Comments on new system before I $$$

W

woodshedder

New member
Greetings all-
I am getting ready to purchase a new system but need some help. I have done loads of research, but I have never built or set-up a computer before. Please let me know if there is anything that I need that I do not have on this list. Also, I am confused about what type of video card I will need. I will be using N-Tracks and M-Audio's Omni Studio.

 Intel Pentium4 1.8A GHz 512K Socket 478 Processor 400MHz Processor

 Asus Motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 Processors, Model P4XP-X

 Samsumg 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive Model# SP0802N

 Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Pure Copper CPU Cooler for AMD XP Socket 462 & 754 and Intel Socket 478..

 Zalmon ZM300A-APF Power Supply Unit

 Evercase ECE4252 Case

 I need a generic floppy drive, I guess.

 Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Model LTR-52246S

 CORSAIR 512MB PC2100 VALUE SELECT. DDR RAM

Once again, thanks for helping me out. I'm really nervous I'm gonna foul something up building this thing!!

Jeff
 
Add a second hard drive for your tracking software and songs.

Max out the RAM, if your mother board can take 2Gig, fill er' up!

One other thing I wish I had done - I bought a Dell, and while it's a great computer, I wish I had looked into companies like Carillion who build up recording PCs with noise suppression in mind.

Recording an acoustic guitar and picking up the computers cooling fan in the background is mucho annoying!
 
Thanks Phyl-

This one is designed with noise suppresion in mind. Most of the parts were chosen from reviews and tests from places like Quiet PC Review for their ability to run quietly and cooly.

I will be doing mainly acoustic instruments and vocals (bluegrass, americana type stuff) so I don't want the noise coming through.

Jeff
 
woodshedder said:
Greetings all-
I am getting ready to purchase a new system but need some help. I have done loads of research, but I have never built or set-up a computer before. Please let me know if there is anything that I need that I do not have on this list. Also, I am confused about what type of video card I will need. I will be using N-Tracks and M-Audio's Omni Studio.

 Intel Pentium4 1.8A GHz 512K Socket 478 Processor 400MHz Processor

 Asus Motherboard for Intel Pentium 4 Processors, Model P4XP-X

 Samsumg 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive Model# SP0802N

 Zalman CNPS7000-Cu Pure Copper CPU Cooler for AMD XP Socket 462 & 754 and Intel Socket 478..

 Zalmon ZM300A-APF Power Supply Unit

 Evercase ECE4252 Case

 I need a generic floppy drive, I guess.

 Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Model LTR-52246S

 CORSAIR 512MB PC2100 VALUE SELECT. DDR RAM

Once again, thanks for helping me out. I'm really nervous I'm gonna foul something up building this thing!!

Jeff
Click to expand...

Why are you not buying a P4B system (Northwood)? The 400Mhz system bus is now officialy 2 generations behind.

Seems like that if you're putting a DAW system together, you'd try to use somewhat current components to extend the usefull life of the system as much as possible.

I see no video card either...
 
Brzilian wrote:
Why are you not buying a P4B system (Northwood)? The 400Mhz system bus is now officialy 2 generations behind.

Uh, I don't know. That is why I am posting on here- to get help.

Brzilian wrote:
I see no video card either...

Uh, again, I specifically stated that I needed some info on video cards.

Jeff
 
Wood - Lemme give you some realistic advice.

Your processor is extremely slow both for the times and for doing any recording.

It's very slow. As of today processors are almost twice as fast as what you are getting.

I seriously suggest you get a 2.8 at least, but you should really go for the 3.0

That is your major weakness - it will slow the rest down big time. The second step is you need more RAM, which is cheap.

You should definetely get one full gig of RAM.

The rest is ok - lemme make you a suggestion. DO NOT get a floppy drive - they can mess things up bigtime........and are no longer needed because windows CDs have their own boot-up properties.

You didn't mention a video card OR a sound card. What are your plans for those?
 
Thanks Audio-
Is it possible to cool a faster processor enough without making too much noise?
I chose the 1.8 because quiet PC review rates it as one of the quietest to cool.

You wrote- You didn't mention a video card OR a sound card. What are your plans for those?

Actually, I did. But that's ok. I have an M-Audio Omni Studio. I cannot seem to get any good information on video cards. I was hoping for some good advice. I'll be using N-Tracks.

Jeff
 
Lemme give you some realistic advice.

Your processor is extremely slow both for the times and for doing any recording.

It's very slow. As of today processors are almost twice as fast as what you are getting.

I seriously suggest you get a 2.8 at least, but you should really go for the 3.0

That is your major weakness - it will slow the rest down big time.
Click to expand...

Whaaaaat?

That is complete claptrap. Well... maybe not complete... but inaccurate for sure.

The front-side bus speed and the hard drive sustained transfer rate are the main performance issues with recording. Twice the CPU speed does not mean twice the processing power, not by a long shot. Many people have been doing perfectly well recording audio with 700 MHz Celerons. Faster CPUs don't hurt but they are not that critical, especially once your up in the 1.8 GHz range.

That said, right now 2.4 GHz can probably had for the merest amount more than 1.8. But prices start to climb dramatically as you approach the fastest CPUs, and for the fractional difference in capability, it's just not worth buying the fastest CPU on the market. Besides, in three weeks the fastest will be the next-fastest anyway.

The second step is you need more RAM, which is cheap.

You should definetely get one full gig of RAM.
Click to expand...

Now I won't argue with that, although 512 MB will be adequate. More will let you run more plug-ins and softsynths and get a higher track count.


DO NOT get a floppy drive - they can mess things up bigtime
Click to expand...

Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

You're going to have to run an explanation for that statement by us... how could a floppy drive mess things up at all, much less "big time?"
 
C'mon AlChuck, floppy drives are evil, we all know it. You are obviously a manufacturer of floppy drives and you are just trying to remain viable.




But seriously, wtf are you smoking AudioWebs?
 
As mentioned before, I would suggest adding a second hard drive (120gb 7200RPM 8mb buffered and you do not want serial ata for that P4XP-X motherboard.), hard drives are cheap and its nice to have a second one even as storage for backups. Also add more ram since its so cheap. The motherboard you've picked is a bit on the older side, but will be fine for what you need I think. The most difficult part of putting a system together for me is installing the heatsink, so be careful with that and the rest is easy ;)

Expensive video cards are basically for games or other tasks that require hardware acceleration such as 3d modeling. Don't spend hundreds of dollars on a video card if you don't play games. Get a cheap one with solid 2d performance. I would go with an ATI radeon 8500LE. Actually that is what Im using right now, and I have no problems playing most games. You will probably hear that ATI's reputation for drivers is not as good as Nvidias though. Many video cards such as the 8500LE are also capable of using two monitors and/or tv video output as well.

Some more links for researching stuff -
http://www.tech-report.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://arstechnica.com
 
woodshedder said:
Thanks Audio-
Is it possible to cool a faster processor enough without making too much noise?
I chose the 1.8 because quiet PC review rates it as one of the quietest to cool.

You wrote- You didn't mention a video card OR a sound card. What are your plans for those?

Actually, I did. But that's ok. I have an M-Audio Omni Studio. I cannot seem to get any good information on video cards. I was hoping for some good advice. I'll be using N-Tracks.

Jeff
Click to expand...


Your video card for this type of usage is determined by your monitor.

Are you planning on using a regular computer monitor, or something large and long like a plasma screen or one of those special rectangle viewsonic monitors that are 42 inches long?
 
AudioWebs said:
Your video card for this type of usage is determined by your monitor.

Are you planning on using a regular computer monitor, or something large and long like a plasma screen or one of those special rectangle viewsonic monitors that are 42 inches long?
Click to expand...

Wha....?
 
Not sure why you guys flip out over my comment on floppy drives.

There is no logical reason someone would need one, that's all. Any operating system made in the past 2.5 years can boot-up recover from the CD rom.

I didn't mean it can literally cause issues, I was overexaggerating because I completely despise floppy drives, as well as VCRs.

That's all...

I second the comment on the second hard drive. but with a twist.

I think everyone here would agree that you should absolutely have an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE that you plug into your computer only to back up your work.

Now, if you're not connecting this PC to the internet, then the only downside with an internal is of your computer were to burn the processor which could, in rare cases, hurt a hard drive.

But that's unlikely.

So if you are not connecting to the internet (which you never should!) then the only reason you could use an external is to transport your data other places.....
 
Phyl said:
Wha....?
Click to expand...

What's not to understand.

If someone is using a plasma monitoring screen they want to use a very good card.

If someone is using a regular PC monitor then using a good card is needed, but not the kind you might want for a plasma.

Studios that I have built computers for use 42 inch viewsonic monitors or plasma TVs.......
 
AudioWebs said:
Not sure why you guys flip out over my comment on floppy drives.

There is no logical reason someone would need one, that's all. Any operating system made in the past 2.5 years can boot-up recover from the CD rom.

I didn't mean it can literally cause issues, I was overexaggerating because I completely despise floppy drives, as well as VCRs.

That's all...

I second the comment on the second hard drive. but with a twist.

I think everyone here would agree that you should absolutely have an EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE that you plug into your computer only to back up your work.

Now, if you're not connecting this PC to the internet, then the only downside with an internal is of your computer were to burn the processor which could, in rare cases, hurt a hard drive.

But that's unlikely.

So if you are not connecting to the internet (which you never should!) then the only reason you could use an external is to transport your data other places.....
Click to expand...

I find floppies quite useful for tranferring small files from one computer to another. I don't use them often, but you can get a floppy drive for next to nothing and aside from the small of amount of real estate they consume, don't constitute a major evil.

I wouldn't use the term "absolutely" with reference to a removeable hard drive. There are lots of less exopensive ways to back up your tracks, CDs for instance. I've heard some people argue that removeable drives are useful for taking your data from one studio to another, but I can't think of a good reason why your average home recorder would absolutely have to have one.
 
AudioWebs said:
What's not to understand.

If someone is using a plasma monitoring screen they want to use a very good card.

If someone is using a regular PC monitor then using a good card is needed, but not the kind you might want for a plasma.

Studios that I have built computers for use 42 inch viewsonic monitors or plasma TVs.......
Click to expand...

I guess we're both making assumptions. You're assuming he/she plans to use a high end monitoring solution that requires special (read expensive) video cards.

I assumed that he/she is going to be using typical tracking software that doesn't demand a monitor with above average resolution.
 
I appreciate the input everyone!

He/she is a he.

And I plan on using an average 4 yo monitor until funds can afford something better. I don't play games, and I will never hook to the internet.

To be more specifc, my wife and I are bluegrass musicians/ singer songwriters and need an affordable way to produce demos, and eventually CDs to sell. That is what this system will hopefully do. I don't really have a need to run many soft synths, or plug ins at the same time. A few will probably be enough for the time being. I will rarely have more than 8-10 tracks. Usually less. Remember bluegrass= no drums, so I save a lot of tracks without that rhythm section.

Again, thanks folks!

Jeff
 
Wood - here's what I'd say based on your monitor choice.

When someone is using a program with tracks - once issue that's a pain is that the lower the resolution the less amount of tracks on the screen at once.

Then you've gotta scroll around and lose your place and can't view all the tracks you want while someone is recording.

For instance in 1024 you might only see 3 to 4 tracks.

But in 1600 you can see almost 8....

So basically you want a card that'll let you get that res, which isn't saying much, most cards can do that these days....

blue grass never has drums?

What keeps the beat...the knew slappin'???

Heh, jk :)
 
Wood - here's what I'd say based on your monitor choice.

When someone is using a program with tracks - once issue that's a pain is that the lower the resolution the less amount of tracks on the screen at once.

Then you've gotta scroll around and lose your place and can't view all the tracks you want while someone is recording.

For instance in 1024 you might only see 3 to 4 tracks.

But in 1600 you can see almost 8....
Click to expand...

It's a little more complicated than that... if your monitor is a 15" or even a 17" you might find fonts and fine details at 1600 X 1200 pixels to be unusably small, especially if you are over 40 like me :)

Even with a 19" monitor like i have this is the case -- even at 1280 X 1024 everything's too small for easy viewing for an old fart like me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top