would have been traumatic to built a computer for the first time through it”
If you have the money, get a Thermaltake.
The Lian Li cases are far from being fancy, or stylish at all, at least, not for most costumers, including me… I find them quite ugly. Well, but this does not mean they are bad. In fact they are one of the best cases available if you need a VERY cool system cos you are overcloking or plan to us SCSI HDs one day. Here you have a few links so you get into it by yourself:
http://www.dansdata.com/pc6010.htm
As you can see, they are of extreme quality, one of the best build of them all…
Here you have some more:
http://www.dansdata.com/pc70.htm
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_h ... _00039.asp
You can’t go wrong with it either… absolutely not!
Here you have the Chiftec, but some people claim they are noisy, I can’t tell, I don’t even know them… here you have:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/chieftec/xtreme2.asp
Ok, let’s go for one of them all, chose YOUR case, and then we continue with the rest of it. Don’t you thing it is better this way? If you don’t like it, tell me, but I prefer personally to go step by step, if not we are going to be coming back one thousand times to the same thing, endlessly. Better to exhaust a topic till you choose your item, and then we go again… is it right for you?
And please, READas much as you can, about everything you intend to get. It’s the only way you can get close feeling of it all.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-10 01:40 ]</font>
This is one of them, a VERY good, extremely solid and well build case, with a fantastic Power Supply already included. It’s not expensive at all for what it offers, you can go blind buying it. There are better cases, but there is no need for it, unless you are going to run 6 or more HDDs within it, like some special Lian Li, and others… Antec Power Supply are among the best in the market, you can’t go wrong with one of them, if it comes included, but DO NOT get anything less than 400W, even if I plan to talk about it latter, I tell you right know: “do not underestimate the importance of a good and powerful Power Supply, or you’ll regret it”. Here you have a couple of links, so you can read s few reviews:
http://www.pcreview.co.uk/article.php?threadid=582
http://www.tweaknews.net/reviews/antecplus1080amg/
http://www1.dealtime.com/xPR-Antec_Perf ... 3226686084
You have also an even better choice, but unnecessarily more expensive. You’ll see I’ve got one of those, but I got one of those cos I couldn’t get the 1080 I’ve showed before. But… common, they make extraordinarily good cases… I do not regret to have one of them… it’s a fantastic tower… it is, it looks, and it feels to be a great quality. The way they have built it is solid as a rock. The Xaxer III is an incredible good choice, a bit expensive cos there is no PS included, you have to buy it separate… but…
BTW, their Power Supplies are extremely reliable too, and have many save-system features most others do not. They make also, one of the best fans in the market, very silent as well. I have “5” of them, and they are really quiet. And the PurePower Therlaltake Power Supply is virtually silent.
Here you have a few links so you can see them, and read about it:
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v2000a.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xas ... 00plus.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xaser3/v1000a.htm
http://www.thermaltake.com/products/xas ... 0dblue.htm
The case you chose it’s a very important item… It’s not just the place to gather your pieces for the system, but they mean a cool or a hot system. If you chose plastic, it’s hotter, and hotter means shorter life for your components. Plastic cases are also noisier than thick aluminium or other metallic cases, cos they put away height frequencies.
The Antec case 1080 has just a couple of fans… you should add more by yourself, cos it’s not really enough with the ones that come with it. You need to buy a couple more by yourself.
The Thermaltake come always with all their fans, unless stated otherwise. The minimum amount of fans today is 5, for Thermaltake cases. If you can, buy a Thermaltake, but you have to know you are going to buy a product from which you are going to be paying too, the fancy characteristics of it’s beautiful appearance. And… well… yes… they look BEAUTIFUL!
The case you chose means too, lack or spare expandability, and this is important if you plan to expand your system, as well as if you go into your computer. I thought that with my present Thermaltake, I would have a lot of space to work in, but… I was surprised that the space is just enough to be well, but that’s it. So… I said to myself: “fortunately I bought a big case, cos I would have hated to work in one of those midi towers, or small plastic cases, it would have been traumatic to built a computer for the first time through it”
If you have the money, get a Thermaltake.
The Lian Li cases are far from being fancy, or stylish at all, at least, not for most costumers, including me… I find them quite ugly. Well, but this does not mean they are bad. In fact they are one of the best cases available if you need a VERY cool system cos you are overcloking or plan to us SCSI HDs one day. Here you have a few links so you get into it by yourself:
http://www.dansdata.com/pc6010.htm
As you can see, they are of extreme quality, one of the best build of them all…
Here you have some more:
http://www.dansdata.com/pc70.htm
http://www.littlewhitedog.com/reviews_h ... _00039.asp
You can’t go wrong with it either… absolutely not!
Here you have the Chiftec, but some people claim they are noisy, I can’t tell, I don’t even know them… here you have:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/chieftec/xtreme2.asp
Ok, let’s go for one of them all, chose YOUR case, and then we continue with the rest of it. Don’t you thing it is better this way? If you don’t like it, tell me, but I prefer personally to go step by step, if not we are going to be coming back one thousand times to the same thing, endlessly. Better to exhaust a topic till you choose your item, and then we go again… is it right for you?
And please, READas much as you can, about everything you intend to get. It’s the only way you can get close feeling of it all.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-10 01:40 ]</font>
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King of Snake
- Posts: 1544
- Joined: Fri Apr 13, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: the Netherlands
- Contact:
Good case and powersupply are important yes. I had never thought about my powersupply until a week ago. Over the years I have upgraded my PC several times with new mobo's, cpu's etc. but the case and PSU are still the original 4-5 year old components. So here I was running an Athlon XP2600 on a generic 235 watt PSU 
Miraculously it didn't even seem to be much of a problem for the PSU, but for all I know it could have exploded within a day or two. Now I decided to spend a bit more on a decent PSU and bought an Enermax 350 Watt dualfan for 75,- Euro. The case upgrade will be for later
I think a 400 Watt PSU isn't really neccesary unless you want to run lots of fans, lights, and other gadgetery inside your PC, as well as an array of SCSI HD's and DVD burners, but Antec and Enermax seem to be some of the more popular choise for PSU's. Dualfan PSU's are good since they improve airflow in your system.
Anyway, since you say you are going to have it built for you by the shop, I'll not bother with any explanations of how to set up hardware-wise (although you might want to get familiar with the different components and how everything connects later on, especially if you want to upgrade in the future.
Overall, installing PC hardware is not that difficult. Most parts fit only one way, the only things you have to know is "what goes where".
As for software installation. You can install windows with the Pulsar cards already installed. Windows won't recognise the cards though because it doesn't have any drivers for them, so they will just appear as "multimedia device" or something until you install the drivers via the SFP installer.
You can do any customisations of Windows after the install. (there is a big topic of Windows tweaking in the tips/tricks forum here), although I don't know if it's even possible to remove internet explorer.
Your choice of components seems to be allright. Asus boards are generally considered very high quality, as are Matrox cards (although you might want to consider ATI as well). You don't mention wether you're going AMD or Intel, although I'm not sure if it really makes much difference. I think AMD give a bit more performance for your buck though.
Having 2 seperate HD's is advisable, (although 2x 120 Gig's might be a bit too much if all you're going to use it for is making music). Make sure they are 7200 rpm disks as well.
_________________
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-12 05:38 ]</font>
Miraculously it didn't even seem to be much of a problem for the PSU, but for all I know it could have exploded within a day or two. Now I decided to spend a bit more on a decent PSU and bought an Enermax 350 Watt dualfan for 75,- Euro. The case upgrade will be for later
I think a 400 Watt PSU isn't really neccesary unless you want to run lots of fans, lights, and other gadgetery inside your PC, as well as an array of SCSI HD's and DVD burners, but Antec and Enermax seem to be some of the more popular choise for PSU's. Dualfan PSU's are good since they improve airflow in your system.
Anyway, since you say you are going to have it built for you by the shop, I'll not bother with any explanations of how to set up hardware-wise (although you might want to get familiar with the different components and how everything connects later on, especially if you want to upgrade in the future.
Overall, installing PC hardware is not that difficult. Most parts fit only one way, the only things you have to know is "what goes where".
As for software installation. You can install windows with the Pulsar cards already installed. Windows won't recognise the cards though because it doesn't have any drivers for them, so they will just appear as "multimedia device" or something until you install the drivers via the SFP installer.
You can do any customisations of Windows after the install. (there is a big topic of Windows tweaking in the tips/tricks forum here), although I don't know if it's even possible to remove internet explorer.
Your choice of components seems to be allright. Asus boards are generally considered very high quality, as are Matrox cards (although you might want to consider ATI as well). You don't mention wether you're going AMD or Intel, although I'm not sure if it really makes much difference. I think AMD give a bit more performance for your buck though.
Having 2 seperate HD's is advisable, (although 2x 120 Gig's might be a bit too much if all you're going to use it for is making music). Make sure they are 7200 rpm disks as well.
_________________
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: King of Snake on 2003-07-12 05:38 ]</font>
Well I am totally you're opposite then Nestor.On 2003-07-10 01:30, Nestor wrote:
<SNIP>
If you can, buy a Thermaltake, but you have to know you are going to buy a product from which you are going to be paying too, the fancy characteristics of it’s beautiful appearance. And… well… yes… they look BEAUTIFUL!
<SNIP>
The Lian Li cases are far from being fancy, or stylish at all, at least, not for most costumers, including me… I find them quite ugly.
<SNIP>
I have 2 boring black alloy Lian-li cases because I don't like all the wierd curves and colour schemes and attachments that some manufactures plaster onto thier boxes. To me that sought of thing dates very quickly.
But of course this is just personal opinion and I could be dated.
Looks aside though I can vouch for the build quality and the alloy does help to extract heat better.
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Hi again.
Sorry Nestor for not replying sooner, but I have been on a short holiday and have only just got back.
Anyway, the Antec case you suggest I haven't been able to find, but I have found a Thermaltake case (which has 7 fans-won't that be too noisy?). So I guess I will settle for that. The power supply is also a Thermaltake 480 watts (or do you think that is overkill?).
I have also thought about getting the following components:
Asus P4P 800 GD / maybe the deluxe with RAID>Matrox G550 graphic card, 2 SEAGATE SATA ST3120023AS 120GB hard drives>Intel P4 2.8 maybe 3.06 800mhz CPU> 1024 MB DDR RAM PC3200/400> I still can't decide on a DVD or standard CD writer> Samsung Syncmaster 17" LCD screen but I may go for a 15".
Thanks in advance for your response(s).
P.S. Is hyper threading an issue with Pulsar?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-17 13:00 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-17 13:01 ]</font>
Sorry Nestor for not replying sooner, but I have been on a short holiday and have only just got back.
Anyway, the Antec case you suggest I haven't been able to find, but I have found a Thermaltake case (which has 7 fans-won't that be too noisy?). So I guess I will settle for that. The power supply is also a Thermaltake 480 watts (or do you think that is overkill?).
I have also thought about getting the following components:
Asus P4P 800 GD / maybe the deluxe with RAID>Matrox G550 graphic card, 2 SEAGATE SATA ST3120023AS 120GB hard drives>Intel P4 2.8 maybe 3.06 800mhz CPU> 1024 MB DDR RAM PC3200/400> I still can't decide on a DVD or standard CD writer> Samsung Syncmaster 17" LCD screen but I may go for a 15".
Thanks in advance for your response(s).
P.S. Is hyper threading an issue with Pulsar?
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-17 13:00 ]</font>
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Weirdo The Weird on 2003-07-17 13:01 ]</font>
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Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Fantastic overall choice! I think you’re going to build a superb system if you get what you are planning getting.
Just get GOOD RAM, go for the best you can afford, this is extremely important.
As for the Power Supply, the PurePower 480 it’s a fantastic choice, it’s not much more expensive than the 420, and it’s better and has the latest technology from Thermaltake. It’s one of the very best units out there…
The case:
You’re talking about the Thremaltake Xaser III probably, it’s one of the few with 7 fans. I’m already running mine with 5 fans, and it’s not noisy, I’m surprised at that. 7 fans, on the contrary, will be less noisy than 5 because you can slow down them all, through your BIOS, and still get a very cool system. You can’t go wrong.
If you can do anything else, please, ask.
Good luck!
Just get GOOD RAM, go for the best you can afford, this is extremely important.
As for the Power Supply, the PurePower 480 it’s a fantastic choice, it’s not much more expensive than the 420, and it’s better and has the latest technology from Thermaltake. It’s one of the very best units out there…
The case:
You’re talking about the Thremaltake Xaser III probably, it’s one of the few with 7 fans. I’m already running mine with 5 fans, and it’s not noisy, I’m surprised at that. 7 fans, on the contrary, will be less noisy than 5 because you can slow down them all, through your BIOS, and still get a very cool system. You can’t go wrong.
If you can do anything else, please, ask.
Good luck!
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
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Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Thanks for your responses. Also another question- What do you think of a wireless keyboards and mouse? And do you think 2 120 GB hard drives is too much? In fact am I going overkill on anything and which other components would you suggest? Finally, what about installation procedure ( see the very beginning of my thread)?
Thanks again for going to the trouble of answering what I hope are not too demanding quetions.
Thanks again for going to the trouble of answering what I hope are not too demanding quetions.
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Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Hello Werido, how are you?
Well, here I am again… I couldn’t pay attention to this before cos I was (and actually still am) busy installing software. I go soooo slow, that even if I have very little to install, I do lots of research in regard to the ORDER in which to install everything, which is what you want to do to.
About your components…
Let’s get at it:
For me, ASUS are the best boards, I own a P4PE full today and I’m flaying, it’s truly fantastic. I don’t think you would be wrong taking Abit or some other trademarks as long as you get a high end product. But ASUS is well known for it’s stability and extremely reliable throughput for Audio Work Stations, so I would preferably go with an Asus board myself. And I think that all P4P800 are a good choice. All you need to think about now, is which suits you best in accordance to the quantity of PCI slots you need, the kind of processor, etc., but they are all very good boards.
I think that for your configuration, the P4PE-X is a good choice (What I'm not sure is if it supports SATA or not, you have to make sure. I have payed attention to the main features rather, forgot about the SATA sorry). You have an enormous 6 PCI slots plus the AGP one, so, expandability it’s not a problem. It is Hyper-Threading Technology ready, and gets the latest Pentium IV with 800MHz FSB!
You can go up to 2GBs of memory, but, the only way of getting to 2 GBs is buying two sticks of 1GB each of RAM, and this is too expensive. If you use two double sided RAM sticks DDR 400, you will not be able to use the third slot. This is the only backside I have found to this boards, but 1024 RAM DDR 400, assuming you install two DDR of 512 MBs each, its already quite good. This is what I have and it’s plenty.
The Audio Onboard, it’s a good option if you listen to music, see videos, etc., without the need to open Pulsar. And the sound it’s rather good, quite detailed in fact.
The CrashFree-BIOS is a very good feature too, that secures your life against serious upgrade problems when upgrading your BIOS. I did it and it couldn’t’ be easier.
And… most important of all, it’s rock solid stable!
***
Everybody here likes and recommends Matrox, so just if you can, get the latest one, the 650 instead of the 550. You can’t go wrong with it. I honestly, have not own one of them, but would have liked to get one instead of an MSI, as I did. I’ve got an MSI cos there were no Matrox boards in the whole of Chile, that’s it. If almost 100% of the Z Forum members recommend you something through years and years, obviously, it’s because it’s good and reliable. So go Matrox no prob!
***
The very little experience I had with my Seagate Barracuda V 80GBs is just great! They are REALLY FAST! Some think they do not worth the money, etc., but my experience is that they actually do. I do not regret to have one of them. And I certainly recommend you to get a couple as you want to.
Nowadays, 240GBs is not as much as you might think… In fact, when I got my two 13.5 GBs IBM 7200 for my last DAW, I was asking myself: “Hey, aren’t you going crazy? This is just too much space, what are you going to do?” I would think that way cos those dicks were in fact VERY expensive, about 250£ each! Wow! But… time gave me the reason, I needed them desperately. Today, they are like a little toy box to me. I need much more space. I’ve got two 80GBs, a Maxtor and the Seagate we are talking about. And I have to tell you that if I’ve got to 80 instead of two 120, it’s because they didn’t have them in Santiago. But I would gladly take even two 160GBs as long as they are GOOD drives. Those Barracuda V truly are. When I read it’s 60 pages PDF information was surprised of how much care they had taken to build those drives.
One thing is true, and is that the Barracuda Seagate V SATA gets hotter than most drives in the market. But assuming you are going to take a Thermaltake with 7 fans, there’s not problems to care about. Only remember… put your drives as far from each other as possible
As I say, you are going to use this space faster than what you imagine, so two 120GBs it’s not an exaggeration today.
***
If you have the money for a 3.06GHz Pentium IV and YOU NEED IT, go for it! But you have to have money to burn if you say yes… It’s too expensive for the difference you are going to experience. Of course it’s faster, but I doubt you actually need something faster than a 2.4 right now. The faster the better, and we couldn’t agree more on this, but it’s truly too expensive for the difference. I would take a 2.4 with 800MHz, and would do with it for a year or so, and then would go for the biggest possible to upgrade my system with HT and 800MHz. I think this is wise and you are not going to miss much power anyway. Remember that if you take this ASUS board we were talking about, overcloking gets far too easy, and you can with no problems get a faster system to reach a quite similar performance, for HALF the price.
***
1024 MB PC3200/400 DDR of RAM is good enough. You can go even higher to PC3700, cos the 800MHz of FSB will benefit much from it.
Something important: get the very best RAM you can afford. It’s quite more expensive, but so important for the overall function of the system, that it would be silly to get a very good system killing it’s performance and reliability for getting a bad or mediocre RAM. If you can, get Corsair RAM, it’s fantastic and comes with heat spreaders, which will be well suited to a fast system using two Seagate Barracuda V SATA.
***
I would not get a DVD writer, unless you want to do DVDs, of course. But not for a storage solution. If you want a good storage solution, just buy an IDE HD, you have space, you have a good set of fans, and your board is extremely expandable, so… why should you pay for something like a DVD writer? Well, I too want one of those! But it’s technology is still growing and it’s rather expensive. In the mean time, I would recommend for you to get a CD-RW waiting for it to mature a bit, and then, perhaps in a year or two, get one of them. I can’t say it’s not a good storage solution, it is with it’s 4.7GBs capacity per disc, but… Well, it’s a matter of having or not the need to burn DVDs.
***
Monitors:
Be careful! Do not buy monitors you have not tried for at leas, 20 minutes, staring at it as if you were working at home. You have to be exigent about this with your salesman, if they don’t allow you this, go elsewhere… or you’ll have perhaps to regret to have bought something in fact, you didn’t like!
I could see how people were attracted to the cheapest monitors models in the shops, instead to be attracted to the high end models… it’s strange, but the first reaction is for you to get close to those monitors… Why? Because they are in general sharp, and for a couple of minutes they are very sparkly, then if you stare at them for a long time they become extremely tiresome and can get your eyes VERY tired.
The problem is that many monitors today have only 24p so they look quite pleasant at first sight, but they are definitely not good for working on them for long hours.
I’ve just got a ViewSonic Professional Series P75f+ for my wife and common, they are good… They are not so sharp as others, but the image is very good. Of course it’s not a top of the line, but your eyes get no staring from staring at it. She’s very pleased and so I am. I like the ViewSonic quality. If I were to give you an example about food, I would say that some manufacturers are more like ice-cream while others are more like bread. What would you choose if you were given the opportunity, ice-cream or bread? Well… most people in the world would choose ice-cream, and so would I of course. But if you have to eat ice-cream all they through, you’ll get really disgusted about it… if you were to eat bread all day along, it would be much easier cos the taste is softer… ViesSonic is a little like bread, is softer and I like it this way.
Overall, I think you’re getting a very powerful machine that will satisfy most musicians and composers. Good luck Weirdo
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-21 11:39 ]</font>
Well, here I am again… I couldn’t pay attention to this before cos I was (and actually still am) busy installing software. I go soooo slow, that even if I have very little to install, I do lots of research in regard to the ORDER in which to install everything, which is what you want to do to.
About your components…
Let’s get at it:
For me, ASUS are the best boards, I own a P4PE full today and I’m flaying, it’s truly fantastic. I don’t think you would be wrong taking Abit or some other trademarks as long as you get a high end product. But ASUS is well known for it’s stability and extremely reliable throughput for Audio Work Stations, so I would preferably go with an Asus board myself. And I think that all P4P800 are a good choice. All you need to think about now, is which suits you best in accordance to the quantity of PCI slots you need, the kind of processor, etc., but they are all very good boards.
I think that for your configuration, the P4PE-X is a good choice (What I'm not sure is if it supports SATA or not, you have to make sure. I have payed attention to the main features rather, forgot about the SATA sorry). You have an enormous 6 PCI slots plus the AGP one, so, expandability it’s not a problem. It is Hyper-Threading Technology ready, and gets the latest Pentium IV with 800MHz FSB!
You can go up to 2GBs of memory, but, the only way of getting to 2 GBs is buying two sticks of 1GB each of RAM, and this is too expensive. If you use two double sided RAM sticks DDR 400, you will not be able to use the third slot. This is the only backside I have found to this boards, but 1024 RAM DDR 400, assuming you install two DDR of 512 MBs each, its already quite good. This is what I have and it’s plenty.
The Audio Onboard, it’s a good option if you listen to music, see videos, etc., without the need to open Pulsar. And the sound it’s rather good, quite detailed in fact.
The CrashFree-BIOS is a very good feature too, that secures your life against serious upgrade problems when upgrading your BIOS. I did it and it couldn’t’ be easier.
And… most important of all, it’s rock solid stable!
***
Everybody here likes and recommends Matrox, so just if you can, get the latest one, the 650 instead of the 550. You can’t go wrong with it. I honestly, have not own one of them, but would have liked to get one instead of an MSI, as I did. I’ve got an MSI cos there were no Matrox boards in the whole of Chile, that’s it. If almost 100% of the Z Forum members recommend you something through years and years, obviously, it’s because it’s good and reliable. So go Matrox no prob!
***
The very little experience I had with my Seagate Barracuda V 80GBs is just great! They are REALLY FAST! Some think they do not worth the money, etc., but my experience is that they actually do. I do not regret to have one of them. And I certainly recommend you to get a couple as you want to.
Nowadays, 240GBs is not as much as you might think… In fact, when I got my two 13.5 GBs IBM 7200 for my last DAW, I was asking myself: “Hey, aren’t you going crazy? This is just too much space, what are you going to do?” I would think that way cos those dicks were in fact VERY expensive, about 250£ each! Wow! But… time gave me the reason, I needed them desperately. Today, they are like a little toy box to me. I need much more space. I’ve got two 80GBs, a Maxtor and the Seagate we are talking about. And I have to tell you that if I’ve got to 80 instead of two 120, it’s because they didn’t have them in Santiago. But I would gladly take even two 160GBs as long as they are GOOD drives. Those Barracuda V truly are. When I read it’s 60 pages PDF information was surprised of how much care they had taken to build those drives.
One thing is true, and is that the Barracuda Seagate V SATA gets hotter than most drives in the market. But assuming you are going to take a Thermaltake with 7 fans, there’s not problems to care about. Only remember… put your drives as far from each other as possible
As I say, you are going to use this space faster than what you imagine, so two 120GBs it’s not an exaggeration today.
***
If you have the money for a 3.06GHz Pentium IV and YOU NEED IT, go for it! But you have to have money to burn if you say yes… It’s too expensive for the difference you are going to experience. Of course it’s faster, but I doubt you actually need something faster than a 2.4 right now. The faster the better, and we couldn’t agree more on this, but it’s truly too expensive for the difference. I would take a 2.4 with 800MHz, and would do with it for a year or so, and then would go for the biggest possible to upgrade my system with HT and 800MHz. I think this is wise and you are not going to miss much power anyway. Remember that if you take this ASUS board we were talking about, overcloking gets far too easy, and you can with no problems get a faster system to reach a quite similar performance, for HALF the price.
***
1024 MB PC3200/400 DDR of RAM is good enough. You can go even higher to PC3700, cos the 800MHz of FSB will benefit much from it.
Something important: get the very best RAM you can afford. It’s quite more expensive, but so important for the overall function of the system, that it would be silly to get a very good system killing it’s performance and reliability for getting a bad or mediocre RAM. If you can, get Corsair RAM, it’s fantastic and comes with heat spreaders, which will be well suited to a fast system using two Seagate Barracuda V SATA.
***
I would not get a DVD writer, unless you want to do DVDs, of course. But not for a storage solution. If you want a good storage solution, just buy an IDE HD, you have space, you have a good set of fans, and your board is extremely expandable, so… why should you pay for something like a DVD writer? Well, I too want one of those! But it’s technology is still growing and it’s rather expensive. In the mean time, I would recommend for you to get a CD-RW waiting for it to mature a bit, and then, perhaps in a year or two, get one of them. I can’t say it’s not a good storage solution, it is with it’s 4.7GBs capacity per disc, but… Well, it’s a matter of having or not the need to burn DVDs.
***
Monitors:
Be careful! Do not buy monitors you have not tried for at leas, 20 minutes, staring at it as if you were working at home. You have to be exigent about this with your salesman, if they don’t allow you this, go elsewhere… or you’ll have perhaps to regret to have bought something in fact, you didn’t like!
I could see how people were attracted to the cheapest monitors models in the shops, instead to be attracted to the high end models… it’s strange, but the first reaction is for you to get close to those monitors… Why? Because they are in general sharp, and for a couple of minutes they are very sparkly, then if you stare at them for a long time they become extremely tiresome and can get your eyes VERY tired.
The problem is that many monitors today have only 24p so they look quite pleasant at first sight, but they are definitely not good for working on them for long hours.
I’ve just got a ViewSonic Professional Series P75f+ for my wife and common, they are good… They are not so sharp as others, but the image is very good. Of course it’s not a top of the line, but your eyes get no staring from staring at it. She’s very pleased and so I am. I like the ViewSonic quality. If I were to give you an example about food, I would say that some manufacturers are more like ice-cream while others are more like bread. What would you choose if you were given the opportunity, ice-cream or bread? Well… most people in the world would choose ice-cream, and so would I of course. But if you have to eat ice-cream all they through, you’ll get really disgusted about it… if you were to eat bread all day along, it would be much easier cos the taste is softer… ViesSonic is a little like bread, is softer and I like it this way.
Overall, I think you’re getting a very powerful machine that will satisfy most musicians and composers. Good luck Weirdo
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nestor on 2003-07-21 11:39 ]</font>
-
Astral Fridge Magnet
- Posts: 347
- Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2001 4:00 pm
Hi Nestor,
Thank you very much for your very detailed response!!!! You certainly are very helpful!!!And it is very much appreciated!!!
You say the Seagate SATA V get hotter than most HDs, which kind of puts me off. What do you think about Western Digital drives? Are they quiet enough and less hot?
Is the crash- feature also available on the ASUS P4P 800 board? Should I go for the P4P 800 deluxe which includes RAID?
Finally for a monitor would you go for a 15 or 17 inch?
Thanks again in advance for your response(s)
Thank you very much for your very detailed response!!!! You certainly are very helpful!!!And it is very much appreciated!!!
You say the Seagate SATA V get hotter than most HDs, which kind of puts me off. What do you think about Western Digital drives? Are they quiet enough and less hot?
Is the crash- feature also available on the ASUS P4P 800 board? Should I go for the P4P 800 deluxe which includes RAID?
Finally for a monitor would you go for a 15 or 17 inch?
Thanks again in advance for your response(s)
You very likely do not need RAID, also I think it is only RAID 0 (risky stuff), but I may remember wrong.
Info on harddrives can be found at http://www.storagereview.com
Info on harddrives can be found at http://www.storagereview.com
-
Nestor
- Posts: 6688
- Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2001 4:00 pm
- Location: Fourth Dimension Paradise, Cloud Nine!
Hi Werdo!
Western Digital are the fastest and coolest drives out there… Those were my first choice, if I didn’t take them was just because in Chile I couldn’t find anybody to sell them immediately for me, I had to wait and they were extremely expensive due to shipping and other customs exigencies.
If you want to go Western Digital, get the Second Edition Caviar, and be sure of their precedence, you want for them to come from USA, i.e. they have been checked in USA, even if they are manufactured in Singapore for instance, on Taiwan.
They are in fact, quiet enough, cos they have special motors that silence most of the noise coming from search and writing procedures.
There you don’t need SATA technology, and nevertheless, it doesn’t matter to have or not to have it… the performance increase is quite small for the moment. Something is true, despite the fact that the performance is smaller than IDE, you can be sure that they sustain throughput much better than IDE does, I’m experiencing this, and don’t need to learn it from anywhere out there, I own one of them at home and are experimenting first hand with it.
I have to agree with Immanuel completely, about the RAID stuff, I don’t really rely upon it either. Most of the time it’s better to get something simpler and working reliably than anything else. Remember that after this period of ”excitement” you are going to be alone with your computer at home, the what you really want is for it to work every day, every hour of it’s life… don’t you? Well, keep it simple!
So, perhaps the best for you is to go for a no RAID MOBO, using Western Digital drives. I repeat, they are not much noise, of course, they are noisier than the most quiet of the market, which are the Seagate Barracuda V drives.
Ho… yes… I almost forgot! It’s very important that you get the 8MB buffer model of the Western Digital, they are much faster than the 2MB one. Two Western Digital 8MB buffer will give you extreme performance, the best of the market, and they still are the coolest drives EIDE you can get. I would say it’s a better choice than a Barracuda, if you don’t mind a very little more noise.
***
In regard to monitors, of course that the bigger the better, but a 15” for me, it’s jus unacceptable, I would not buy this… I would even buy a cheaper but bigger monitor instead. If you work with Cubase, SFP, plug-ins etc., you NEED a bigger monitor. I have a 17” myself, and I have it cos I don’t have the money to afford a second one, or a 19” one. If you can, the best bet is to get two monitors of 17 inches each, so you can split your work in two. Anyway, I guess this is why you are getting a Matrox, they are just good for that.
***
That’s it, hope you are getting there… Don’t hesitate to ask whatever you need, I’m going to help in what I can.
Western Digital are the fastest and coolest drives out there… Those were my first choice, if I didn’t take them was just because in Chile I couldn’t find anybody to sell them immediately for me, I had to wait and they were extremely expensive due to shipping and other customs exigencies.
If you want to go Western Digital, get the Second Edition Caviar, and be sure of their precedence, you want for them to come from USA, i.e. they have been checked in USA, even if they are manufactured in Singapore for instance, on Taiwan.
They are in fact, quiet enough, cos they have special motors that silence most of the noise coming from search and writing procedures.
There you don’t need SATA technology, and nevertheless, it doesn’t matter to have or not to have it… the performance increase is quite small for the moment. Something is true, despite the fact that the performance is smaller than IDE, you can be sure that they sustain throughput much better than IDE does, I’m experiencing this, and don’t need to learn it from anywhere out there, I own one of them at home and are experimenting first hand with it.
I have to agree with Immanuel completely, about the RAID stuff, I don’t really rely upon it either. Most of the time it’s better to get something simpler and working reliably than anything else. Remember that after this period of ”excitement” you are going to be alone with your computer at home, the what you really want is for it to work every day, every hour of it’s life… don’t you? Well, keep it simple!
So, perhaps the best for you is to go for a no RAID MOBO, using Western Digital drives. I repeat, they are not much noise, of course, they are noisier than the most quiet of the market, which are the Seagate Barracuda V drives.
Ho… yes… I almost forgot! It’s very important that you get the 8MB buffer model of the Western Digital, they are much faster than the 2MB one. Two Western Digital 8MB buffer will give you extreme performance, the best of the market, and they still are the coolest drives EIDE you can get. I would say it’s a better choice than a Barracuda, if you don’t mind a very little more noise.
***
In regard to monitors, of course that the bigger the better, but a 15” for me, it’s jus unacceptable, I would not buy this… I would even buy a cheaper but bigger monitor instead. If you work with Cubase, SFP, plug-ins etc., you NEED a bigger monitor. I have a 17” myself, and I have it cos I don’t have the money to afford a second one, or a 19” one. If you can, the best bet is to get two monitors of 17 inches each, so you can split your work in two. Anyway, I guess this is why you are getting a Matrox, they are just good for that.
***
That’s it, hope you are getting there… Don’t hesitate to ask whatever you need, I’m going to help in what I can.
Do you have an identical drive without SATA to compare with? If you base your statement on comparing with a diferent hard drive, then I think you jump too quickly to conlusions. It is common, that new gear is faster than old gear, but there are many factors operating. Remember, that your advice may decide another person's purchase.On 2003-07-21 19:01, Nestor wrote:... you can be sure that they sustain throughput much better than IDE does, I’m experiencing this, and don’t need to learn it from anywhere out there, I own one of them at home and are experimenting first hand with it.