Your ideal computer?

vincent wrote on 2/10/2000, 6:59 PM
Any tech experts wanna give me their 2cents(sense) worth?

I've decided I'm going to get the SF suite to replace my
cruddy 4-track but I need to get a new computer to handle
it all. Any idea what the minimum specs would be for
seamless use? And if you were going to get a real
powerhouse, what would it have??

Any thoughts appreciated as you can tell I'm new to this.

Cheers!

Comments

RickZ wrote on 2/11/2000, 8:06 AM
Hi Donald,

I've found roll-your-own preferable to buying a name brand PC, for 2
main reasons: 1) Avoiding sound/midi/video/network hardware built
onto the motherboard, which causes no end of headaches with Win98, 2)
Knowledge gained putting it together can be very useful.

Suppliers I've used: www.microx-press.com to buy, www.supermicro.com
and www.tyan.com for MotherBoard info, www.adaptec.com for scsi
adapter info, www.atitech.com or www.matrox.com for video card info.

The last 2 systems I've built used a MicroATX case from Tiger Direct,
SuperMicro 370SLM mo-bo, Intel Celeron 500, PC66 memory, IBM 7200 rpm
UDMA 66 hard drives, Promise Ultra66 IDE controller, all from Microx-
Press.

Finding mo-bo's with 'nothing' built in are hard to find, one has to
research a lot before buying.

One more item, I was aiming for as portable a system as I could get,
and bought the Princeton DPP500 digital input LCD monitor and ATI LCD
video card, AGP version. The display is absolutely crystal clear.
Vegas look great on that monitor/card combination.

Sorry for the info overload !

Regards,
Rick Z

Donald wrote:
>>Any tech experts wanna give me their 2cents(sense) worth?
>>
>>I've decided I'm going to get the SF suite to replace my
>>cruddy 4-track but I need to get a new computer to handle
>>it all. Any idea what the minimum specs would be for
>>seamless use? And if you were going to get a real
>>powerhouse, what would it have??
>>
>>Any thoughts appreciated as you can tell I'm new to this.
>>
>>Cheers!
rodzprod wrote on 2/12/2000, 4:40 AM


Donald wrote:
>>Any tech experts wanna give me their 2cents(sense) worth?
>>
>>I've decided I'm going to get the SF suite to replace my
>>cruddy 4-track but I need to get a new computer to handle
>>it all. Any idea what the minimum specs would be for
>>seamless use? And if you were going to get a real
>>powerhouse, what would it have??
>>
>>Any thoughts appreciated as you can tell I'm new to this.
>>
>>Cheers!

well, just an advice : if you are a musician and you don't want to go
into trouble ( crashes, bugs , updates, loss of work ....) buy
hardware, not software.

for the price of a big computer fully loaded, you will find good real
recorders ready to use, that never crash.

Rod
tolerpro wrote on 2/13/2000, 12:11 AM
Donald,

I would put my money into the disk subsystem on whatever setup you
choose. If possible, go all out and get a the Ultra2 wide SCSI
controller (Adaptec 2940U2W) and a Seagate Cheetah drive.

Also, run Windows NT or 2000 with NTFS. This has been a winning
combination for me. Without being too technical, IDE drives are
"polled I/O" devices while SCSI is interrupt driven. The difference
in performance is more than a little noticeable!

In addition, Windows 98 relies on the old DOS file system which is
not quite as robust as NTFS. Granted there is some overhead but the
added security is worth it. Besides, with a 600MHz Pentium, the
overhead is neglegible. NT also has superior multitasking and memory
management, not to mention the ability to support multiple processors.

Hope this helps!

Brian

---

Donald wrote:
>>Any tech experts wanna give me their 2cents(sense) worth?
>>
>>I've decided I'm going to get the SF suite to replace my
>>cruddy 4-track but I need to get a new computer to handle
>>it all. Any idea what the minimum specs would be for
>>seamless use? And if you were going to get a real
>>powerhouse, what would it have??
>>
>>Any thoughts appreciated as you can tell I'm new to this.
>>
>>Cheers!
pops wrote on 2/13/2000, 9:35 AM
another reason not to buy a pre-made computer
is they usually come with 2 or 3 PCI slots filled
which leaves you with 1 or 2
which may be enough for a while
but if you need more you have no option
other than buy a new system
having 3 or 4 slots just for your music needs
will do you good
especially if you will be getting a
recent chip that will have a 2-3 year life span
also
some pre-mades have limited options for RAM upgrading
which may limit you in the future as well
-pops
brettsherman wrote on 2/20/2000, 11:32 AM
Let me echo some thoughts here as well as add my own.

Definitely get a custom-built computer. You have many more options.
The number PCI slots in name brand computers are severly limiting.
They often cut corners on their motherboards. Also their
customization options are limited.

I'd recommend Windows 2000 also except for this caveat. The audio
hardware manufacturers are very slow in embracing the new OS. I've
been searching in vain for some affordable multi-track audio hardware
that can run under Windows 2000. But they'll get there sooner or
later.

Someone also mentioned UltraSCSI. UltraSCSI is great, but very
pricey. As an alternative look at setting up an IDE RAID 0 system.
The throughput is slightly faster than a single UltraSCSI drive, but
a lot less expensive. Go to www.promise.com for more info

Get dual monitors!!! I can't stress this one enough. You'll work
twice as fast. Plus, it is actually cheaper to get two 17" monitors
than one 21". Vegas Pro is also designed for it. The only card I know
that supports two monitors is the Matrox G400.

I just purchased a new system, but haven't gotten it yet. I let you
know when it comes in. But, here are the specs.

AMD Athlon 650mhz processor
128 mb RAM (more is preferable, but RAM is very expensive right now,
I'll upgrade later)
Promise Fastrack IDE Raid 0 with 2 20 Gig Ultra DMA drives
Matrox G400 dual monitor card
Windows 2000
CD-R with 8x record
2 NEC FE700 monitors. (they are great monitors at about $250 each)

Of course I also got a modem, sound card, etc. The whole system
(minus the monitors) was 2027.00. I ordered it from Polywell
Computers. www.polywell.com.

Brett Sherman