How fast is everyone's computer?

[dumass]

yea..how fast are your computers, especially those using sonar, with 24 bit recording...and do u ever have problems with it?

also how much did u get urs for?

would anyone think i would be able to build a computer with this at least this stuff for under $500?
2.5 ghz
1 gig memory
60 gig harddrive
52x cd burner
ethernet capability
windows xp home

and would this be plenty fast for recording with cakewalk sonar...with the delta 1010?

 

[drstawl]

Should be plenty fast for audio apps in and out of the Delta 1010.

 

[dumass]

k thanks...bc right now mines and hp 1.7 gighz, 40 GIG HD, and with 768 DDR RAM, and im getting a whole lot of dropouts, when i have about 13 tracks playing, and effects on jus bout everything

 

[Porter]

I'm playing back about 13 tracks with effects on most in 24bit mode on a 1.7Ghz, 912MB DDR RAM onto a 30GB HDD (7200rpm) for Audio, 10GB Applications drive, running Sonar.

Just a couple of things...

What speed HDD are you using? If it is a 5400rpm, that might be where the problem lies, the 7200rpm does make a difference!!!

Which OS are you using? Which drivers? The best performace would most likely be XP (I'm running Home), using ASIO (or WDM) drivers.

Is you OS running off the same drive you are recording Audio onto?

Lastly, if you are using XP, have you optimised it.. check out http://www.musicxp.net

Porter

 

[dumass]

whats the cpu, disk, and disk space percentage you have when you are playing back ur tracks?

i just did most of the things on the list of tuning tips and mine was and still is between 60-75% for CPU, 15% for disk, and the disk space actually just moved up to about 42% from 32%

thanks for the site!

 

[Gidge]

using N-Track/ windoze98 / 500mhz Celeron / 320 mb ram / 30gb 7200rpm hd

i regularlly get 16-24 tracks of 24/44.1 audio......but i have to be very selective with plugins.....a few waves reverbs will bog it down easy........

 

[drstawl]

and effects on jus bout everything

Reverbs can bog the system down in a HURRY!

You can run lots of other effects on a lot of channels, but a fat reverb plug-in can clog your CPU like eating 15 pounds of walnuts!

 

[Porter]

dumass,

What speed are your disks? Cache? I'm guessing 5400rpm/2MB Cache?

Porter

 

[Track Rat]

Hmmmm.......I'm running a 700MHz PIII with 512 megs of RAM 7200RPM 40gig drives and I run 24 tracks ALL THE TIME (24 bit/44.1khz) and I've had track counts as high as 35 without a burp. There's got to something wrong with how your machine is set up.

 

[Polaris20]

1800+ AMD, 512MB DDR, 40 gig 7200rpm drives. I get over 24 tracks at 24/48 all the time, in CEP2.

Sounds like something's bunk with your system.

 

[Niko]

Celeron 950. udma66 disk, 320 RAm and live player! Works great if you're not using real time effects.

 

[christiaan]

dumass,

What speed are your disks? Cache? I'm guessing 5400rpm/2MB Cache?

Porter

Does not matter for these amounts of tracks. Any not too ancient drive can easily handle a dozen tracks at 24/44.1.

 

[Porter]

whats the cpu, disk, and disk space percentage you have when you are playing back ur tracks?

i just did most of the things on the list of tuning tips and mine was and still is between 60-75% for CPU, 15% for disk, and the disk space actually just moved up to about 42% from 32%

thanks for the site!

24/44.1
13 tracks, 11 effects (only one reverb in a Aux Bus)
CPU - 40-50%
15% disk

Free space - 48%

(I'm running MS Outlook, a couple of browser windows, in the background)

christiaan, it is sounding like some background process causing the drop outs, but if the OS is running on the same HDD won't the swap file be taking up some of the read/write for the swap file etc.? I've seen some HDD's have a sustained transfer rate of only 3MB a second.

Porter

 

[mrface2112]

i'm with Track Rat here

the "home" machine is an IBM desktop pc, with a Pentium III 450, with 192mb of ram, and a single 80gb 7200rpm drive (maxtor with 2mb cache) and i have no problems with running 12-16 tracks (at 24/44.1) with plenty of effects and plugins (waves reverbs and comps among them). i bring the tracks in 2 at a time with my audiophile 2496, so that's a little different than 8 at a time, but once inside the PC, it shouldn't really matter.

it's not an "optimal" machine configuration by any means, but given the low speeds of hardware that i'm running and my lack of problems, i have to second trackrat's hypothesis that there's something wrong with your setup if you're having problems handling that few with that much horsepower.

and do NOT underestimate the HD speed. there's a world of difference between a 5400 rpm and 7200 rpm drive.

i've got a dell laptop that's a screamer, but i've yet to configure it for audio use. i'll be eventually replacing the current p3/450 desktop with a considerably newer machine, prolly later this year.


wade

 

[christiaan]

christiaan, it is sounding like some background process causing the drop outs, but if the OS is running on the same HDD won't the swap file be taking up some of the read/write for the swap file etc.?

Swapping with 768MB of RAM? Very unlikely.
5400rpm = lower performance than 7200rpm? Yes. Too slow for 13 tracks? No way.

I've seen some HDD's have a sustained transfer rate of only 3MB a second.Porter

The 17GB 5400rpm drive that I bought in January 2000 did over 10MB/s. See what I meant with not too ancient? Like from this century. And a 40GB drive is definately from this century.

 

[Morgoth]

At the moment i'm using an old IBM aptiva 667 mhz SiS 630 MoBo 256mb 133 SDRAM w/ 2 HDD's,20gb and 40gb,both at 7200,with winME.Rounded off with an Echo Mia

Everything is done at 24/44.1 and i get 32 tracks EASY.

I keep trying to find faults with it.....but it runs sooo smooth(and has done so for literally years)that i actually feel ashamed now whenever i dream about having >2.5ghz at my disposal.

I do spend a lot of time rendering stuff though,and there are certain reverb impulses for SiR that i just flat-out cannot use at all.
Ah Well.

Funny how there are quite a few of us running sub-1ghz PC's without any drama or complaint.......soon enough they will be "vintage DAW's" or "1st Generation DAW's" or some twat like that.

 

[Havoc]

Kick out the Outlook! It plays with the network all the time and is a piece of soft making troubles all the time.

Running a dual XP1600+ with 1GB ddr and a couple of scsi U160 10k disks and rme hammerfall for I/O. Runs nice, can probably handle far more than I ever use.....

 

[dumass]

hmm, how do i find out the speed of my disks??

and yea, i only had one reverb (waves rverb) in a aux bus...and jus bout the same as u...13 tracks, total of about 11-15 effects.

what could be wrong about the setup of my system? the disk space is 40%, cpu about 60-75%, and the disk gets to about up to 15-20%.

 

[Porter]

hmm, how do i find out the speed of my disks??

and yea, i only had one reverb (waves rverb) in a aux bus...and jus bout the same as u...13 tracks, total of about 11-15 effects.

what could be wrong about the setup of my system? the disk space is 40%, cpu about 60-75%, and the disk gets to about up to 15-20%.

Look up their model number on the net. There is usually a spec page which includes that info. As for the Waves Reverb, I've heard that that is a processor chewer. Have you tried playing back without that plug-in running, ie either bounce the track it's on to a new track or if it is in the master apply it later... see how you go.

For the person who mentioned Outlook, I was just trying to prove a point with my background process running ... my actualy Audio installation (I was running my general) has nothing installed, other than recording software, network disabled & it's optimised so there isn't anthing running in the background.. I haven't pushed this installation yet because I've done all my recording on my general system..

Porter

BTW, christiaan, the page I was looking at (the first one listed in my search) was referring to a 40GB HDD with a 3MB/sec sustained transfer rate.

 

[FattMusiek]

Specs:
2.4 ghz Pentium 4
512 mb ram
60 gig HD + a 120 gig = 180 gigs
Windows XP
Geforce 4200 video card

Roger that.