Just a quick reminder to all you upgrading fanatics - I am back in the UK for at least 2 -3 months & am going to start recycling PC`s for underpriveleged kids et.again.
So if any of you have either whole machines or bits you no longer need, consider mailing me with details.
I have so far managed to help out 3 or 4 blind users who can get software from RNIB but not a computer, also several kids from single parent, underprivileged (i.e. broke) families, so this is not just a case of playing around and giving stuff away to anyone.
You really would be helping some deserving people.
Cheers, Ivan

--------------------
Me? But I`m such a loveable old bugger!

Hi cmdr_hb, yeh at some point I'll probably upgrade but spending £200+ on a CPU at the moment isn't really very clever if considering that Quad core CPUs are mostly overkill for the system and how I work. I hardly push the CPU when using a load of realtime FX. I am working within my methods and means and the rig still has the juice to let me push it further.

My issue is really down to working out how to get the best performance from a Firewire interface.
Whether or not a PCI Express IEEE1394 card has a benefit?
Whether a PCI or PCI Express graphics card has an impact on the performance of a firewire card if it were also a PCI version or PCIEx and therefore where to place the cards of the different formats to make certain that I will have the cards performing optimally. Utilising a cheap PCI graphics card or using a high end card, I'd like to know how they affect the PCI bus and the way the computer manages the data that's coming in and out of the firewire card aswell as the graphics that show us what we're doing. Is a PCI card, even if slightly slower at 2D performance, a benefit to systems where audio is the most important aspect? Or, are PCI express ports the best way to incorporate graphics use in a DAW using at most one of the 8600 nvidia cards that are passivley cooled? If I were to use the other PCI Ex slot for a PCI express firewire card, would that interfere with the performance of either? Would a simple PCI firewire card always give me enough bandwidth and would the PC always see that audio a a priority over any graphics display, irrelative of what format slot the GPU is using?

I guess I should start a new thread but, please, if anyone has a simple answer to this after reading it here, let me know!

Hi...I already edited my previous post but after reading through I just thought I'd mention that my new GA-P35-DS3L motherboard wouldn't recognise my very old Echo Gina 24.
Wouldn't stop the PC from booting but just wasn't recognized at all, BIOS or windows.
Didn't know what the problem was but it must be that the new PCI specification isn't capable of supplying the necessary 5 volts.


G

Motherboard - ASUS P5K3 Deluxe
Processor - QX6850 3Ghz Core 2 Extreme
Memory - OCZ 4GB DDR3 1333Mhz ReaperX
Harddrive- 3x SATA 2 Seagate
Graphics card - NVIDIA 8800GTX
Audio interface - MOTU HD192 PCIe
XP Pro 32bit
Cubase 4, Wavelab

DIY quad core build, rock solid performance.

Finally finished my new PC build. I wanted a powerful machine for making music, surfing the internet, playing games and watching movies, etc.
Here's my spec:

Motherboard - Asus P5Q-E
CPU - Intel Quad Core Q6600 @ 2.4GHz
Cooler - Zalman CNPS 9700 LED
Memory - Corsair Dominator 4GB (2x2GB) @ 1066MhZ
Storage - Seagate 250GB, 500GB, Samsung DVD Burner
Graphics - Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4850
Audio - RME Fireface 800
PSU - Corsair Modular 620W
Case - Antec P182
Cubase 4.1

Everything is working superbly at last!

--------------------
One good thing about music is when it hits, you feel no pain...

Hey, I'm gonna chuck one in the mix.
Im running a selfbuild
Motherboard = ASUS P5N-E SLI
CPU = Intel Quad Core 9.6GHz
RAM = 4x 2GB DDR2 with a bus speed that i can't remember...
Windows XP (32bit)
Alesis MultiMix 16 Firewire (ASIO)
SONAR 7

and im irritatingly hitting a number of problems:

Firstly (a RAM issue), where my machine won't fire up consistently due to a dodgy stick of RAM. I know its not the forum for that, but needs mentioning! Also worth noting that I would run it on my 64bit install, but Alesis will not make drivers, ever apparently. so for recording, i dont get to use all my RAM

When running Sonar, i often get 'sped up' playback while working on a project. It is nothing to do with mis-matched sample rates - when this happens, the process eats one of my cores, and needs to be stopped through Task Manager. Other times, for seemingly no reason, Sonar generates a Stop Error, though part of me thinks this is Windows playing up.

Other than that, the beast runs like a dream. I've just upgraded from a laptop (i know...) with an old P3, which could never cope. I also don't get the irritating Firewire buzz on my tracks now! Before, I was dropping out everywhere, now my CPU registers about 5% max. Its good stuff.

Tinderbox

Sorry, a bit late in the day, but here's my specs anyway ...

New System :
Asus P5B mobo
Intel Core 2 Duo E6750
Basic Invida Graphics
3x Hard Disks ( Seagate and Hitachi )
2 gigs DDR2 Ram
M-Audio 2496
Cubase SX

Old System :
AMD64 3400+
K8 mobo
1 gig ram
Other specs same as above.

* First of, this unit upgrade is a true wonderment. No hardware/software issues or conflicts. Runs far more quietly than my previous and both cpu core temps idle between 26 - 30 c ( using Real Temp ), and haven't managed to get either of the cores above 45 c under heavy load.
Power ? Ha, it's like having fitted a turbo charged, V16 to the frame of an old Mk1 Escort. This really is a beast in terms of what I previosuly managed on my old system. A typical song loaded into my old AMD setup would run anywhere between 45 - 65 %. In my new Intel unit, the same songs are running at around 15%, on average. I haven't managed to anywhere near stress this new cpu yet ... and I don't reckon I will anytime soon.
At the time of upgrading, I was tempted to go the quad core route, as the Intel Q6660 was only another £30 more ... however, I had read quite a few negative stories online at the time about odd probs with Cubase and quads ( which doesn;t seem to be much of a problem now ). I can just imagine the raw power available to you with a Quad ... as for Octo's, I am salivating already.

One aspect of my system, I would like to upgrade is my soundcard. Don't get me wrong, my trusty 2496 is still 'doing it', but there are far better quality cards out there now which would give me far better dynamic range and clearer sound. I did breifly toy around with an EMU 0404 when they first came out and I was really impressed with the sound quality of the card. However, the same card caused many problems on the system I was using and the 'Patchmix' software at the time was a royal pain in the arse. With my 2496, I do notice that when you have a lot going on in a song, it does lose it's top end sparkle very quickly and you can end up with audio sludge at times. Yes, I hear you about it down to how you're mixing, eq-ing and use of FX, etc ... but, it's just that with better quality cards, you get a little more presence and sparkle. problem is, I would be very unsure now about which card to go for in today's market - I've read many, many reviews and you can end up even more confused. This said, I am tempted to get the new M-Audio Fasttrack 8, though ... or even one of the RME cards. Still, I will eventually make a choice over the coming months ....
One thing I would like to shortly upgrade is my

I have an Acer Aspire 9100. Obviously never intended for audio production, but I can't get it to do ANYTHING without clicks and pops on an NI Audio Kontrol 1. A pity as i thought I could at least mess around a bit on it.

Welcome to the SOS Forums ebola!

I suggest you go and have a read of another sticky thread that I started, entitled entitled 'Survey Of Recommend Laptop Models':

www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=414373

Here you'll find details of models that have been tried and tested by musicians, those that work well, and those that don't. You might even find your Acer Aspire 9100 mentioned there, how other musicians got on with it, and whether they found any workarounds for their audio problems.


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Current self built DAW system I use:


Motherboard: MSI P45 NEO

Chipset: Intel P45 express chipset

Processor: Intel quad core Q6600 @ 2.40ghz

Memory: 2GB (2x1GB) running @ 800Mhz

Graphics card: Nvidia 8600 GTS (EVGA badged)

Audio interface: EMU 0202 USB Audio Interface

Have been very pleased with my current DAW system so far, have been running mainly Cubase SX 3 and FL Studio, various VST instruments such as Eastwest Colossus, Dimension Pro, Sonik Synth 2 and IK Sampletank 2. Meter reading when using the software can peak to around 25%-35% whilst using all 4 VST instruments at the same time..never had any problems as of yet using XP..but I won't be moving over to Vista in any hurry.

Last system build was a bit sluggish though..was using Intel Pentium 4 @ 3GHZ , 2GB ram, Asus P5P800 Motherboard, Nvidia 6800GT graphics card and same audio interface as my new system build.

Sometimes my system would hang for no apparent reason whilst using XP with service pack 1 at the time but I could put that down to my motherboard not being the best around. Meter reading was if I remember 85% on average but that was depending on what VST instruments I was using at the same time...hence my decision to move over to quad core.

Hello there!
after testing my new self build machine for two weeks i can say it works great! .
specs are:
Mohterboard:Intel DG33TL
Processor: Intel quad core Q6600 @ 2.40ghz
Memory: KINGSTON KVR800D2N5K2/2G 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 800mhz
Case: Thermaltake Armor Jr Vc3000bws
CPU cooler: Thermaltake Blue Orb
Hard drives: 2 x WD caviar SE16 250GB
Audio interface: MOTU traveler (through an old TI firewire PCI card)
Windows XP pro SP3

I mostly produce electronic music with Ableton live, use lots of soft synths and plugins and this system is all i wanted for years. i upgraded from a P4@3Ghz, 2 gigs of ram also intel mobo, great machine but it is almost four years old now.

cheers mates!

Thought I'd add these details. I built this machine a year ago for a client and it's run with no problems since then. Upgraded it to quad-core last week. Also running fine.

MOBO: ASUS P5B-Deluxe
CPU: E6600 over-clocked to 3.00GHz (now Q6600 at 3.00GHz)
Cooler: Arctic 7 Pro
RAM: 4GB GeiL
Case: Antec Sonata III
HDD : Samsung 500GB S300, Seagate 7200.10 80GB & 500GB S300
Audio: MOTU PCIe-424 to 2 x MOTU 2408
Software : XP Pro SP3 / Cubase

Self build - been up and running for about a month now, no problems:

Asus P5K-E
Intel Q6600
Scythe Orochi
G.Skill 1066 F2-8500CL5D-4GBPI (2GBx2)
Matrox P690 LP PCIe x1 Graphics
Western Digital WD10EACS Greenpower 1TB SATA HD
LG SATA DVD-RW
E-MU 1616M PCI
UAD-1 PCI (x2)
Zalman ZM600-HP PSU
Arctic Cooling AF12025 fans
Silverstone TJ09 Case
Samsung 943BX 19" monitors (x2)
WinXP32 SP3

The Orochi heatsink was a pain to install. If I'd have known how difficult it was going to be I would've gone for a Zalman instead.

I use Ableton Live and tons of vsti's. The new build is a huge step up from my old 2.8GHz PIV P4P800 machine (now in semi retirement, used for general internet duties etc).

Still got 2 PCIe x1 free, next purchase will be a UAD-2!

I've got a self built desktop myself.

ASUS P5N-D
Intel E4700
Corsair XMS2 DHX 4GB (2x2GB)
BFG Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS OC 512MB
Western Digital 500GB hard drive
Antec P-180 case
Edirol UA-25

I currently use Sonar 7 studio edition and Reason, with a few sample libraries, some synths and effects. I plan on upgrading to Sonar 8 PE shortly. When running Sonar with any vst I don't even see a real dent in the CPU meter, no matter how many tracks I seem to use. A far cry from the P4 PC my dad is still using where using EWQL SO silver would bring the CPU meter up to 50% by itself.

I'm planning on upgrading the CPU to a Q9300 in the next couple of months though, and adding a 1TB western digital drive as well. The case is also extremely quiet. Sound isn't much of an issue as I rarely record live audio and can't do it at home currently anyway, but I expected the computer to be louder considering the 3 fans in the case alone on top of the GPU and CPU fans. I'm very happy with the setup so far. The only problems I've had have been OS issues as I tried a few to figure out which one I was going to use. Settled on Vista 32-bit for now, but will move to 64-bit once there's more support for the programs I use.

Hello!

I've just finished my first PC self build. I read lots of the posts on here and had a look at what specialist music PC builders were offering and came out with the following spec.

Intel Quad Core Q6600 2.4Mhz
Kingston 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory
NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT 512Mb Silent Graphics Card
ASUS P5K SE/EPU - Motherboard
Scythe Ninja 2 CPU Cooler
2 x Seagate 500GB Hard Drive SATA II 7200rpm (32MB Cache)
Optiarc AD-7200S 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM
SeaSonic S12-430 430W ATX12V PSU
Antec P180 Silver Aluminium Super Miditower Case
Windows XP Professional SP3
And my old Creative Audigy 2 ZS Soundcard

I've just finished installing all my software - I use ableton and a bunch of plugins and it all seems fine so far. The build itself was very easy - save for a couple of awkward wires that I had to plug in. The case itself so far is great and the computer quiet, which is very important as I record a lot of live vocals in the same room as my computer. I'm currently tinkering with how many fans I need to have connected to keep noise down as the CPU is running very cool already with the Scythe Ninja so I'll report back on how that goes. The loudest thing going on is my external hard disks, so I'm transferring as much as possible off them and shall only use them for back up and non essential files. Overall, I'm very pleased so far and would recommend a self build to anyone who thinks they might be up for it. I thought there would be a lot more faffing around in the BIOS when there was actually none of that. The biggest hassle was actually choosing all the components in the first place! At some point I will upgradde my soundcard but for the minute my Creative Audigy and external mixer seem to be fine - I think the next worthwhile step up will be considerably more expensive! For the component them selves this whole build including delivery came to a little over 500 pounds. If noise wasn't an issue I'm I could have got a much cheaper case etc but after my incredibly loud old computer, this is really great and definately worth while!

Awesome stuff!

x

Hi

My usual shop has stopped making ready built music PC's (probably coz of this thread )

So for the fisrt time ever I'm thinking of a self - build as XP SP3 needs so few tweaks these days to work with music.

My question is -
Can I just order a list of parts similar to ones recommended above and stick it all together and install XP - and I'm done!

Or is it more complicated than that - I'm very good at fiddly things so I'm not worried about the actual building of it - what I am worried about is problems with combining different parts that I know little about individually - all I have to go on is the lists above.

I want to build a very quiete quadcore PC to run Cubase 4

Any help would be much appreciated.

Rob

Well I finally found time to put a new PC together and though it's early days I thought I'd post the specs after finding a lot of the info on this thread invaluable.

MB: Supermicro X7DAE
CPU: Two Xeon quad core 5345's 2.33 Mhz
Mem: 2x 1Gb ECC FB DDR2 533
HDD: 160Gb system, 500Gb sample, 500Gb audio, all SATA 2
Other: EZ cool 700w Quiet PSU, Sony CD/DVD RW SATA, Card reader, PCI-e Firewire card, Matrox 4 Head passive graphics.
Case: 4U rack, all fans replaced with Sharkoon 'golfball' quiet units, Zalman 6 fan controller.

I used Dynatron 771 coolers in the end and on initial power up, they sounded like a Harrier display team (default to about 5500RPM!!!) but hooked up to the Zalman controller they keep the CPU's at about 25 degs at idle running quiet at 1500 RPM....will have to see what they're like under load.

Haven't had chance to do anything but get XP in, stable and tweaked yet, will post more once C4 and all the other SW is in to give an idea of improvements. Though as I was running two Xeon's at 2.4, I have a sneaky feeling 8 at 2.33 will make me chuckle.

Best bit of all?.....the whole thing cost less than £400 to build...it wont quite be a 'Mac Smacker' but then it cost less than a RAM upgrade!

....gotta love that ebay!

Any questions, comments etc. always welcome as usual.

Simon

--------------------
No dog should ever be seen at the dining-room table.... unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation.

After a couple of weeks running have to say I'm very pleased and no probs (touch wood)

Asus P5Q pro
intel e8400@3GHz
4 Gb Corsair Ram (possibly)
nvidea 8600 gfx
160gb sata drive split into partitions for programs, OS and files
audiophile 2496
xp

runs great big improvement over my old amd system, though Im getting carried away with tracks now, 45 audio and 10 MIDI running a whole load a vsts no probs...

Motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro
CPU: Intel Core2Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, overclocked to 3.0GHz.
CPU Heatsink/Fan: Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
RAM: 4GB PC-6400 Geil Black Dragon Evo
Graphics Card: Galaxy 9500GT
PSU: Corsair 650W 650TX
Audio Interface: TC Electronics Desktop Konnekt6

I'm very please with my new setup. CPU fan keeps slow and quiet despite overclock from 2.4GHz to 3.0GHz. Also, the IP35 Pro has a Texas Instruments Firewire controller. Running all my processor-intensive VST keyboards at once won't bring my CPU past 20% in Ableton Live. I can't imagine how I might strain it!

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 GO 2.40GHz Quad Core CPU Overclocked to 3.00GHz
- Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Intel approved cooler
- Arctic Silver 5 Heatsink compound
- Abit IP35-Pro XE Intel P35 (Socket LGA775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
- Award winning Corsair 4GB PC2-6400 CAS4 (2x2GB) Dual
- 500GB Seagate 7200.11 32MB Cache SATA-2 Hard Drive
- NVIDIA BFG 9800 GTX+ OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) DirectX 10 Graphics Card
- Pioneer DVR-216DBK 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter
- Corsair TX 650W Next Generation Power Supply

i got this from overclockers its a great pc but with too many plugins get laggy obviously

--------------------
OverclockersPC Quad3.0Ghz 4gb RAM REAPER Alesis i/o2


Edited by Androo (23/10/08 03:16 AM)

Upgraded the CPU and mobo from my previous AMD 4800+ , Asus A8R-MVP setup (now transferred to my old Carillon AC-1 case), and have just put this system together in my PaQ case:

Intel Q6600
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P
MSI 8600GS Heatpipe edition silent GFX card
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 8500 RAM
3 x Seagate Barracuda 200GB HDD's:
(1 IDE System drive, 2 x SATA Audio drives)
Plextor PX-760A DVD-RW
RME HDSP9652

PaQ case (w. Thermalright XP-140 custom CPU heatsink/fan)

32-bit Magma chassis with:
4 x UAD-1
1x Powercore PCI MkII

Windows XP Pro SP2



--------------------
"It's not pretty, also you can't dance to it." - Frank Zappa
www.bluelizardstudio.com

Hammy has just upgraded his system to a quad core Q6700 (£152 scan oem)from an E6600 dual core, and a dark power pro 650w psu (Custom pc recommended)which is a whopping 87% efficient.

Case: Antec P180B
Motherboard: Asus P5W DH Deluxe
Cpu: Q6700
Memory: 4*1gb OCZ platinum PC6400 (800Mhz)
Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9700 led
Burner: Plextor 750A
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint HD753LJ 750 gig (BFD 2 Library)
3* Seagate Barracudas 320 gig
System and 2 vsti libraries
Gpu: Ati 1650 pro silent cooling
Monitor: Samsung syncmaster 19 inch
Windows xp sp3
Soundscape 32/mixpander 9
Cubase Sx3.1 and various VST instruments

This chip runs hot about 42 C idle and 60 C at 80% load on cpu 1, the thermal rating is 71C so not much headroom and i am using core temp to monitor the temps (reading through various forums these temps seem to be standard for this cpu, whereas the E6600 was running at 25C and 29 C 50% load).

I am remixing a song for someone of about 30-40 tracks of audio and VSTi's and lots of vst FX, but the load has not been spread evenly between the cores. Cpu 1 is being hit for 80% and the other 3 cores about 10-13%, total load is 25% (task manager), and the vst performance meter in cubase is at 80%, multi-processor is ticked in device set up and i ticked the box in Bfd 2 to run the mixer in its own thread, to no avail. Its got me baffled as to what to try next

The system has been running for a week, its near quiet, the volatges are rock solid and overall the system is stable.

Like most people i'm running into the brick wall of memory limitations is there any way i can use my extra cpu power to free up a bit more ?

G’day, ultra-long time lurker here, I just had to let you know about my recent PC upgrade. I had been made aware through this thread that older PCI audio cards may not work with the latest mainboards. Fortunately I found a particular mainboard that WOULD allow my 2001-vintage audio card to work quite happily.

Motherboard/Chipset: MSI G31M3-F - Intel G31 chipset
Processor: Intel Core2 Quad Q8200 2.33MHz
Graphics card: built in VGA
Audio interface: Terratec EWX24/96
2GB Kingston DDR2 800 RAM
Windows XP SP3
Onkyo R-805X amplifier
Spendor BC-1 speakers
Yamaha MG102c mixer

The reason I chose the MSI over Asus was quite simple; the MSI has two PCI slots, both of which support 3.3V/5V PCI interface.

I decided to attempt to fire up the new PC using my existing Windows XP-formatted HDD, and it worked like a charm, much to my surprise. I had to re-authorise my Windows XP – it took minutes to do that. I was then prompted for the drivers for the new mainboard and graphics card. That done, I only had to reauthorise my EZDrummer software and I was up and rocking in no time.

My previous set up was a Pentium IV 2.4GHz with 1GB RAM, also in an MSI mainboard. The MSI was a direct replacement for an Asus P4PE that died on me.

There was one particular project I had that brought my system to its knees. This prompted my upgrade to the quad-core system. I haven’t driven new the system too hard just yet, but I have no reason to believe that it won’t cope with anything I have, or intend to record. What I have noticed is that mixing audio is considerably faster than on my previous system.

I suppose I need to clean out my registry, I have no idea of how to do that. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

Just finished my firsy self-build (well I had expert help)

Intel DP35DP - MoBo
Intel Q9550
2x 2GB Corsair C5 Ram
2x Seagate 1TB drives
Sapphire HD3470 graphics card
Pioneer DVD writer
Seasonic S-12 430W PSU
ThermalRight XP120

All in the PAQ case.

All rock solid and very, very fast.
Best of all the PAQ case is near on silent, in fact without the monitor I have no idea if the PC is on or not!! Amazing.

Now to install my UAD/Poco cards and Cubase 4 .... yummy.

Best
Trebor

Edited by Trebor Flow (29/12/08 08:17 PM)

Quote BluesMeister:

---

I suppose I need to clean out my registry, I have no idea of how to do that. Any suggestions would be most welcome.

---

Google for CCleaner.

its free. fixes all sorts of things.
cleans out temp folders (does anyone here know about windows recycler folder? heh, thought not), fixes/deletes missing shortcuts, old broken dll's, registry cleaning etc

Dont go haphazardly using its functions without researching what you're doing though. Ive personally had no problems but it is possible to damage important files when using tools like ccleaner.

hope this helps, enjoy

andy

Quote Andymon:

---

Google for CCleaner.

hope this helps, enjoy

---

It certainly does help, thanks Andy.

Good good!

Very handy little program indeedy.
Glad to be of service!

Andy

MESSAGE FOR HARBZ

Harbz - don't panic when you find your query about a Dell PC has disappeared. I moved it to a separate thread on its own, since it didn't really fit here in the Survey, and in a new thread of its own it can grow without distracting from the main purpose of this thread.

Here it is:

www.soundonsound.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=696598


Martin

--------------------
YewTreeMagic

Hi Guys
Just found this forum. I'm looking at building a PC for a DAW & heard that best way to go is probably quad core & asus P5. Loads of you on here seem to use this board too, & I have just spent all day (literally!) looking at the many variations of this motherboard & can honestly say that I don't have a clue.
Would be looking a using sonar for mostly audio & some VSTi's at 192K & 24bit if I can. Also looking at Neve 1073DPD for front end. Does anyone have any recommendations for the PC and a decent way to get the optical from the neve into the PC as they all seem to have SPDIF outs but no ins??? Why are there so many variations of this board & is there an better way to see the main differences?
Seems fairly cheap on eBuyer - thinking of a Q8200 or Q6600 (don't really understand that bit either to be honest!!), hopefully could build for under £400ish.

Here are the results i get with my 'el-cheapo' system:
CPU: Phenom II X3 720 BE
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H µATX (780G chipset w/ onboard graphics), latest BIOS and drivers
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2x2Go, CAS 4 latency DDR2 800 RAM
Soundcard: RME Fireface 400, latest drivers

Benchmark: DAWbench DSP (ReaFX ReaXComp) from http://www.dawbench.com/benchmarks.htm
Host: Cubase 4.5.1
OS: XP 32 SP3 standard, shceduling set to background services

Buffer size RCX instances
48 49
64 55
96 56
128 56
256 60
512 64
1024 66

It seems the system scales very well with low-latency. That's good, exactly what I wanted
I get roughly 70% of the performance of a Q6700, which costs 320€ here in France, with the X3 i got for 140€.
The MB is cheap at 60€, not even the latest 790G chipset expert mobo.
I feel reviews one can find are a 'little' too biased towards Intel. For a home-studio amateur like myself, a system like this one is well sufficient and has a much better value than a comparable Intel, IMO.

Cheers,
Lorcan

--------------------
http://lorcan.me

HI,

Just got my new DAW assembled, and it's a killer!!!
Here are some specs:
-intel i7 920
-asus p6t se
-6GB 1333 RAM triple channel
-WD 160 sata HD
-Cubase sx3
-Vista 32 ultimate

I'm still using my old GF7600GT graphics card but have a new GF9400GT silent coming in the next couple of days.
Anyways, I ran the DAW bench with an M-audio fast track(my home card)and managed all 200 MBC's with the smallest buffer (128)!!! Pretty insane!!!
I think I'm done testing since my last setup (AMD 64x2 4200, ASUS M2N, 2GB RAM) only managed about 46 at the most!

Edited by Tommyhell (30/03/09 05:31 PM)

I have a custom build PC

Intel quad core Q666 2.4 S775
Antec P182 case
Asus geforce 8400GS DDr2 silent
Asus arctic Square cooler
Corsaid 440w
2GB DDR3 memory
MSI S775 p35 Diamons motherboard

running xp32

I love my machine, its very quiet ( I did have to disconnect one of the 3 air flow fans on the case) i am running the CPU cooler fan at 50% not 100% and pc still stays between 29 and 32c even when running cubase (even when though i am overclocked at 2.7ghz permenantly)) with a better desk (one with comparment for pc) and some acoustic foam i think i could get v near silent (i have tried with pillows and its hard to tell its one). I will admit i did expect massive improvements from my old pc with speed etc.. but i didn't (especially start up n shut down) although i do have more running on this pc so thats prob the issue. I am still trying to iron out cubase 5 with not shutting down properly and sometime the pc hands on shutting down screen, but i will overcome them soon i hope.

thats Q6600 2.4 s775

Hi Martin - excellent article. I plan to follow it word-for-word!

No luck trying to find that graphics card though.

Could u recommend a similarly suitable spec or card?

I don't know enough about them to figure out what it is about this one that I should look for.

Thanks alot,

--------------------
MAC DVD to AVI

I've just built a new PC based on recommendations here over the last few weeks. I was aiming for value for money rather than absolute performance but it seems to be working well so far. I've tried out a couple of songs that my old AthlonXP 1700 was choking on and they're coming out at around 25% on Reaper's CPU meter.

The spec is...

Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3 Motherboard
Gigabyte GZ-X1 V2 Tower Case Silver
512MB Sapphire HD 4350 Graphics
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
500 GB Hitachi HDP725050GLA360 Deskstar HD
4GB (2x2GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2
400W Corsair Power Series PSU.

I've added my existing RME Hammerfall 9636 interface and installed a Plextor Premium2 CD Writer and a PX740 DVD writer.

It also seems fairly quiet although it will live in a cupboard for the time being until it gets its own space in the new studio.

I'll probably add another hard disk sometime soon but at the moment I have separate partitions for the system/programs and audio.

Cheers

James.

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JRP Music - Audio Mastering and Restoration.
http://www.jrpmusic.net

Hi All,

I'm really sorry if it may seem I haven't done any reading, I have, lots, but would also like opinion direct from the horses mouth(s) if you like!

Here's my situation. I am currently investigating replacement options for our current bunch of PCs at the college where I work. I am, by my own admission slightly behind with PC technology as I've been on the Mac side of things for the last two years and haven't really kept up.

We are looking to upgrade to new machines which will last us a reasonable amount of time, and 'bang for buck' has to be a consideration.

We are currently running Pro Tools 8 for sequencing (M Powered + M Audio 2496 PCI soundcard) and audio recording (LE). The new PCs will be largely used for heavy sequencing (i.e lots of RTAS instruments, but nothing other than the creative collection bundled with PT 8) and some audio playback and editing, no multi-track recording as this will be handled by other machines.

I understand that the i7 is the kiddy in terms of CPU at the minute, but what of the i5 and i3, are these also capable processors? Also is there still a solid recommendation for any combination of chipset/motherboard etc? Should I be looking at quad core etc?

Regarding RAM, we will be using XP, so I assume any more than 3Gb would be a 'waste', but any particular makes etc, make of motherboard etc not withstanding.

This is the start of my research so any pointers, advice, links to previous articles etc is genuinely appreciated, as is any time taken to answer.

Thanks Guys and Gals.

Do you want us to include RAM and OS too?

Asus P6T Deluxe
i7 940 2.8GHz - OCd @ 3.4GHz
ATI Radeon 4850
M-Audio ProFire 2626

RAM 12GB 1333MHz
Windows 7 x64

Bought it from a guy who built it himself, and customised it a little with quieter PWN controlled fans, and an extra hard disk. I'm very satisfied! I moved from an iMac Core 2 Duo 2.16, and the performance increase is astronomical, with projects that used to use 95% processor now running at about 15%. You can't argue with that!

I do find i have to run the buffer too high for my liking at the moment, I'll have to check the buses. I may put in a PCIe firewire card and see if it helps.

The motherboard is excellent. You can control overclocking from withing Windows, switching it off for quiet tracking and on for off-line rendering. i7 overclocking is much easier than previous processors, i find. You don't even have to change the voltage until the clocking is quite extreme.

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Director, singer-songwriter and producer.
Click here for my portfolio

Hi,

Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

As for RAM and OS, we may be restricted to using XP as if a machine comes to us with no OS it will get built from a 'network' build.....(that's a whole other stress I'm arguing with at the minute!)

How is Windows 7 with DAW software these days, is it worth the plunge? The obvious advantages with extra RAM seem very tempting!

Thanks

Andy

Hello

I just refreshed my computer and bought PTLE8. Everytime i try to launch it, it gives me an error message, saying "DAE _13001". Obviously, i have no idea what that means, i have only one choice: click OK, then the program quits.

Motherboard: Gigabyte EG41MF-US2H w/Intel G41 Express Chipset
Processor: 3.06GHz Intel Core2 Duo E7600
RAM: 4GB
OS: WinXP Home w/SP3
Soundcard: Digidesign Mbox 2


What can i do?

I built my own MultiCore system a few weeks ago which is:

Case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower,
CPU: Intel Core i7-860 Lynnfield 2.8GHz,
MoBo: ASUS P7P55D-E LX LGA 1156 Intel P55 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0,
GFX: ASUS ENGT240 Silent/DI/1GD3 GeForce GT 240 1GB DDR3,
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 4GB DDR3 DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800),
CPU HS: Noctua NH-U12P SE2 120mm SSO CPU Cooler,
PSU: SeaSonic M12II 620 Bronze 620W ATX12V V2.3
Data-HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5",
OS-HDD: WD Caviar Blue 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5"
ODD: Sony Optiarc CD/DVD Burner AD-7261S-0B LightScribe,
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.

Running Cubase 4.5.2 X64 and X32 with URS, Nomad Factory, NI,
EWQL Goliath, Arturia, Antares and few other bundles with TC
Impakt Twin. No problems at all so far, running same projects
in both, X64 and X32 with JBridge (which is the greates thing).
Cubase 4.5.2 X32 runs way more faster and stable then X64 and
also X64 plugins JBridged over to X32 are working perfekt.
I am working on Big Audio projects and Disk Monitor is still
down to zero, never went up, Asio goes to 45-60 deppending on
what i am using at the moment. The way it is now it is wayy faster
then my Mac PPC G5 Dual 2.7 GHZ and it is also a very stable.
Even Steinberg advises using Cubase X32 on a X64 OS. It can still
detect 4GB of RAM and it would run more stable and faster.

Now, something i dont understand is, when in Devices and VST Audio
MultiProcessing is Checked/ON the Asio Meter goes half way up and
everything uses more power, if you uncheck it everything goes down
to 0 again and uses less CPU...am i missing something?

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Reality is a Condition due to lack of Weed!