Thanks Cuzin!

I'll take some time and browse all these old posts as soon as I can. I'm pretty happy with my setup, but I felt I had to go the long and difficult way, really getting into things all by myself (at least before I found this forum). Ended up with water cooling and stuff like that.

That's why I thought it would be nice to share experiences and tricks with others. Also, it has always seemed to me that many problems and crashes are blamed on Vegas, when in fact the hardware and OS are far from stable and optimised for serious audio work.

We can't have tools that crash and die in the middle of a working day, and shouldn't accept that. We don't have to, luckily. Finally, we don't need to spend huge amounts of money, it's all there in any local computer store and between our ears, guess what I'm saying is that it doesn't take a top of the line Mac with a huge ProTools system to be able to concentrate on the music! Many thanks to Sonic Foundry for that :-)

Martin

Martin,

There are really no tricks per se in getting the machine to behave. Just common sense. I firmly believe that 9 out of 10 problems reported here and other forums (assuming the software is in fact working well) is usually hardware related or interface related.

So I really do my homework when it comes to hardware. For example...there are a million motherboards out there...they all have some cool stuff...but after trying out a bunch and asking questions of many different users...ASUS turned out to be the best for my situation. I have 3 now and since making that move alone...my entire studio runs like a dream. My one rule for my machines is to never buy crap - I try and buy the very best pieces that I can afford whenever I add hardware. Even if it means saving up for a while...in the long run - it's better to spend the money on a better piece and save yourself the pain and downtime of cheap crap.

Cuzin B

Yes, research is most important if you want to build from the ground up. Places to look for good advice are www.sharkeyextreme.com and www.tomshardware.com. I built a p4 machine with the ASUS P4PE motherboard and a 2.53gHz P4 processor. Make sure to get GOOD name-brand RAM - all these guys will tell you that. After that, it's really the case and CD/DVD, Sound Card, video card, etc.

If I were going to do this again right now, I'd get the 3.06 gig processor to get the Hyperthreading support from Vegas (they just came down in price) and the new ASUS P4P800 or the P4C800 MB. Then make sure to get some good PC3200 RAM.

Antec makes really nice cases.

All of this can happen for about $1000.

Good luck and do report back what a kick-ass system you built!

And don't forget a Good Video Card, with a good set of drivers ---
This matters more than you think!!
ATI is usually pretty reliable / reasonable, then Nvidia comes second. Stay away from Intel or SIS at all costs, and Matrox is somewhat Mediocre sometimes they work, sometimes they don't...I Use an AIW Radeon 7500 (good low end video capture), and a Radeon 8500 Dual Display Edition. These work pretty good, but occasionally, the driver sets are messed up so Vegas won't even start.... It happened to me once with Vegas 2.0, (and I work for ATI....) I complained immediately, and the folks at ATI fixed it quickly.

Your's is the first comment I've heard saying that Matrox cards are inferior to ATI. I've seen tons of reports from audio users claiming just the opposite. I recently was having some weird crashes and noticed that I was also getting occasional digital tics/clicks when I would render a file. This was caused by a failing ATI card. I did a LOT of research before deciding on a Matrox G450 as a replacement. Its been flawless so far. At any rate, I absolutely agree that a really good video card is essential.

HTH,

drbam

******All of this can happen for about $1000.******

Hey Charles,

What did you mean by the quoted statement above? You certainly don't mean the whole system, do you? If so, where?

Also, I was wondering if there was a reason why you would go with a MB that supports 800Mhz processors then choose to use the 3.06 gig processor which is a 533 FSB processor?

Have you had any personal experience with the DDR memory over the Rambus memory that you are currently using? You are currently using the exact MB/Processor I use in my main audio machine. BTW, I use Antec cases too! How much memory are you suggesting to use?

I'm just curious, because I build/upgrade audio computers all the time for myself and my friends in the music business and if you have some information/resources that would help us, I would really appreciate your sharing that with me.

Thanks!

tmrpro

I've done tons of research as to what components to use in a DAW over the years, and the Matrox video cards are by far the most recommended. I have several Matrox cards (G550, G450 and a G400) - never had a single problem related the them! If you are into gaming the Matrox are probably a poor choice, but running games on your studio DAW is not a good idea in my book.

They make 3.06GHz chips for 800MHz buses and 3.06GHz chips for 533MHz buses. So . . .

Probably the 800MHz version is more expensive because they think they can charge more.

BTW, I learned something interesting in an article I read the other day. All P4's that come off a production line are exactly the same. Then, they test them all for stability. The ones that are stable at high speeds get called 3.06GHz, the ones that are stable only at 2.53GHz get labeled as such, etc.

I thought that there was something inherently different about differently-clocked chips. But there isn't.

So anyway, I meant you could get a case, motherboard, cpu and ram for under $1000. The rest is extra. :_)

In my new computers I'm only using pc3200 ram and I find it to be great. I like Corsair's Platinum RAM. It has heat syncs and all!

******1. They make 3.06GHz chips for 800MHz buses and 3.06GHz chips for 533MHz buses. So . . .******

hmmmm, I didn't find any... where can I get one?


******BTW, I learned something interesting in an article I read the other day. All P4's that come off a production line are exactly the same. Then, they test them all for stability. The ones that are stable at high speeds get called 3.06GHz, the ones that are stable only at 2.53GHz get labeled as such, etc.******

So, what you're saying is that it is up to the user to adjust the V-Core settings to get the potential processing frequency?

When they give a name to these processors, do they also ask them to work the specified number of processes/sec to coincide with their name?

Is this right? ...anybody else heard this?

******So anyway, I meant you could get a case, motherboard, cpu and ram for under $1000. The rest is extra. :_)******

So, I'm still unclear was this the P4PE machine? And how much RAM are you talking about?

******In my new computers I'm only using pc3200 ram and I find it to be great. I like Corsair's Platinum RAM. It has heat syncs and all!******

You mean the computers that you are going to get? ....You indicated earlier ....if you had it to do again, you would go with the P4P800 or P4C800 MB right? Because you said you had a P4PE and the P4PE MB uses RAMBUS memory and PC3200 is DDR.... you can't use PC3200 with a P4PE it won't fit in the slot... ???

******I built a p4 machine with the ASUS P4PE motherboard and a 2.53gHz P4 processor. Make sure to get GOOD name-brand RAM - all these guys will tell you that. After that, it's really the case and CD/DVD, Sound Card, video card, etc.

If I were going to do this again right now, I'd get the 3.06 gig processor to get the Hyperthreading support from Vegas (they just came down in price) and the new ASUS P4P800 or the P4C800 MB. Then make sure to get some good PC3200 RAM.******

At your website it says your using AMDs:

"Dual AMD Athlon MP 1.7gHz with 1 gig of RAM and 500 gigabytes of storage"

You've really got me confused...

Can you reiterate?

Sorry -
I didn't mean to confuse you. Looks like I need to update my website!

anyway, what I have NOW is the P4PE with a 2.53gig processor and 512 megs of ram (though I plan to up this to 1 gig soon). I have it slightly overclocked to 2.75 gHz but I don't tweak the vcore setting at all. I leave all of that on auto. I use the Ram's buss speed (it is 400mHz) to overclock.

As for DDR RAM, that's all I have in my P4PE - NOT Rambus. Where did you read that it uses Rambus? On the ASUS website it specifically states DDR400/PC3200 for overclocking stability.

Now, what I was saying was that for my NEXT machine, I'd like to get the 800MHz bus ASUS MB with a 3.06 gig Pentium chip and 1 gig of ram. I still think you could do that for about $1000, though I'm not looking at any prices right now... I tend to buy from Newegg.com. Great prices and very reliable.


AS for the P4s being wither 2.53 or 3.06gHz, that happens at the factory. They make the same chip, see how stable it is at all frequencies and sell it at the frequency it works best at. That's all I meant.

sorry this was so confusing!!!

actually, I forgot I'm using Corsair PC3500 RAM