64 bit v. 32 bit chips

  • Thread starter Thread starter Treeline
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Update... Following your advice.

I'm over my infatuation with the Shuttle, mostly because I just couldn't come up with a decent answer to the expansion and heat issues. I've been hedging between Intel P4 and AMD Athlon 64 - the price difference (with appropriate motherboard) is about $25! Guess that means I'll go with the 64. I'm still a bit worried about heat, but on the other hand I won't be pushing the unit very hard for a year or so. There may be some better heat sink options then.

Thank you very, very much for your advice - I'm gonna take it! :)
 
The nice thing about the amd64 is it runs cooler than the P4
 
Just ordered it all from Newegg...

Antec case w/ quiet 350 watt power supply, ASUS socket 939 motherboard (w/firewire on the board), AMD 64 3000+ athlon chip, 1 Gig dual DDR Corsair RAM, a new system drive (40 G maxtor for the applications) and I'm reusing my other drives, burners, Delta 66, peripherals and dual monitor card. I'm also getting a router with the idea of putting an internet access in the studio and paid the Bill Gates tax for a new XP home edition. Should keep me busy. :cool:

Thanks again eveybody for your input.
 
treeline....just some comments to help you.
1. power supply. if were me i would have gone for slightly higher power.
the problem is that a lot of these 350 watt power supplies, there are some rogue ones floating around ive seen that sometimes dont put out rated power spec. DONT CHINTZ ON THE POWER SUPPLY. ive seen it too many times. the main problem being is as you add more peripherals in the future you could end up straining the power supply, . this can lead to complications.
2.try not to put ANYTHING in the pci slots other than the delta, thus giving the delta full rein over the pci buss. if you MUST use the amd 64 for networking as well (internet etc) just be aware that ive seen many times network cards can lead to click/pop anomolies. so a lot of folks disable before starting a recording session. and then re-enable after.
in my case i have my main daw that is just for recording and never sees the internet, and this one i'm typing on for internet.
 
I was banking on the Antec case / power supply combination being OK because Antec is well thought of. I've eyed some larger ones, though. I'll be taking this a step at a time.

The only thing I have planned for the PCI bus is the Delta card. Internet access will be though my laptop. If I can, I'd like to keep the DAW off the net. If I do need to get online, I can connect though the motherboard LAN connection to my router and cable.

I have another (pretty) new 80G ATA drive for a secondary unit and an older 40 G drive that has a bunch of software on it. I figure on loading XP on the new drive, installing the 40 and swapping what makes sense onto the new applications drive. Then pulling the old warhorse and installing my 80 G drive in its place as a track storage unit.

There's also a DVD burner I've been using that I should be able to get in there and a twin monitor card. I have a USB 2 flash stick to move stuff around with and should be able to use that and the laptop to upload tunes. Mostly the DAW is supposed to be a standalone thing. :)
 
ok. just watch that power supply point.
i'm glad your doing it right with the pci bus.
there are all sorts of disk utilities around that will measure the throughput of your old drives like diskbench.
i'm holding off a bit, and maybe going on my new system amd 64 laptop.
the mobile aspects excite me.
 
Progress report...

I feel like a kid in a candy shop. Everything showed up from newegg in jig time and I've got both boxes (old and new) on the bench with stuff all over the place. The motherboard, drives, video card and fans are installed, hooked up, fired up OK and no smoke is billowing out of anything. Last night I installed the Delta 66 and put in all optional connectivity stuff. Looks like the expansion slots are crammed, but actually there's only one PCI card and the rest is stuff like extra MIDI, USB and firewire ports. Tonight is the big software install... :D

Again, thanks for all your help.
 
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