p4/asus combo

[Tom T.]

I have a delta 1010 sound card and will be building a computer just for recording. Question; after reading and looking for the best combination mb/cpu I found the following.
1. asus p4b533E/P4 478pin 2.0 533mhz for 309.00
2. asus p4b533 /p4 478pin 2.0 533mhz for 279.00

what is the difference in the two and what does the (E) in number 1 mean. which card is the better choice for recording music. Is there a better choice out there or a lower price.
I know little about what I need to build a computer for recording
purposes only, but have built a computer in the past for general uses. please give any advice you can. thanks Tom T.

 

[Stealthtech]

I think the only difference is that the E board has a LAN feature.
Both boards are good to go with.
Im looking at the P4PE

 

[Arranger]

Goto:

http://usa.asus.com/mb/mbindex.htm

You'll find everything you want to know. I also looked at the P4B533E with RAID 133 capability and Firewire (not the P4B533 base model) and ended up with the P4PE.

The P4PE will support SATA and is officially DDR2700 compatible.

 

[Tom T.]

Thanks for your reply, I know just enough to get me into trouble about building a recording computer. you mentioned (SATA) and
(RAID) on the p4be asus motherboard I have no idea what either is or used for or why it is better to have that capabality. but before I pay out 330.00 for an asus p4b/p4 2.4 with 533 bus
combo I need to know if thats the best for the money. one more question is there a lot of difference in ddr 2100 memory, I can find 512 megs of 2100ddr from 94.00 to 160.00 depending on the name brand. will generic brand work very well. or is it best to stay away from the generic brands.

 

[Stealthtech]

SATA is serial ATA which is a new standard for up to 150mb data transfer using a smaller cable instead of ribbon cable. New drives are being introduced with serial ATA capability but has not yet reached its maturity. New stuff can also be buggy at first. RAID boards are not neccesary for recording purposes but it has its good points and bad.
The p4pe with SATA may be good for the future, but currently still in its development stages. Basically, they are trying to keep up with SCSI drive speed which is costly.
If you intend to use your standard IDE drives, then the SATA feature may not be for you. To take advantage of this feature you will more then likely need to buy SATA drives which are a little more expensive. Your Choice.
If your building from scratch, here is a pretty good deal for a barebones kit. $545 for a case, 450 watt PS, P4PE mobo, 2.4gig P4 CPU, 512MB 2700 DDR Ram. Get a monitor and other peref. and you'll be set with a good recording machine.

http://www.vitalitycomputer.com/barebonekit71.html

 

[Arranger]

SATA means serial ATA and is used to describe two-way hard drive communication rather than the old standard one-way. SATA is definately in its infancy, but a promising hard drive introducion has been made by Seagate, makers of the ultra quiet Barracuda. The Barracuda V in SATA form will certainly help push drive manufacturers to follow suit.

I don't expect to build another audio PC for a few years (ha, he said!) So, in the meantime, I'd like a mobo that supports this upcoming standard.

RAID is an array of hard discs that are generally set up in one of two ways: Either you have two identical hard drives that receive exactly the same data at all times (for quick, reliable data security) or you have two identical drives that share data access equally in order to double the data transfer rate. Double data transfer means that two ATA/100 drives could be paired to access data at a rate approaching or equal to ATA/200. Of course, the P4PE with its ATA/133 capability, in RAID posture, would allow data transfer of up to ATA/266 speed. That's 2.6 times the ATA/100 rate.

These features are not required in an audio PC and may not be recommended. I just want to have a mobo that is expandable to the state of the art over the next 6 to 12 months. There isn't that much difference in price to have a slightly more flexible mobo.

Happy shopping.

Oh, and you can get 512 of 2700 memory for $130-160. 2700 is 28% faster than 2100. It's a direct mathematical relationship to processing speed. If you go with 2100 memory, it would be akin to buying a 1.6GHz processor instead of a 2.0.

Always buy the fastest memory your motherboard supports. And I also read recently that Micron is the only remaining brand that actually uses Micron hardware. Crucial is no longer off-branded Micron. Buy Micron memory and Maxtor hard drives.