My next DAW: any opinions?

G

gravehill

New member
Hi all,

I'm planning to finally retire my trusty AMD800Mhz and below is list of what I'm planning to get. Any opinions on this setup would be very greatly appreciated.

My planned system:

ATX MidiTower with 420W power supply
MoBo: Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 nForce4 Socket 939 (4xDDR, 4xSATA, ATX, 1xPCI-e x16, 2xPCIe, 3xPCI)
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3200+ Venice socket939 2,0Ghz
HD: Maxtor DiamondMax10 6L200M0 200GB 7200rpm 8MB cache SATA
Graphics: Asus 6600 Silencer TD 128MB PCI-e 0db
RAM: 1x Corsair 1024MB CL3 DDR-400 PC3200 Valueselect
+floppy drive + LG DVD-writer

I'll be using the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 from my old system with this new one.

I'm still considering whether I will add another GB of RAM now or if I will do that some time later... Using 1GB blocks of RAM the MoBo accepts max 4GB of the good stuff.

What do you think?
 
sounds like a badass rig to me man - i'm more a fan of the ASUS mobos over the gigabyte, but that's really a matter of personal preference.

as far as ram, if you can get another stick of the pc3200 value select, you can run it in dual channel mode - i'm doing that now on my athlon 2800+ with the same ram (2x512) and it really hauls - i'd highly recommend it. you'll just need to see which two slots on the mobo are dual channel - not too sure of the config if you've got 4 slots...

also, i had an LG 4081B dvd writer, and it crapped out on my after about a year - i ended up get a panasonic from newegg for like, $50, and it's been AMAZING, but again, personal preference.

what kind of case are you looking into? i've used generic cases all my life (and i've built 10 or 12 machines for myself and friends) until just now, when i got a Lian-Li PC60A Plus, and it's the best thing EVER - lowers my CPU temps by like 10-20 degrees.

best of luck with your new system,
-erik
 
After recommendations (well, warnings actually) in another forum I think I'll go with Asus A8V MoBo instead, and then I'll also need to get an AGP graphics card.

It seems there's an issue with combination of nForce4 chipset and PCI-e. So I think I'll stay away from them for now.

I'm seriously thinking of more memory and/or second HD but that would depend on my financial situation. I won't buy the DAW yet in at least a week so I'll have time to check things out properly, I hope.
 
go with a secong hard drive dedicated to audio recording...even get yourself a smaller drive and use that for your system and use the 200GB you already have for audio.

Graphics cards: Matrox are solid, anything from the G450 upwards for dual display. look on eBay for second hand ones for cheap!

Memory: slots 1&3, 2&4 are usualy the pairs for dual channel on Asus boards

Looks like a good system. Don't scrimp on the cooling, a midi tower is a small place to have all that heat going on. Zalman can't be beat on CPU fans and Acoustifan make real quiet case fans

good luck with your build,

Alec
 
right now i'm running two harddrives, a 60gb for winxp and audio/design programs, and a 250gb for storage - it's really pretty sweet - if something gets crazy with the OS drive, scrap it and reinstall and all you're data's awesome.

i've got a few 10 and 20gb ones i don't need anymore, and i'll be happy to send them to a good home - gravehill, feel free to PM me if you want.
 
i would look into seeing what the company of the soundcard recommends for the motherboard and cpu, not that u would have to use it though its good to know

my set up
mobo = Abit ic7 max2 = im very happy with this board it has been rock solid with a awsome bios
cpu = P4 3.0
Ram = 2 gigs of crasshair
1 sata 80 drive for the os and a 300 sata for data
Thermaltake 420 power suply
Thermaltake case
Soundcard = Presonus Firepod
 
I'd concentrate on the case and Power Supply a little more (and cpu cooler) as they make the most noise, so could interfere with recording if its in the same room?

Zalman make good CPU coolers, and id recommend them.

For the case, Antec SLK3000B is one of the best out at the moment for airflow and noise (its also quite cheap!). It doesnt come with a PSU though so a quiet psu would have to be added to the cost.

If you are low on budget you can get the SLK2650BQE instead which comes with a quiet 350W psu but its smaller and not as well built as the 3000b.

For the ram, whatever you get, make sure its in 2 sticks, So 2x1gb or 2x512, obviously if you get 2x1gb then you are staying along the boards theoretical maximum if you ever intend to have more than 3gb. Otherwise 2x512 would be fine and the same price as 1x1gb.

Otherwise everything else is fine in the system.
 
good call Plonk, I got a 4U rack mount Antec case with integrated power supply last year 450W and it's been solid. Zalman flower on the CPU and acoustifan 120mm intake and 2 80mm outtake fans, runs about 18DBl, really quiet and fits nicely into my racks
 
I am a computer tech, my suggestion is not to go for asus, they are unreliable, get an abit or DFI motherboard. Also 2 gbs of ram will not really effect your computer speed, get 2X512 and put that extra money into getting a dual core CPU which will allow your system to haul ass if you are using the right recording software.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, you people have been a great help.

I'm going to place order for the new DAW this week and for now this is what I'm going to get:

MoBo: Asus A8V DeLuxe
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Arctic Cooling CPU Silencer 64 Ultra
2 Maxtor SATA HD's: 80 GB (1 partition for Win and programs, 1 partition for working files) and 160BG for samples
Graphics: AOpen MX4000-V64 GeForce AGP
RAM: 2x1GB Corsair Value Select VS2GBKIT400C3

I also changed the case and power supply to better quality ones.

So, if anyone still has any suggestions or sees any potential problems with this setup, please let me know!

fiveironguy: I'm afraid x2 will still have to wait until they become a bit cheaper. I ditched my idea about the MoBo mentioned in the first post as there seems to be a well-documented problem with the combination of nForce4, PCI-e and Cubase. At least according to the info I got from Cubase forum, Asus mainboard is generally considered to be working well with Cubase.

Also, since at the moment I have DAW which is 800Mhz with 512MB ram, I guess I'm feeling like god with my new DAW for a while, anyway :D
 
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