Budget Upgrade Advice

B

bishop55

Member
Hi,
I have a delta 1010 installed in a computer in a rack mount case. I am looking to upgrade the components but want to make sure all is compatible etc. I need to be able to record 8 to 16 tracks simultaneously (usually 8 max), and then mix and playback with compression, verb, plugs etc. around 24 tracks or so. I sometimes use a few virtual instruments, like an organ or piano or something. My rig does the job now. Just an old Athlon 64, two hard drives, but the box is loud, and performance is sluggish with the plugs and some vsti's. Bought it in 2003. SO, any suggestions for upgrade components? I will be running XP sp2.
 
for better performance you need to look at multi-core processors. Intel Core2 Quad is the best about in my opinion, you can also add another 1010 to get more inputs if you need 16. The delta series are fine for this you dont even need to install any more drivers (I think)
 
It sounds to me like the problem is your computer not having the power to process everything you're doing.

Is it the Delta 1010 PCI Digital Audio System or the Delta 1010 LT PCI Digital Audio Computer Interface?

Anyway, now a days you can upgrade things in a computer pretty easily and it's worth the time learning to do it yourself. Instead of buying a computer from walmart build it or upgrade it yourself.

You can get a new mobo and AMD quad core @3.2 GHZ processor for around $250. You'll probably want to buy at least 4 GB of the fastest memory your mother board can handle as well which takes it up to $350. The rest of the parts you need, you already have in your current computer :D

If you're using an old computer with IDE hard drives, buying new SATA hard drives will also greatly improve the over all performance. It's a little scary doing it yourself at first, but once you lean how to do it you'll never waste your money buying an over priced POS from walmart, best buy or anywhere else.

This will put you in a situation where you have more power than you'll need for a very long time. Once you step up to something quad core and have plenty of memory, you'll never lag. You'll be able to run all the plug ins and effects you want and won't have to worry about the computer freezing.
 
FoulPhil said:
It sounds to me like the problem is your computer not having the power to process everything you're doing.

Is it the Delta 1010 PCI Digital Audio System or the Delta 1010 LT PCI Digital Audio Computer Interface?

Anyway, now a days you can upgrade things in a computer pretty easily and it's worth the time learning to do it yourself. Instead of buying a computer from walmart build it or upgrade it yourself.

You can get a new mobo and AMD quad core @3.2 GHZ processor for around $250. You'll probably want to buy at least 4 GB of the fastest memory your mother board can handle as well which takes it up to $350. The rest of the parts you need, you already have in your current computer :D

If you're using an old computer with IDE hard drives, buying new SATA hard drives will also greatly improve the over all performance. It's a little scary doing it yourself at first, but once you lean how to do it you'll never waste your money buying an over priced POS from walmart, best buy or anywhere else.

This will put you in a situation where you have more power than you'll need for a very long time. Once you step up to something quad core and have plenty of memory, you'll never lag. You'll be able to run all the plug ins and effects you want and won't have to worry about the computer freezing.
Click to expand...

you wanna be careful doing this though...a lot of new motherboards dont have an AGP graphics card slot, its all PCIe so he'd need to buy a graphics card...a quad core processor with all that RAM and two soundcards will need 500+watts power supply, more expense...then theres fans, you'll need better fans...just be careful you dont blow all your money on a super processor/motherboard then find you can't use it
 
Hi,
I have the delta 1010 pci, not the LT. I really don't need to track more than 8 inputs for now. I'd like to be able to do the upgrade myself. I have installed memory and graphics cards before. To be more specific, I was looking at under $600 for components. I can go either way on the processor, AMD or Intel, but I'm used to AMD stuff. I was thinking about a 940 Denali or an i5 to i7. I also need to be able to run more than 1 monitor off the graphics card. I've seen some of the newer Gigabytes have graphics on them, and people seem to be using them, but I always thought this was a bad idea to have integrated graphics. The ATI in my rig now is pci, and it works fine. I will likely need a new power supply, just cuz I'm sticking more stuff in the box. Also, i have two hard drives, not 32 cache, but 16 on the system drive I was planning on using. SO all I really need is a processor, motherboard, power supply, possibly some fans, and MAYBE a new drive if I HAVE to have a faster one...hope this helps, and I'm grateful for the replies.

Michael
 
I didn't think people still used AGP graphics cards :P

I like Intel, it goes back to that Ford Vs Chevy thing. The only reason I mentioned AMD is because you can get the 3.2 GHZ quad core for the same price as the intel core 2 quad @ 2.33 GHZ.

All you have to do is check out the mother board's specs and you'll know what is compatible with it and what is not. It's not as hard as you would think.

I don't think you'll need to spend over $400 for a serious upgrade like this. The only reason you would need to buy a bunch of fans is if you're going to be running some serious graphics cards that really work your system.

The stock fan that comes with the processor will be just fine for doing normal things like surfing the website and using various programs, recording, editing, mixing etc. The only time it's going to run REAL hot is if you're playing one of these new video games that runs everything on the highest settings.

If I have the money I'm going to build a very basic 3rd computer just for recording. It's going to be all balls, all power. It'll be pretty sweet to be able to actually use windows 7 and direct X 11 LOL

For the delta 1010 I think you need an 8 channel preamp running into it to use it right? I doesn't have built in preamps as far as I know.

Let me tell you about my old Ladies system, I built her comp for her. She has a Core 2 Quad @ 2.33 GHZ, 4 GB of DDR2 Memory, a Nvidia 9800 GTX+ graphics card, 500 GB Sata Hard Drive and a Corsair 450 Watt power supply. Her computer is balls to the wall and doesn't require a 500+ power supply. Like I said just check the specs on everything you buy and make sure it's all compatible before you buy it.
 
Ok, I'm back on this rig, so I can tell ya what I got. To clarify, I've been recording successfully on this computer for a while, 5 years to be exact. I'm good for hardware, I have an old Ramsa I love, some good outboard pres, mics etc. so, I just want to upgrade the box. Here's the config now:

4u rack case with 400 watt "silent" power supply
2.00 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 3000+
ASUS K8V-X Rev 2.00 motherboard with the dreaded "via" chip set
RADEON 9550 graphics
LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S [CD-ROM drive]
80 gig Seagate (8 mb cache)
160 gig Seagate (8 mb cache)
 
oh, I forgot, I also have a new 500 gig Seagate, but it only has a 16 mb cache, will that do for the audio (ie the drive I record to) or should it be 32?
 
YorkshireTrippe said:
you wanna be careful doing this though...a lot of new motherboards dont have an AGP graphics card slot, its all PCIe so he'd need to buy a graphics card...a quad core processor with all that RAM and two soundcards will need 500+watts power supply, more expense...then theres fans, you'll need better fans...just be careful you dont blow all your money on a super processor/motherboard then find you can't use it
Click to expand...

Not just the graphics card. There's a high probability that any current motherboard you buy will use 3.3V PCI signaling. (AFAIK, all the Intel motherboards do.) All but the most recent Delta 1010 and 1010LT cards require a hardware modification to support 3.3V PCI slots; without the mod, those cards won't physically fit into the slots.

And even if the 1010 is one of the new ones with the mod, a lot of the motherboards I've seen lately don't have any parallel PCI slots at all....

If this computer upgrade doesn't force you to move away from the 1010 to a more recent design, your next upgrade almost certainly will. Plan accordingly, and leave money in your budget to replace it with something that wasn't designed more than a decade ago. Parallel PCI is rapidly nearing extinction.
 
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