AMD for recording guitar and multitasking?

[bball_1523]

How do the AMD 64 chips perform when recording guitar and let's say chatting on AIM and surfing the web?

I am considering buying the AMD 64 3700 chip, but I want some feedback from musicians on how well the recording process goes and how well multitasking goes.

I was considering intel, but I have been looking into AMD now because even Pro Tools users are recommending them.

 

[Havoc]

Why wouldn't you be able to chat with and AMD? Or do you want to chat and record guitar at the same time? I would like to see someone typing on a keyboard while playing the guitar...

 

[bball_1523]

Why wouldn't you be able to chat with and AMD? Or do you want to chat and record guitar at the same time? I would like to see someone typing on a keyboard while playing the guitar...

I play 250 bpm sweeps and type 120 wpm at the same time. haha, j/k.

What about having like 2 or 3 different music programs at once, and rewiring them. For example, rewiring Reason to Pro Tools, and having Amplitube open for the guitar tones.

 

[MichaelM]

How do the AMD 64 chips perform when recording guitar and let's say chatting on AIM and surfing the web?

I can do all that with no strain on my XP2000, I think the AMD64 will be up to the task. Just for a test right now I am:

Typing this post in FireFox
Winamp 5 is running in the background, playing mp3s
Sonar 4 is running, playing public mix contest 11 (14 tracks, 24bit 48k, 3 compressor plugins and one reverb)
Task manager, aMSN messenger and other various background crap is running

Disk IO is hovering around 20%, jumps to 36% on a task switch. CPU usage is around 30%.

 

[bball_1523]

I can do all that with no strain on my XP2000, I think the AMD64 will be up to the task. Just for a test right now I am:

Typing this post in FireFox
Winamp 5 is running in the background, playing mp3s
Sonar 4 is running, playing public mix contest 11 (14 tracks, 24bit 48k, 3 compressor plugins and one reverb)
Task manager, aMSN messenger and other various background crap is running

Disk IO is hovering around 20%, jumps to 36% on a task switch. CPU usage is around 30%.

That's good to hear despite the intel fans telling me about HT. What kind of ram do you have? I notice that RAM has a lot to do with how much you can multitask. Of course, I am going with the 1 GB (2x512mb) ram for my future pc.

 

[MichaelM]

I've got 512MB of DDR333 RAM. I was planning on upgrading to an AMD64 system this year, but am probably going to buy some mics instead. My computer isn't a dedicated DAW, but it's doing what I need it to do at the moment. It didn't like it when I had a project with 15 tracks at 24bit/96k, sometimes it would play back fine, other times I'd get dropouts. More RAM would have helped this a lot.

There are a lot of threads around here about AMD64 chips and how they are performing for DAW applications, just do a search. The general consensus is they are pretty nice.

 

[Capt. Snazzy]

Intel HT is trash

That's good to hear despite the intel fans telling me about HT.QUOTE]

HT crashes most audio software, or makes them unstable at the least. That is not to say p4s are not suitable, they are very fast even with HT disabled in bios, which is necessary very often. However, the athlon64 is the pimp-daddy king of overall processing power in single processor workstations right now, there's no arguing it. I run a a64 3200 with 2GB ram running sonar 4 on my sequencing computer, i figured it would work well for piles of midi tracks going out to my rack synths and whatnot. I have a different workstation, dual opteron 246's with 2GB ram and 1TB RAID stripe hard drive space for multitracking. I am so lazy, I end up just tracking into the sequencing machine so I don't have to scoot my chair across the room.
I recently mixed a project that had about 10 synth tracks (midi) and 42 audio tracks (things just got out of hand...) each with at least 2 live effects, some with more (drum track compressors and gates), the machine averaged about 50% cpu load and 40% disk usage (16bit, 44.1khz) while playing the project.
Honestly, you could probably buy anything from dell's midrange upwards, and be completely happy with the audio performance, intel and amd are both putting out insanely fast space-heaters right now. But definetely don't write off the athlon64 for your needs, I feel very confident you would be very pleased with a 3700 for your audio workstation.

ps. sorry for the long post, hope this helps some...
also, I build audio workstations for a living, both intel and amd, if that adds any rep to the post...

 

[bball_1523]

That's good to hear despite the intel fans telling me about HT.QUOTE]

HT crashes most audio software, or makes them unstable at the least. That is not to say p4s are not suitable, they are very fast even with HT disabled in bios, which is necessary very often. However, the athlon64 is the pimp-daddy king of overall processing power in single processor workstations right now, there's no arguing it. I run a a64 3200 with 2GB ram running sonar 4 on my sequencing computer, i figured it would work well for piles of midi tracks going out to my rack synths and whatnot. I have a different workstation, dual opteron 246's with 2GB ram and 1TB RAID stripe hard drive space for multitracking. I am so lazy, I end up just tracking into the sequencing machine so I don't have to scoot my chair across the room.
I recently mixed a project that had about 10 synth tracks (midi) and 42 audio tracks (things just got out of hand...) each with at least 2 live effects, some with more (drum track compressors and gates), the machine averaged about 50% cpu load and 40% disk usage (16bit, 44.1khz) while playing the project.
Honestly, you could probably buy anything from dell's midrange upwards, and be completely happy with the audio performance, intel and amd are both putting out insanely fast space-heaters right now. But definetely don't write off the athlon64 for your needs, I feel very confident you would be very pleased with a 3700 for your audio workstation.

ps. sorry for the long post, hope this helps some...
also, I build audio workstations for a living, both intel and amd, if that adds any rep to the post...

thanks! this is the kind of response I've been looking for, pure experience with the processor. I usually ask people at various forums, and even though I mention I'm going for music (and a bit of gaming), they don't mention much about their experiences with music recording.

anyways, I am actually thinking about saving my money a bit and upgrading later.

Here's what I've been thinking about purchasing:

AMD 3200 Venice w/939 mobo
1 GB (2x512mb) ram
6800 GT 256 mb vcard
dvd-burner and cd-rom
seagate 160gb + old 80 gb hd
keeping old monitor/speaker
m-audio delta 44 soundcard

w/case, fans, warranties, shipping = approximately $1500

 

[Capt. Snazzy]

you putting that together yourself?

seems kind of steep for just the parts, if you're having someone else do it, I guess that's about realistic.
yeah, I'm completely happy with my 3200, probably won't screw with it until the 4000 comes down a little...
make sure you get a board that has pci express support for video but that has a couple pci slots as well (no pci-e audio yet, that I've seen...).
I highly recommend the nforce4 chipset, very fast and stable as well.
I would stay away from dfi brand mobo (I've got one in my workstation, and it's obviously made for people who want to screw with their machine all the time, which I don't...). I highly recommend asus boards, that's what I put in client machines, they are in the top3 for benchmarks right now (behind abit and dfi) and are quite stable and easy to configure.
Let me know how your build goes, maybe I can answer some questions.
also, unless you're going to try some aggressive memory timings or overclocking, don't waste money on expensive ram, just grab any old pc3200 ddr pieces. they all have lifetime warranties on them and most have 1 year warranties from the vendor, easy place to save money for other things (guitars, can't have too many).
Aaron
ps. I use the delta 1010, (1 in this machine, 3 in the audio workstation) and I LOVE IT, anyone who talks trash on the converters is probably just blowing smoke, I think m-audio is the stuff to own right now, their drivers and support are top-notch and the gear is very nice and reasonably priced.

 

[bball_1523]

seems kind of steep for just the parts, if you're having someone else do it, I guess that's about realistic.
yeah, I'm completely happy with my 3200, probably won't screw with it until the 4000 comes down a little...
make sure you get a board that has pci express support for video but that has a couple pci slots as well (no pci-e audio yet, that I've seen...).
I highly recommend the nforce4 chipset, very fast and stable as well.
I would stay away from dfi brand mobo (I've got one in my workstation, and it's obviously made for people who want to screw with their machine all the time, which I don't...). I highly recommend asus boards, that's what I put in client machines, they are in the top3 for benchmarks right now (behind abit and dfi) and are quite stable and easy to configure.
Let me know how your build goes, maybe I can answer some questions.
also, unless you're going to try some aggressive memory timings or overclocking, don't waste money on expensive ram, just grab any old pc3200 ddr pieces. they all have lifetime warranties on them and most have 1 year warranties from the vendor, easy place to save money for other things (guitars, can't have too many).
Aaron
ps. I use the delta 1010, (1 in this machine, 3 in the audio workstation) and I LOVE IT, anyone who talks trash on the converters is probably just blowing smoke, I think m-audio is the stuff to own right now, their drivers and support are top-notch and the gear is very nice and reasonably priced.

I asked some computer tech forum what ram to get and they told me to get the ocz platinum rev2 1gb. I don't know why, but they were OCZ tech employees. You think a regular 1 gb (2x512mb) pc3200 chip will work? I am just worried about the CAS latency being too high. Does that CAS latency matter and can you see even notice any difference?

 

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

AMD is currently top dog. A high end Intel or a high end AMD won't make much difference, however.

I just got a new AMD system recently.

 

[bball_1523]

do any of you guys play guitar through an AMD system by any chance?

 

[Rstiltskin]

www.tomshardware.com just did an amd vs intel test and.....

I asked some computer tech forum what ram to get and they told me to get the ocz platinum rev2 1gb. I don't know why, but they were OCZ tech employees. You think a regular 1 gb (2x512mb) pc3200 chip will work? I am just worried about the CAS latency being too high. Does that CAS latency matter and can you see even notice any difference?

a ram test with about 5 diff manufac's, including ocz and corsair and crucial and samsung just appeared in the latest cpu mag, may be online, too.

my suggestion is that you work from your audio hardware and software manufacturers recomendations to your computer hardware. get the latest versions and bios updates of anything software related.

another good resource is www.videoguys.com, they have a do it yourself editing system article, that is about 90% aplicable to audio, and several XP tweak articles.

www.tomshardware.com
www.videoguys.com
www.cpumag.com

one STABLE system is worth any number of flakey systems the may beat it by 5 or 10 percent. they call it the bleeding edge for a reason.

git ta readin, pilgrim!

 

[IronFlippy]

do any of you guys play guitar through an AMD system by any chance?

I do, but it's a 3000+ OC'd to 3200+ speeds. It's got all the juice I need while running n-Track with like, 20 different VST plugins on simultaneously, including some VSTi plugs.

Basically, I'd say RAM is what you'd need to focus on, in addition to your HDD. The 1GB that you have thought about should be sufficient, but I'd get it in a 1GB stick rather than 2x512MB. This makes for easier expandability in the future, god forbid you'll ever need 3 GB of RAM! Nice choice with the Seagate drive, just make sure that it's at least 7200 RPM (most are) and has an 8MB cache, both of which make for a faster drive. To be sure, compare the seek times of the one that you want to other companies' drives.