AMD with Digi 001

[Mastermindzz]

Please tell me this is not true, a salesman at Guitar Center told me the Digi 001 will not work with an Athlon/Thunderbird chip because it has no floating, please tell me somebody is using the Digi 001 with an Athlon/Thunderbird chip? Is there any issue to fix this problem in the making?

 

[Gidge]

The website lists:

Digidesign Hardware Supplied with System
Digi 001 PCI Card
Digi 001 I/O Box
Digi 001 Cable

Digidesign Software Supplied with System
Pro Tools 5.1 LE

Third-Party MIDI Controllers & Interfaces

Optional Digidesign Software

Optional Digidesign Hardware
SampleCell II Plus

Supported CPU Models & Speeds
Highly Recommended:
Intel Pentium III - Processors of all speeds supported, Single Processor
Also Supported:
Intel Pentium II - 300 MHz or faster, Single Processor

Additional Computer Requirements

System Software: Windows 98, Second Edition or Windows Me
Total System RAM: 128 MB minimum 192 MB recommended (Additional RAM required for simultaneous use with MIDI sequencers. Virtual memory is not supported)
Intel chipset and ATX motherboard
Phoenix or Award BIOS (recommended)
CD-ROM drive for software install
AGP or PCI graphic card
Monitor, color required, minimum resolution of 1024 x 768
One available PCI Slot
Storage: 4GB hard drive space dedicated for audio (minimum). For maximum performance a dedicated qualified ATA/IDE or SCSI disk drive(s) is required.
Optional Third-Party SCSI HBA Card
Adaptec AVA-2906
Maximum Performance Guidelines
To provide full 24-track, 24-bit performance on Pro Tools LE with high edit densities and the maximum number of Plug-Ins follow these guidelines:

Pentium III at 500 MHz or higher processor speed, Single Processor. Performance and the number of Plug-Ins will vary from PC to PC; however faster is better.
Total System RAM: 192 MB or higher
File System (all drives): FAT32
Also note that we have seen better performance on computers that have less components attached and non-custom versions of the BIOS or Windows 98 SE.
Known Incompatibilities
Caution - Pro Tools LE does NOT support the following systems or systems with the following components:

Hewlett Packard Pavillion line of computers
AMD K6, K6-2 or K6-III processor based computers
Original Pentium processor based computers (Pentium I)
VIA chipset based motherboard computers
Laptop Computers
"ESS Solo-1 PCI AudioDrive" Sound, video and game controller. This device can be disabled from the "Device Manager" in the "System" Control Panel.

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Need Advice on a Computer Purchase?
Be sure to check out the Windows User Configurations section of the Digidesign User Conference for computer recommendations from other Pro Tools LE users.
Disclaimer: Digidesign can not verify that the information in this forum will provide full functionality or performance. Please refer to these Compatibility Documents for Digidesign's official system requirements.


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[JPS]

Not only does the Digi 001 work with the Athlon, it is way faster than the fastest officially supported PIII 1 ghz. In addition, your salesperson is dead wrong about floatingpoint processing. The Athlon has a fantastic FPU (Floatinpoing Processing Unit), which makes it a very good choice for digital recording. The salesperson must have been refering to the new P4, which has a really lousy FPU, and performance tests in DAWs show just how weak it is.

If you are looking to use a Digi 001 with an Athlon, then it is safest to use a motherboard that is already up and running and where the users have publicly posted their performance results on the DUC (Digidesign Users Conference). There are just two such motherboards to date for the Athlon on the Digi: Gigabyte GA-7DX and the AsusA7V133. I have a GA-7DX with a 1.2 ghz Athlon and 512 MB DDR (PC2100). It is incredible with the Digi 001 and is very fast and very stable. I would estimate it has about 30% more processing power on the Digi than the 1ghz PIII. The Athlon is a hot chip and you will have to pay particular attention to case design, power supply and heatsink/fan, especially if you plan to build your own.

This is a long thread (4 pages) but will answer any questions about performance of the Digi 001 with the PIII, P4, AMD and Mac, with the cross-platform Davec test:

http://duc.digidesign.com/ubb/Forum32/HTML/001474.html

Read the posts on this thread called 'PT Performance' and you will be able to make a good decision on which platform is right for you. Good luck!