how is my setup?

  • Thread starter Thread starter travis16vp
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travis16vp

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This is what I already have:
1. 10 gig hard drive.
2. m-audio audiophile 2496
3. cd-rom drive (pretty fast)
4. plexwriter 48/24/48A cd burner
5. shitty motherboard

This is what I'm going to get:
1. ASUS P4B533-E ATX - Intel 845
2. Intel Pentium 2.0
3. 512mb of memory
4. 80 gig 7200 rpm harddrive.
5. 64mb videocard.
6. Cubasis vst 4.0

Calculated cost of what I'm going to get is 700 bucks. will this be good enough?
 
looks good... you might wanna add more ram tho... just a thought
 
Get a separate hard disk for OS and programs. Use that 80 for audio only.
 
Looks good, but like he said - use your old 10GB HDD for C: and put Windows on that. Us your new 80GB for the music only. You should see a performance increase there.
Cubasis 4.0 is alright - it came with my Audigy 2, but I personally like Sonar better... if you get in a tight spot $ wise, I could send you my Cubasis, because I don't use it.
Jed
 
jake-owa said:
Get a separate hard disk for OS and programs. Use that 80 for audio only.
Click to expand...

That only makes sense if the HD's are on different IDE channels.

If they are on the same channel, it will not make an once of difference since each channel can support 2 drives but only has one IRQ.

If 2 drives are on the same channel, the system has to wait until access to the first drive is completed before accessing the 2nd.
 
You will see an increase in read/write speeds (typically). That's why. Guaranteed that 80 GB outperforms that 10 GB almost 2:1
 
Why would you put two HDDs on the same channel?
I figured he's got 2 built into the mobo, right? :) If you've got lots of Cd drives and stuff to clog up your IDE channels, go to www.pricewatch.com, and grab you a cheap ($19 shipped!) ATA/133 IDE Raid card based on the Silicon Image Sil0860 -- that will give you 2 extra IDE channels, and you don't have to use it in RAID mode for now - just future proofing for when you buy another 80GB HDD. :)
Then put one HDD and CDrom on each channel, and don't double up, because as brzilian said, "piggybacking" on IDE is what makes it so slow.
Hope that helps,
Jed
 
Jedman said:
Why would you put two HDDs on the same channel?
I figured he's got 2 built into the mobo, right? :) If you've got lots of Cd drives and stuff to clog up your IDE channels, go to www.pricewatch.com, and grab you a cheap ($19 shipped!) ATA/133 IDE Raid card based on the Silicon Image Sil0860 -- that will give you 2 extra IDE channels, and you don't have to use it in RAID mode for now - just future proofing for when you buy another 80GB HDD. :)
Then put one HDD and CDrom on each channel, and don't double up, because as brzilian said, "piggybacking" on IDE is what makes it so slow.
Hope that helps,
Jed
Click to expand...

Careful tho - every additional channel you add with a RAID card will still need its own IRQ. I ran into that exact problem when I installed a card that supported an additional 4 IDE channels.
 
my 10 gig hard drive is 5400 rps. will that be good for my windows programs?
 
Yeah, for your Windows [system] drive, that 5400rpm 10GB will be just fine. However, the audio recording drive should be at least 7200 rpm IDE, and some people around here will tell you SCSI is the only way to go...which I really don't believe, but that's just me. In many benchies, IDE Striped RAID is almost as fast as SCSI.
Yes, brzilian is right about the IRQ problem, but if you have fairly new components, (all PCI cards), they don't seem to take as many IRQs as the old ISA cards did - - mainly referring to sound cards here. Also, if you go with the 2 Channel IDE controller that I mentioned, you should be fine, because it's only 2 more IRQs that you need, not 4 more.
I'm pretty new at audio recording, but have been building computers for many years, so if you have questions or something doesn't go right when you take the case off, just PM me... I'm sure a lot of other guys will offer the same help.
Good luck w/ the upgrading,
Jed
 
ATA133 is kind of a wash. You can buy a card, but you won't need it and really offers very little advantage over ATA100.

Go RAID it you are multitracking or doing video.

That 10 GB 5400 RPM will leave PLENTY of headroom for a faster 7200 RPM drive IF you are ATA100 (even on the same IDE channel). If you your IDE channels have to drop down to ATA66, then it could be pretty tight in there.

So I guess what I am saying is, if you want to keep the 10 GB HDD, make sure it can run at ATA100.

I run a 40 and an 80 (both 7200 RPM) off of the same channel. There is no problem with this unless you are going to be simultaneously writing or reading at full speed to both disks. This, for me, never happens......even when doing video.
 
I have a question before I finally decide to upgrade. I recorded a song in 24 bit, 44 khz. There weren't any problems with cracks or pops but the song just sounds so dry like the sound is coming from a three inch speaker when I'm standing a few meters away. When I listened to recordings made by stand alone recorders, it sounded ok. can anyone explain how to improve this?
 
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