Who has the least expensive DAW?

[Middleman]

There is a great article reference on this BBS which covers overclocking Celeron chips for great performance. The total cost referenced in the article puts a solid computer digital workstation together for around $500 (w/o moniter).

My question is who else has built a really great DAW for $500 or less and wants share their experience.

I am ready to spend so would like to hear of other adventures. Also great experiences with various Mother boards, chips, etc.

 

[garrigus]

Hi Middleman,

There's a good article in ProRec about this very subject. I believe the system they're talking about is for $1000 or less. Here's the link: http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/files/E674C87E2991AA3F862568E9006D7D10

Best,
Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk Power!, the first book to deal exclusively with the Cakewalk Pro Audio, Guitar Studio, and Home Studio software products. For more information, a free newsletter, and the chance to win free products, go to: http://www.garrigus.com/

 

[Rhoadz]

thanks for the link scott. I just ordered the gear for my new frankenstein system, but the article summed up the current CPU delemmas (sp?) really well. I spent hours on-line sweating out those little details.

middleman, what components do you currently have that are worth salvaging for a new system? Anywho, i went with an athlon 700 on an Asus K7V w/o Audio as my foundation. But then things are gonna go over your $500 goal really quick One place that was great for mobo and cpu info (esp overclocking) is http://www.tomshardware.com

have fun
rhoadz

 

[Middleman]

Thanks guys, appreciate the advice. Here is where I am headed.

Already have a Maxtor drive 4GB. Not as big as I'd like but it will do til Christmas. I can't salvage my memory because it is 5 years old and is DIMM.

From the article at Pro Rec, (thanks Scott, now I will pop for your book - have actually already ordered it from Amazon) I am going with the ABIT BE6-II and the 566 Celeron II tested at 850Mhz. I will add my HDD and a voodoo video card (my son says won't work with Half Life so we bought him a new one) which is lying around along with 128K of memory and I am set. I have a 17" inch monitor so here is the summary.

ABIT BE6-II - $119
Celeron Chip - $190
Memory - $125
Case - $45
Total = $479

On ebay I could have shaved off about $50 bucks overall but decided to stick with a store in case something doesn't work out.

Had Video, Soundcard, HDD and CDR-W and Monitor. On the audio side the DMAN PCI is a great little converter and I use my old SCC-1 Roland Sound Canvas card for midi.

Life is good, CW9.03 will run reverb now, can use directx plugins, can start thinking about writing music instead of engineering for awhile.

Would still like to know if anyone has tried a different chip/MB combo that is significantly better for near or slightly higher price? The Pro Rec solution appears to have some future built in.

Comments?

 

[garrigus]

Hey Rhoadz,

What are the specs going to be for your new system? Just curious...

-- Scott www.garrigus.com

 

[garrigus]

Thanks, Middleman! Be sure to let me know what you think about the book after you've had a chance to read it.

Re: your system. Wow, I'm surprised you were able to keep it below $500, but then you had a lot of the parts already too. You'll definitely want to better hard drive. I've heard good things about the Maxtor DiamondMax 40gig drive, and I don't think it's too expensive either.

-- Scott www.garrigus.com

 

[Rhoadz]

Scott, here's my new toy.

Athlon 700
Asus K7V w/o Audio mobo KX133 chipset
256 MB pc133 ram
40GB maxtor diamondmax plus
Dman 2044 (salvaged from old system)
ATI all in wonder 128 pro agp
Ricoh dvd/cd/cdr/cdrw 4/24/6/4 combo

at least thats what i remember off hand. I'm replacing a K6 233 thats about 4 years old so my upgrade $$$ has been building up for a while.

later

 

[DigitalDon]

Middleman,
Where did you get your Celeron 566 II (pretested to 850) from? $190 seems like a very good price for a pretested 566. Did it come with an upgraded cooling fan?

Thanks,
DD

 

[Middleman]

If you go to http://www.advanceddesignky.com/ you will find this chip for $225 - It went up since last week. Probably due to the recommendation by ProRec.com

As far as an upgraded fan I am not sure. Check their site.