Upgrading Recording PC

  • Thread starter Thread starter gaffer
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gaffer

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It's upgrade time for my PC. I'm thinking of getting a Pent. 4---1.7 mghrz with plenty of memory.

I use Cakewalk pro audio 9, Cool edit Pro , and also use an Echo audio card (Darla).

Does anyone have any knowledge about compatability problems with this setup?

Thanks

Gaffer
 
I'd buy an AMD Athlon instead. CPU/mboard will be cheaper and AMD doesn't require the outrageously expensive RAM the P4 requires.

Depending on which Athlon chip you get, it will outperform a similar P4 anyways.
 
ME operating system

Ok ,
My next question is;
How does Windows ME work with Cakewalk and Cool edit pro?


Thanks again...
 
Eeeek! :) Don't use ME!!!

ME was by far the worst OS Microsoft put out in recent times. If you're not going to use an NT based OS (Win2000,XP) stick with Windows 98SE. If you look through posts here, you'll see it is the OS that has the least amount of problems as far as DAWs are concerned.

Personally, I like Windows 2000. It won't touch XP until the first Service Pack is released.
 
ME OS

Stupid me...I typed ME when I ment XP. But you answered my question about XP.

I heard there is about 160 changes or fixes already to download from Microsoft. That doesn't sound too good!


Thanks
 
brzilian said:
I'd buy an AMD Athlon instead. CPU/mboard will be cheaper and AMD doesn't require the outrageously expensive RAM the P4 requires.
Click to expand...
I think Pentium is always better for using with audio software: Samplitude, Cubase... they all are optimized for Pentium 3, so AMD's will not use this optimisation, and run slower.
 
RE: P-4

Just for your info, Pent.-4 is now available in a 478 pin cpu that can now use sdram memory instead of rambus. This make p-4 a little more attractive.

It's well known that p-3, 1 gig is good for our stuff but what about p-4?
Should work OK, shouldn't it?
 
Re: RE: P-4

gaffer said:
Just for your info, Pent.-4 is now available in a 478 pin cpu that can now use sdram memory instead of rambus. This make p-4 a little more attractive.
Click to expand...

What is the price compared to the equivalent AMD and how much of a perfomance loss do you take with regular SDRAM? Might not be worth the money...

Personally, I think the whole AMD vs. Intel thing is a load of crap. Incompatabilites existed years ago, but AMD has worked them out. All this incompatability stuff is just bad press put out by Intel because they are worried of loosing market share - AMD has proven is can deliver a better product at a lower cost.
 
Better to be safe, than to be sorry. I'd stick with a PIII, WIN 98.

spin
 
SPINSTERWUN said:
Better to be safe, than to be sorry. I'd stick with a PIII, WIN 98.

spin
Click to expand...

FYI, this was posted in another forum:

"optimized means they compiled using the intel optimizing compiler. it doesn't mean that it will be incompatible with amd or even that it will run faster on an intel baed system. almost every piece of floating point intensive software i.e. all the stuff youd wanna use to do music with runs faster on an amd based box due to the athlons better floating point processor. there are a few exceptions of course but the amd's will still perform really close to an intel. and if your comparing an athlon to a p3 the athlon will blow the p3 out of the water. you cant top the 1.5 ghz for overall performance. the p4 2.0 ghz is faster at some stuff and slower at others and costs a helluva lot more. get a good chipset in your motherboard period. if amd go with the sis 735 (not to be confused with the 730) or the amd 760 chipsets. avoid via period whether going intel or amd they have issues with drivers and hardware conflicts. if intel get an intel chipset only (lots of options but for p3 get the old bx chipset as its the fastest and most stable i.e. more mature chipset drivers)"

Don't believe the hype!
 
Intel vs. amd

brzilian,
Thanks for this great information. I'm going to look real hard at the amd 1.5 with sis 735 chipset.

Can you recommend any motherbds that have this chipset?

Thanks again,

Gaffer
 
if you're gonna do it...

Then DO it right. XP is awesome for DAW-work Athlons are rock solid and perform as well for the $$$ as Intel does. I've used Celerons for a long time with no complaints. However, I've recently upgraded to a 1 gig Athlon and all is PERFECT in my recording world. NTFS kicks ass for stability and speed. CWPA 9 Works PERFECTLY in XP as well.

If you wanna HEAR the proof, go to
this recording was done COMPLETELY in XP with my Athlon setup this song required over 50 tracks (can't recall the exact number just now)without a SINGLE dropout.

My 2 cents:)
 
Tell me more about XP

Thanks TheStickman,

When you say XP, is that the athlon XP Processor your talking about or The Operating system XP?

I guess technology has passed me a little because I'm not up to date on the XP chip. 1500, 1600, 1700XP???????


I really need to update soon, Im getting sick and tired of these DROP OUTS. Whatever more info you give me about upgrading is appretiated.

By the way, your tune sounds super... great job!

Gaffer
 
I meant...

The OS. My Athlon is your basic 1 gighz flavor. Still kickin' butt though.

Make sure your Hard Drive is a 7200 rpm drive. Having lots of space is important but if its not fast enough...well you get the point hehehe.
 
Hey Stickman, nice job on the tune, sounds great. Reminded me a bit of Guns ' n Roses. But I gotta say - 50 tracks? I hear about a dozen....
 
Go for it... I've test P4 1,7 Gig... with 478 pin Mothaboard, can still hook my 512 MB SDRAM to it. Works realy fast and well. BTW, it depends on what project you do. If you just need 32 Track 3-5 minutes audio track with 2-3 DirectX FX Realtime for each, PIII 1 Gig would be enough. Just remeber, whatever your Processor, MB, Mem, HD is also important issue. I sugest use 2 phisical HD instead of 1. Use 7200 Rpm. One for OS & your regular data, other for your audio data ( used by cakewalk ) don't mix with other kind of data untill you're forced to. Do often Defragment your HD ( eg. Norton Speedisk ) to make sure they're on the top condition. Use Win XP if you've got one. Hope you well work.

BTW, why don't you describe your project & the way you do often your project.
 
I personally would go with a Pentium III. The 1.2GHz Tualatin absolutely smokes, if you can afford it. And it also runs very cool.

Athlon-based systems are very fast, and inexpensive - but you'll also find that, factoring in the cost of the entire system, you don't really save any great amount of money by going with an Athlon. Also, Athlon systems have to be very well cooled. Talk to some people on this forum, they'll tell you. I've seen more than one person here with severe overheating problems.

Since it'll need extra cooling, it'll also create more noise. Not good for recording. A lot of people have great success with them, but I personally wouldn't use an Athlon for much other than high-power gaming.

http://www.tomshardware.com is a high-quality website for reading up on hardware. For the most part, they're quite non-biased.
 
Hey, anyone hear anything about AMD not being around too much longer. I didn't get any details about it, but someone who works in the computer industry (won't say what company, but he is in good standing with his company and is pretty high up in the corporate ladder) mentioned that AMD wouldn't be a good choice to buy anymore because they should be going out of buisness soon (soon not necessarily being months, maybe year or so).
 
I would be surprised by that.

The whole tech sector has been down for a while - mainly because it's been flooded with lifeless products that aren't noticeably better than the lifeless products that came before. :) There just isn't a lot of reason for most people with a Pentium III-ish computer to upgrade.

It's true that AMD isn't competing as well with Intel as they have in the recent past, but I believe this is cyclical. Both companies have their place - I believe that the Pentium III chip is the best all-around for recording, for instance, while I wouldn't hesitate to tell a hardcore gamer to get an Athlon. If enough software is written to take advantage of the Pentium 4's unique (strange?) design, then it may find itself at the top of the heap.

The PIII is still my favorite all-around CPU, though. It's a great design.

IMO, AMD isn't showing any of the telltale signs of severe trouble. They're expanding, not contracting (see: the upcoming "Hammer" chips). Remember when 3dfx went under? First the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 were delayed. Again, and again, and again. When they came out, they weren't competitive against the GeForce2. Then the Voodoo5 5500, the card that everyone thought might compete, was delayed even further. I remember hearing about an even more powerful Voodoo5 6000, but the card never was released to the public. I believe some reference boards exist, but I don't know if anybody was even allowed to benchmark them. Then it was, "We're getting out of the retail card business. We're going to license our chipsets to other manufacurers." A few weeks later, it was "Uh, no, actually we're going out of business."

AMD isn't doing any of that. I really don't see any cause for worry.

The words of an outsider, yes - but an outsider who's been looking in for many years.
 
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