Advice for souping up my CPU for multi-tracking

B

bardo

New member
Currently I'm running:
Windows XP home ed
Pentium(R)4
CPU 1.8Ghz
256Mb of RAM
Hard drive 37.2Gb at 5400rpm
Soundcard M-Audio 192 delta

The problem I'm running into is with 14 tracks(Using Reaper)
my CPU performance max'x out to 95 to 100%

I have been told to get a faster hard drive(7200 or better)
and more RAM

How about "Seagate 400Gb ultra ATA/100" at 7200rpm?
Would this help and if so do I keep my old hard drive and run both?

Whatca guy's :confused:think????? :confused: :confused:
 
Getting a bigger hard drive is a good idea but I don"t think it will solve your problem....You should get more Memory (Ram) as Plugins and Effects Filters will suck up your Ram Really fast so 1gb is a Good starting ammount of Ram for your PC....The Track Count is Probably more CPU Intensive so Maybe you should think about getting a Faster CPU....You can get some Older But fast CPU Motherboard Combo"s for Pretty Cheap that would be a Good Basis for an Upgrade...You can Probably get a Motherboard CPU Combo in the $100 to $150 range that will nearly double the speed of your PC so that might be a Good Option for a cheap upgrade.....


Cheers
 
So A GOOD START would be increase my RAM?
How about the DDR dual PC5400?(2GB RAM)loist for $189
 
I would upgrade the hard drive to a 7200 RPM, but I would upgrade the CPU/RAM before anything else.

If you're running 14 tracks with plugins, and your CPU use is real high, that says that the problem is with the CPU, and not the RAM.

VST effects (reverb, chorus, etc.) take up CPU.

VSTi's (virtual instruments) take up RAM.

So A GOOD START would be increase my RAM?
How about the DDR dual PC5400?(2GB RAM)loist for $189
Click to expand...

That would be plenty of RAM. But it will not help with the amount of CPU being used by effects.
 
dont get 2GB of ram for that PC....$189 is ram overkill for your setup.

get a 1GB stick for 90 bucks or so (or 2 512MB's if it's cheaper). Then if you want you can also grab a 7200rpm drive. The drive speed is always nice faster...but you will notice the improvement there while you are recording many tracks, not necessarily during playback/mixing.

if you got the cash, upgrade the whole pc. www.cyberpowerpc.com , for $400-500 you can get a nice upgrade to that CPU with some nice ram etc.
 
You also probably couldn"t run PC5400 Ram in your PC cuz I believe PC5400 only comes in DDR2 which if your CPU is a 1.8ghz your motherboard will not support and the 5400 speed is probably much faster than your Buss speed so you could only run it at the speed of your Buss so even if the PC5400 actually fit in your PC your PC would only be able to run it at maybe PC3200 or slower speeds.....

If you have about $300 you could Probably get a Package upgrade deal that would upgrade your CPU/Motherboard ,Ram and Hard drive and have a pretty smokin fast system for half the price of buying a new system but you would have to do the upgrade your self or get a friend to do it.....


Cheers
 
Minion said:
You also probably couldn"t run PC5400 Ram in your PC cuz I believe PC5400 only comes in DDR2 which if your CPU is a 1.8ghz your motherboard will not support and the 5400 speed is probably much faster than your Buss speed so you could only run it at the speed of your Buss so even if the PC5400 actually fit in your PC your PC would only be able to run it at maybe PC3200 or slower speeds.....

If you have about $300 you could Probably get a Package upgrade deal that would upgrade your CPU/Motherboard ,Ram and Hard drive and have a pretty smokin fast system for half the price of buying a new system but you would have to do the upgrade your self or get a friend to do it.....


Cheers
Click to expand...

I dont' think he would even be able to put a stick of 5400 in the machine regardless unless he's able to support the DDR2 (which is highly unlikely). The ddr1 is 184 pin, and the DDR2 is 240-pin. Like said, I would definently upgrade the Hard drive, cpu, motherboard, and RAM. You should upgrade the ram before anything else since it is plug-in dependent more than cpu. Also that cyber power stuff, only gives you 512mb of ram. You'll be looking for at least minimum 1GB which now-a-days is standard on most midrange to high end systems.

160GB HD's range from $59+
decent memory for 1gb starts at $95+
Motherboard/cpu combo can range from any where. You could get a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ w/ motherboard for around $130-160.
 
you need the whole deal. Your computer is only as strong as the weakest component.

your looking at $600 minimum if you shop at newegg.com which should give you a pretty decent PC.
 
get a hard drive make sure its an external one at least 7200rpm.

try to record via pci or firewire for less latency

defragment your hard drive

make sure your music computer isn't the one connected to the internet

disable all extra features that require extra processor use.

check your software driver to see if its the best one for your OS
 
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