Computer / Software

In your recent article 'Specifying and Building A Dual-core Desktop PC' (printed in SOS February 2007), the RAM chosen was specified for 1.9V. The selected Intel motherboard specifies 1.8V only. Why did this not result in failure to boot up?

Many of us feel compelled to regularly change our PCs in line with the demands of the latest software. But, depending on our requirements, an older PC may still be more than capable of doing a great job, as PC Musician discovers this month.

I'm getting a Core 2 Duo PC with a pair of 250GB Seagate 7200 SATA II hard drives, and I want to know the best way to set...

I have a MOTU 2408 audio interface and I want to upgrade from the PCI 424 host card to the PCIe 424 model, which is a...

I'm hoping you can help me. I read SOS religiously, having recently ditched subscriptions for other magazines....

I'm currently living in Ethiopia and my latest volunteer just brought me a new PC laptop, which I thought would let me...

I'm considering buying a laptop for various audio tasks, including recording school choirs, community music workshops, live...

I have been experiencing some big problems with latency whilst trying to use Cubase SX. I would be grateful for any help or advice you can offer me.

I am very interested in purchasing Garritan Personal Orchestra as reviewed in the October 2004 edition of ...

I have a problem that I am tearing my hair out trying to fix. I have a 3.2GHz Pentium 4 laptop with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB...

I'm a DJ who's looking to get into the production side of things (house and techno). I was going to opt for a PC over Mac. What should I be looking for in terms of processor speed, memory, soundcard and so on?

Replies to more of your emails, letters and faxes.

Buying a music computer from a specialist builder is an increasingly popular option for the PC musician. We rounded up some of the leading names in music PCs to find out exactly what they offer.

My PC uses an Abit KR7A-133 motherboard running an Athlon Thoroughbred XP 2400 processor with 1GB of RAM. My motherboard manual says PCI 4 shares an IRQ with the two USB ports, and that PCI 1 shares with the AGP. My Audiophile currently has an IRQ to itself and so I'm not touching it. However, I need the TC Powercore to not share an IRQ. If anyone can explain what to do, I'd really appreciate it.

I need some way to play a stereo backing track when playing live with my band. I don't want to use a CD player, as they skip, but I'm wondering what other options are there?

I'm considering moving over from my current Mac setup to a PC laptop for mobile recording, using Nuendo 2 and either an RME Cardbus interface or one of MOTU's Firewire systems. Can you point me in the right direction? Is a Centrino laptop the only sensible choice for this kind of application?

My guitar player's girlfriend has a four-year-old Gateway Pentium III laptop with 64MB RAM and Windows 98SE installed, and she has agreed to let me do whatever I need to so that we can use it for music. How do we wipe the thing clean and end up with Windows XP for an OS, 320MB of RAM and Emagic Logic Audio Platinum on there?

I've just bought a PC laptop and a MOTU 828. I installed the software and have been using Emagic Logic 5.5. However when I turn off the computer's Advanced Configuration Power Interface (ACPI) it no longer recognises that the 828 is there. Why?

I've heard that with Windows XP, old versions of Norton Speed Disk do not work and that the latest version of Speed Disk included in Norton Utilities has a number of features removed and is no better, if not worse, than the defrag utility that Windows XP comes with...

When you launch a new product, it's always best to have a clear message. You buy a dishwasher because you hate washing up, you buy a car because you can't walk 20 miles to work, or wait for the bus that comes once a week; and you buy a Microsoft Smart Display because, um...

Martin Walker offers some practical advice on choosing soundcards that will work in modern PCs without falling foul of chipset or driver compatibility problems.