Building my first DAW. Critique?

  • Thread starter Thread starter FolkDog
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Just built my new system P IV 3.0Ghz running at a cool 32c. My old AMX 1800XP was running at 45c. That's with the Zalman ultra quiet cpu cooler: CNPS7000A-AICu. You have to put your ear to the box to make sure it's on
 
FolkDog said:
Wow. You are a hard a@@ bunch.

1. The first post mentions that I'm yanking the video card from my current system. It is a Nvidia geforce TI 500. I'm also yanking an HP CD burner, my old HD for the data, and my pathetic little Echo MIA.

2. I'll look again at the Mobos. I'm not seeing the significant price savings you mention - but I was mostly focused on figuiring out what the difference was with the -E.

3. OK XP-Pro is scrapped. My current system is Windows 2000 Pro, and all the extra network garbage just eats up headroom and makes it incompatible with my home network.

3. I'm dealing at a much higher level than "salesman" and I get a good feel for the management of the company and its long term prospects when I do these deals. Based on my personal experience, AMD is not a horse I would bet on in the long run. YMMV.

4. Yes, if you were nice to me you might just get me to buy your old junk for an exorbitant price. But you weren't - so no, I'm not interested. You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

Thanks again for all of the feedback - constructive and not. This BBS is a great resource and I appreciate your all taking the time to comment on my little project. :) :)
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Sorry I joked. I didn't see the eggshells to walk on around you. If you think my opinion as well as others' comes with no experience dealing with this stuff, then it's your loss.

Computers aren't just a hobby for many of us.
 
re......amd not being around in the long run. well as a computer engineer let
me state my opinion why they will. and let me preface this by saying i have never worked for or been associated in any way with amd.
a little inside computer industry story........
i met a senior amd person once at a USA computer show years back
when buying computer equipment for a large company.
just bumped into him over coffee. didnt realise who i was talking to. it became clear to me that this was a future titan of the industry,,,,,
i was fascinated with the drive and technical excellence of the man. never thought about it much...
at that time PC's were very puny in power. but one thing stuck in my mind through very heavy tech conversations we had. that the whole drive to
build a company was less about money than the sheer desire to win the race.
it was just a "ships passing in the night" thing.....to this day i'm glad the good lord up above gave me the opprtunity to be in the company of someone i knew would build a great company.
ever since i was telling people to watch out for this company.
in the process i was often laughed at. but you see where amd is today. so many years hence. a force to be reckoned with.
now it is true - and ive worked for a few hi tecks that rose high then burned out , but given the drive behind this company and its competitive spirit as evidenced by this chance meeting many years ago i think they will go on to even greater heights - but only time will tell.
 
after posting the above , and if anyone wants to read a history of how amd was built - i just found this article now using google and its a fascinating history of the company imho, and the semiconductor/computer industry. well worth a read for anyone interested.
the sheer drive i mentioned earlier is obviously still alive and well.
heres the link >>>> silicongenesis.stanford.edu/transcripts/sanders.htm
 
I agree with the guy when he says take a look at Zalman stuff for silencing.

I'm running a Zalman flower with 92mm fan and it's very quiet indeed.

I'm running 3 YS-Tech 'silent' fans in a Lian Li PC-60 case. The Lian-Li has a switch at the front allowing you to run the two front fans in one of three speeds - the slowest is very quiet indeed and is effectivly a 5v mod.

Make sure you 5v mod the rear case fan, otherwise it'll be very audible.

The most silent PSU's are the very expensive Globalwins. Thermaltake are working on a totally passive PSU, but it isn't out yet AFAIK. Have a look at the Zalman PSU's - although they are thermally controlled so they aren't reliably quiet (i.e. they get noisy if your case gets hot). I use an Ennermax 465W with a manual fan-speed control. It's not too bad (noise-wise) for the money.

Make sure you silence your VGA card with a Zalman VGA-cooler too (if the gfx card is not passive already).

Acoustic dampening stuff can really help too. You can get Akasa case-dampening material quite cheaply. Rubberised screws on Hard-Drives and optical drives are also a good idea. There are some new coperised HDD enclosures (for silencing) that are supposed to be very good - I forget who makes them though.

The myth about AMD chips needing noisy cooling is just that - a myth.
I run a T-Bred XP2400+ with my Zalman Flower and it's rock-solid stable. It runs prime95 and loops 3DM03 (at the same time) for 24 hours with no hassles. The CPU temp maxes out at around 54C - which is high, but not high enough to damage the CPU. I have a friend who works on an oil-rig and they use AMD chips and run them as hot as 65C without any problems.

Of course, the best solution is to have the PC in another room, then you don't need to silence it at all ;)
 
Polaris20 said:
Sorry I joked. I didn't see the eggshells to walk on around you. If you think my opinion as well as others' comes with no experience dealing with this stuff, then it's your loss.

Computers aren't just a hobby for many of us.
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Hey. No offense taken. I have a pretty thick skin. I was just poking fun back, but apparently I misplaced my smilies.

I make my living doing very high level deals in the industry - so computers are hardly a hobby for me. In fact, I decided to build one again so that when I'm sitting in one of these meetings, I still have roots in what we are talking about. Strategic thinkers in the industry tend to get divorced from the technology over time. You start with a design and a vision - but then you bring in a design shop, and you outsource the manufacture to some contract manufacture in Korea, you hand your distribution over to a jobber or VAR, and pretty soon, you are nothing but a brand with some patents. Then you start forgetting what is real and start negotiating garbage deals.

But I digress. This board has been incredibly helpful in designing this system. I really appreciate everyon'e input. You've almost got me convinced to move to AMD not withstanding the fact that the people I dealt with there couldn't have told me the difference between an a@@ and an elbow. It's a big company. Maybe other people are smarter. ;) :)

In any event - so I need a silent video card now? Does anyone have a suggestion for a solid video card w/out a fan? Or should I rip apart the Nvidia and throw on the Zalman cooler?

Again - THANK YOU. This is a great resource. And I like the fact that people are so passionate - it means you know what the hell you are talking about (or at least think you do). :)
 
I use a Gigabyte ATI Radeon 9600 8xAGP 128MB card. Cost around $70. Works well, but it's probably a lot more capable that what's needed for a DAW
 
FolkDog said:
Hey. No offense taken. I have a pretty thick skin. I was just poking fun back, but apparently I misplaced my smilies.

I make my living doing very high level deals in the industry - so computers are hardly a hobby for me. In fact, I decided to build one again so that when I'm sitting in one of these meetings, I still have roots in what we are talking about. Strategic thinkers in the industry tend to get divorced from the technology over time. You start with a design and a vision - but then you bring in a design shop, and you outsource the manufacture to some contract manufacture in Korea, you hand your distribution over to a jobber or VAR, and pretty soon, you are nothing but a brand with some patents. Then you start forgetting what is real and start negotiating garbage deals.

But I digress. This board has been incredibly helpful in designing this system. I really appreciate everyon'e input. You've almost got me convinced to move to AMD not withstanding the fact that the people I dealt with there couldn't have told me the difference between an a@@ and an elbow. It's a big company. Maybe other people are smarter. ;) :)

In any event - so I need a silent video card now? Does anyone have a suggestion for a solid video card w/out a fan? Or should I rip apart the Nvidia and throw on the Zalman cooler?

Again - THANK YOU. This is a great resource. And I like the fact that people are so passionate - it means you know what the hell you are talking about (or at least think you do). :)
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If you want a card that still cranks at video, but don't want the noise, then the Sapphire Ultimate series is the best. THey make a 9600 and a 9800 version, and they have heatsinks instead of fans.
 
i know a lot of video issues have been solved eg....locking out the sound card but i still use on board video which i find perfectly adequate.
others i know will disagree.
 
Polaris20 said:
If you want a card that still cranks at video, but don't want the noise, then the Sapphire Ultimate series is the best. THey make a 9600 and a 9800 version, and they have heatsinks instead of fans.
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Yeah - the Saphire Ultimates basically come with a Zalman already fitted :)

You miss the fun of doing it yourself though ;)
 
Codmate said:
Yeah - the Saphire Ultimates basically come with a Zalman already fitted :)

You miss the fun of doing it yourself though ;)
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True. That's one thing for the small difference in cost I'd rather just have come from the factory.
 
case

A 2u rack case would be awesome for a DAW but most are very utilitarian without all the cool ports on front and are very deep for a studio rack case. Have you guys scoped out anything desirable.
1'st post here, cool site.
 
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