Kate_W_Bush
Joined: 10/10/06
Posts: 19
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'Minimum System Requirements'
#380411 - 14/11/06 11:44 AM
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Hi,
I'm currently in the market for an audio interface.
Having
formed a shortlist of likely candidates I've noticed that the 'minimum system
requirements' for my preferred choice exceed the capabilities of my laptop.
QUESTION:
How much margin for error is
there within the 'minimum system requirements'?
e.g. if the minimum RAM
is 1mb and I've only got 256k would it work perfectly well providing I didn't run too much
simultaneous audio through it?
Edited by Kate_W_Bush (14/11/06 11:44 AM)
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table for two
active member
Joined: 24/03/02
Posts: 5864
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380417 - 14/11/06 11:55 AM
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Hi KWB
Thing is if running say winXP, it takes up a fair chunk of memory
resources.
If a laptop has 256MB, then audio or MIDI work would be painfully slow
and stuttering, fairly unuseable.
What laptop do you have.
Does it
take SDRAM or DDR.
And can it take say a 1GB stick or does it have to be split into
2 x 512MB.
DDR memory for laptop is not so expensive and a 1GB stick would be
around the £80.
Best check the exact spec of memory installed in your laptop to get
the compaitbility.
Also what size HD do you have. One can set a cetain
portion of the hd to act as virtual memory
eg. 2048MB (2x the size of memory
installed if one does get 1GB installed).
And what model brand is the hd.
One can then check if it is a 5400 rpm or 4200 rpm hd.
If doing only MIDI work,
with No streaming of samples then 4200 rpm I have found is fine.
P.S. what
were the shortlisted audio MIDI interfaces.
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__
Who's never been here
Joined: 28/11/02
Posts: 6263
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380427 - 14/11/06 12:11 PM
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... and if you don't know what kind of memory your lappy takes, then you can go here and pop your model into the ol'
wizard and get the info at the end.
Please Note : this is not an advert!
btw, really loved your 'top of the city'.
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Kate_W_Bush
Joined: 10/10/06
Posts: 19
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380442 - 14/11/06 12:36 PM
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I'm using a Toshiba P-M 740 (1.73) 256MB 40GB XPP laptop (see link for
spec).
I've already bought a PCMCIA card that allows me hook it up an
external firewire device.
The audio interface that I had in mind was the Alesis io|14 (mainly because it's got a lot of inputs for the
money...if they ever actually release the thing!).
If I can get the laptop
'up-to-scratch' relatively inexpensively then I would certainly consider it.
EDIT:
I forgot to add the minimum system requirements in
question...
• Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon 2.0 Ghz or faster
• 1 Gig RAM
or more
Edited by Kate_W_Bush (14/11/06 12:40 PM)
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Kate_W_Bush
Joined: 10/10/06
Posts: 19
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380482 - 14/11/06 01:38 PM
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OK, how do I turn my pleasant but not overly powerful Toshiba laptop (see above) into a
machine capable of running the Alesis io|14 (see above) or similar?
I was
hoping to spend about £200 for the whole setup although that looks increasingly
unrealistic.
Thanks for the replies so far by the way.
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table for two
active member
Joined: 24/03/02
Posts: 5864
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380508 - 14/11/06 02:04 PM
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The P-M 740 (1.73) is easily above the minimum spec for cpu and is a powerful cpu.
I
use a Celeron M 1.5 and it is easily enough for audio & MIDI work.
Just
the memory needs upgrading, DDR2 533MHz (PC4200) for this system.
Its got two memory
slots,
so a 1GB stick;
or two separate 1GB sticks, making total of 2GB,
taking out the 256MB.
Really surpirsed that for the price (approx £614) it
only comes with 256MB as standard.
The hd is likely a 5400rpm, so that will
be fine in my expreince (I stream samples, sometimes large from my 5400rpm hd).
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Kate_W_Bush
Joined: 10/10/06
Posts: 19
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: table for two]
#380513 - 14/11/06 02:18 PM
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Thanks! If it only needs a bit of extra memory that's no problem- you're right
about the 256mb standard RAM being a bad deal for the price (luckily I picked mine up
as a factory second for considerably less than the rrp).I'll probably be
back on here in a couple of weeks trying to work out exactly which audio interface to go
with along with seemingly half of the SoS forum community... 
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table for two
active member
Joined: 24/03/02
Posts: 5864
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Re: 'Minimum System Requirements'
[Re: Kate_W_Bush]
#380544 - 14/11/06 03:13 PM
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Yeah. Just that, the memory.
Checking that the upgrade is DDR2 and that its spec
matches the 256 already installed, including its voltage.
With audio card,
good to check the manufacturers forum and other forums to see if it has conflicts with
certain motherboards or laptops.
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