New Set up: Problems. Advice Please!?!?

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track pusha

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wassup you guys. I'm about to spend some major cash on my studio, but before i get it would like some imput. I need pro quality results, and am not completly sure if i'll get it with what i'm about to buy. my biggest concern is my computer i'm getting built, I need to know if it'll act right with my software and other stuff. can you please tell me if my setup is good and if my computer will work fast and efficently with it. If you have any suggestions for a different computer please tell me. thank you

Computer:

Cooler Master CAVALIER 3 ALUM ATX CASE CAV-T03
Unit price: $119.99

Enermax 485W Noisetaker 2.0 Power Supply ATX EG495P-VE SFMA
Unit price: $89.99

Vantec 120MM Stealth Case Fan (SF12025L)
Unit price: $19.99

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Socket 939, Retail
Unit price: $289.99

Asus K8V SE DELUXE K8T800
Unit price: $139.99

1 Gig PC3200 DDR 400
Unit price: $219.99

120GB Maxtor 7200rpm w/ 8MB Buffer SATA (6Y120M0)
Unit price: $99.99

120GB Maxtor 7200rpm w/ 8MB Buffer SATA (6Y120M0)
Unit price: $99.99

(2) 17" Proview Flat Monitor (PS-720F)
Unit price: $119.99

computer total:
The Studio:

Soundcard: Emu 120m
Microphone Preamp: Avalon vt737sp
Microphone: Rode ntk
Monitors: Krk rp5 rokits
Recording Software: Cubase SL 3
Beat Making Software: Reason 2.5
 
=track pusha
Soundcard: Emu 120m
Microphone Preamp: Avalon vt737sp
Microphone: Rode ntk
Monitors: Krk rp5 rokits
Recording Software: Cubase SL 3
Beat Making Software: Reason 2.5
Click to expand...

You can go a long way on what you'd be spending on the Avalon alone...

And did you ever download the Tracktion demo? Or do a search under Tracktion on this BBS --- it was being offered for free somewhere, but I can't remember where...
 
yeah i tried it, but honestly i didn't like it, but then again it was my first time doing music on the computer.
 
pusha. you cant do any better than an amd 64 computer.
people are getting large track and plug in counts with them.
also matrox video cards are well behaved compared to some video cards.
also - if you wish , tell me what cards if any are going into pci slots of that 64. then i'll commment further.
if you want a free set of tutorials....to expand your understanding of midi and digital audio. try these. people have told me they are very usefull.....
http://www.pgmusic.com/howtos.htm
in particular read the midi in a nutshell, and the digital audio tutorials down the page.and there are many others.peace.
 
Just a word of caution on that amd64/Asus K8V combo:

my friend has that exact setup and he has issues running that with Cakewalk just freezing on him. Could be just his machine of course, but I don't know that amd + via + audio processing go that well together.

It's generally acepted if you want a fast gaming machine get amd, if you want a solid daw platform, get intel + intel chipset. My clocked Asus/P4/i865 combo has not missed a beat since I got it 8 months ago. There's little difference in price anymore
 
bh. there are loads of amd 64 systems working well.
mind you. even i stay away from via chipsets in the past.
but i understood via had solved its problems because a lot of people are telling me that via is now working fine.
out of interest , ask your friend what he has in his pci slots. it COULD
be another pci device locking out eg...if he is a gamer OR maybe a network card. ive found these two can often be the culprits as well as tv tuner cards. I HATE THOSE !
 
Hey

Hey man looks awesome, I'm officially jealous.

Ive got a custom built athlon 64 and boy do I love it.
Ive got an ALI chipset on my board. Love the board, but I don't love the fact that its had problems twice and I had to ship it back. I've got a Soyo SY-K8USA. Great processor though, amazing performance.

I noticed you got two hard drives and a raid capable board, are you planning on using raid? I tried raid on my old system and it helps a ton.
 
pentium. out of curiosity , have you tried maxing out the 64 yet ?
number of tracks ? somme folks are telling me 80 - others 100 .
where do you stand ?
 
No I haven't tried maxing it out yet. All I know is that it can do a lot lol.
 
pentium. just curious. your using a amd 64 - but your nom de plumme is pentium - why ?
by the way a word of caution. i'm seeing some people , because they spent so much on the 64 processor buying cheap power supplies. be aware that there are clone power supplies floating around where some dont meet rated spec for power. all the best.
 
I agree with manning1, watch your powersupply. I had one cheap power supply mess up a motherboard... to this day it still randomly locks up.

As for my name, lol, thats just the nickname someone gave me. for a while I was pure intel.. I had messed with the amd processors but I had my doubts. Recently I began to reconsider when I saw how they were taking the prosumers into consideration, unlike intel who just wants money.. thats my opinion anyway....

Anyways yes pick the powersupply carefully. If possible, before you buy, read reviews for it from sites like Overclocker's Club.
 
isn't cubase SL the watered down version? if you are spending so much, you should jack that up to SX (if SX is the flagshit unit for cubase). Personally i'd go with sonar but whatever gets you hot and bothered.

I have an nforce motherboard built by asus, it works well
 
manning1 said:
pusha. you cant do any better than an amd 64 computer.
people are getting large track and plug in counts with them.
also matrox video cards are well behaved compared to some video cards.
also - if you wish , tell me what cards if any are going into pci slots of that 64. then i'll commment further.
if you want a free set of tutorials....to expand your understanding of midi and digital audio. try these. people have told me they are very usefull.....
http://www.pgmusic.com/howtos.htm
in particular read the midi in a nutshell, and the digital audio tutorials down the page.and there are many others.peace.
Click to expand...

Hey manning, the only thing i'll have in my pci slots is the emu 120m.
 
manning1 said:
bh. there are loads of amd 64 systems working well.
mind you. even i stay away from via chipsets in the past.
but i understood via had solved its problems because a lot of people are telling me that via is now working fine.
out of interest , ask your friend what he has in his pci slots. it COULD
be another pci device locking out eg...if he is a gamer OR maybe a network card. ive found these two can often be the culprits as well as tv tuner cards. I HATE THOSE !
Click to expand...

Yeah all he's got is an AP2496 card on the pci bus. It's almost like a hardware problem he's got.

As far as amd vs. Pentium goes, I recall that shootout thread you posted a couple of weeks back that concluded that bang for buck the P4 was the way to go in the lower priced 3 - 3.4GHz range. It also showed the amd wiping the floor with the P4 on all the common benchmark tests EXCEPT the video rendering one, which would be the one of most interest to people building a daw
 
pusha. thats hunky dory with just the emu in a pci slot.
you should be fine.
bh. frankly both pentium and amd will do the job.
i have admitted my amd biases all along bh. as ive had nothing but smooth sailing with them. also i like the low level architecture in the 64 and the real world performance. on your friends system. does he have plenty of memory ? and a decent power supply ? all the standard stuff like dma enabled etc ? sounds to me like he should try a non via chipset if thats the case. did your friend build it himself ? peace.
 
I was one of the very first to jump aboard the AMD 64 train. My processor was very expensive when I first bought it. I am imagining that the newer AMD64 stuff is much better now. However, my system has ran absolutely flawlesslly. I am using an MSI motherboard with the VIA chipset. I am only using 512 megs of Ram (I keep meaning to go get more, but everything has run so well that I keep forgetting to), I have a Radeon 256 meg dual head video card, a Universal Audio UAD-1, an RME Hammerfall 9652 soundcard with the Daughterboard, a pci raid card (serial ATA drives were still considerably more expensive at that time or I would have gotten some and used the onboard raid). All of the 64 bit specific parts were pretty new technology at the time, so I actually expected to have some problems at first, but it has been the EASIEST of my 8 systems in the last few years to install, setup, and get running properly. As far as Software goes, my primary software is Nuendo 2. Personally, I would save the money and buy Cubase SL. If you find that you need more than what SL does, then pay for the upgrade to SX, or for that matter SX3. The upgrade combined with the initial purchase of SL will actually save you 98 cents over buying SX outright. As far as power supplies go, they are VERY important. One bad power supply could actually do damage to other parts that may work later, but just not as well as they used to. I use a nice Thermaltake butterfly power supply. My computer runs 24/7 and gets heavily used about 80 hours a week in the studio. I have had it up and running for maybe 6 or 8 months now and I don't think I have EVER seen a Blue Screen (i use win2000).

As far as the rest of your list goes. First thing I noticed, is that you have a nice little system with really cheesy monitors in my opinion. I would reccomend looking into Dynaudio BM6 monitors (go passive and get a Hafler power amp, or buy a used Crown D150 or at least a D75). At the very least maybe look into the Wharfedales everyone on here seems to be raving about. Second, that Avalon is a really nice 1 piece unit. The only problem with the Avalon (all my opinion of course) is that its a little overpriced when compared to other things on the market today. Personally, as a starter piece, look into the Toft audio ATC-2 for half the cost, or at least look into the Mercenary edition 737 to save a little money. For almost the same price as the avalon you could get the Toft ATC-2 (2 channels instead of one like the Avalon), and maybe the Soundelux U195. This would give you a major upgrade in the mic department, and get you twice as many channels of outboard. All of which can find a permanent home in you racks no matter what high end equipment you may buy later. Good luck, most everything looks really nice on your list to me:)
 
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