need some advice on my comp setup and soundcard

T

the Ozlee

New member
I hate to ask what might seem like the same question again, but it is a little different, and I could really use your input.

First my computer is an Athlon 550 with 98 megs of pc100 sdram and a Maxtor 20 gig 5400 rpm harddrive with a built in Creative awe 64 soundcard and a Win98 SE with all of the updates current.

I have been trying out N-Track as well as several other programs and have just about decided to go with N-Track at the 16 bit level for now. I have read through all of the soundcard threads in this forum, though I might have missed something. I found several entries by Tom Hicks refering to the Ensoniq sound card as a good cheap entry level card. I went on to a site by Arny Kruger that evaluates componets and he rated the Turtle Beach Santa Fe just under his top pro choice soundcards and somewhat better than the Ensoniq. The Santa Fe card has 4 channel recording and I can buy it from Comp USA for $79.00. While I was in there I came across a small line in/line out USB connector which I did not find a price on. It is just a connector cord type of setup.

What I need some advice on are; Will upgrading my ram to 256 megs of pc133 sdram be sufficent? Is the speed of the hardrive going to create more problems with latency than the soundcard?
What problems or suggestions about the Turtle Beach Santa Fe card do you have or know of? Finally as latency is a big concern of mine has anyone heard of this type of USB connector and is that a better way to go.

Any suggestions or help you guys could find the time for would be a big help. I am new to this recording stuff and don't have the money to go for the pro gear, so any help that you can find the time to give that would keep me from making to many mistakes and wasting what little money I have would be really a big help.

Ozlee :)
 
Just my opinion.....

The best thing you can do running audio is to use 2 hard drives, one running Windows and put your audio apps and data on the other. I have (2) 20Gb drives and have run 30 tracks on my PII-450Mhz Gateway.

I used 98Mb of RAM OK for awhile but I recently upgraded to 384Mb (only $60 at www.crucial.com) The extra memory won't make your PC faster but you will be able to run more apps without Windows hitting the swap file which I think is a big performance booster. I can run N-Track and SoundForge5 at the same time and not feel like my PC is going to grind to a halt.

Save your money and get a good soundcard. I just moved up from a SoundBlasterLive to an Echo Mia (well actually I left the Soundblaster in so that I could use it for SoundFonts simultaneously.) The difference in quality is tremendous and you'll only put another $100 into getting a >good< soundcard.

Here's a little guide I recently found while shopping for mine:

http://www.bway.net/~rongon/home_rec/soundcard.html
 
Im assuming you mean the SantaCruz soundcard.....Ill have to somewhat disagree about getting a better soundcard.....If $$$ are an issue right now, the SantaCruz is one of the better cards in the consumer type card category....also, when you do step up to a better card, you can keep the SC for its Midi capability.......

but then again, dont be expected to be knocked over by the difference in sound quality because it wont be that big from what you have....the only advantage of the Santa cruz is that it has 2 stereo inputs so you can record 4 tracks at once.....if you can make do with what you have now until you save $$$, go with the above advice....
 
Thanks for the input!

I think I got hit with a virus or my computer just went on the fritz, so I have't been able to respond to anything for the past couple of weeks.

Tim,

I think you are right about (2) hardrives. For me it might have to be partioning one large one. I'm thinking about going with a 40 gb 7200. I am going to upgrade my RAM to at least what what you are running.

Lil Slim,

I totaly agree about the soundcard but money is the only hold back right now. I've been looking at a Hoontech that sells for around $160.00 that has a daughter card that provides addittional digital inputs and the M-Audio Audiophile that sells for about the same price.

Gidge,

I have heard that the Santa Cruz has some driver problems and so I probably will wait. If you know anything though about this card and how well it might work with N-Track, I would like to hear from you. The specs and the possible 4 inputs for 16 bit recording sounds like a bargin. The specs on paper look good. I have done alot more research, but the driver problem is a reoccuring issue.



I have gotten excellent reuslts with N- Track and my soundcard, by that I mean my playback was at the same volume level and quality as when I was recording, but I am having problems with my system locking up lately. I have read the setup suggestions on N-Tracks FAQ page and have attempted to make those changes, but I am still having problems.
The CPU meter goes from about 8% to showing numbers and in the red on playback and the available disk space shows mostly green. I hope one of you might be able to give me a little more help, because inspite of the problems I am still planning on going with N-Track. The recording quality still seems the best for my money and I have learned that getting setup is going to be a problem most likely with any software.

Again I apologize for taking so long to get back with you, and some of the problems I am having may be due to a virus or worm that my Anti-virus software hasn't picked up or I may just need to clean out my OS.

Thanks for the help, Ozlee :confused:
 
Hi

I don't think PC 133 RAM will have significantly different performance from PC100 in your case, because the Athlon 550 uses a 100 MHz FSB only. However, I don't know if there is a difference in price or availability of PC100/PC133 where you are, so you might as well buy PC133. It'll run just fine in a 100 MHz setup.

About RAM not making your PC faster, I would have to agree that in a regular setup it would not. But with a few tweaks you can eke out some more speed from your setup (run through some tweaking sites like www.tomshardware.com to figure out how to get another 10 to 20% (!) increase in performance without spending a cent).

Check out the 'CPU redlining' post on this forum to check out another instance of high CPU usage, and some possible solutions.

Sang
 
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