Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[RCAinTN]

I need help with a booting problem.

I have a K8V SE deluxe, Athlon 3700, 1 gig RAM, WD 80gig HD, Lacie 200gig external HD.

The problem is I think the computer is booting to slow. When I first power the PC on the "ASUS K8V SE screen" stays up for 50 seconds before I hear a very small click in the computer (I think it's the HD) then its another 30 seconds or so before I get the Windows XP screen and its almost 2 minutes before everything loads and is ready to go.

There's nothing on this computer except XP Pro, Protools, Acrobat reader, and my burning software. I have turned off RAID in the bios so it isn't seaching for an array anymore. Once the computer is up there isn't any problems.

Is this a normal boot time or is there something I need to change.

Thanks so much for your help!

[neatguys]

Allen whats a board that will go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562
and have built in firewire and is compatible with protools ?
I ask only cause the one you have listed doesnt have it .
Also cause its next to impossible to find a compatible card.
I am so on the verge of ordering this but dont want to get stuck in the mud looking for a compatible firewire card.
Thanks!!
I really want to go dual core!!
Its on sale right now (the processor)
So I might order it anyways and take the plunge!

[Allen Hallada]

Allen whats a board that will go with this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103562
and have built in firewire and is compatible with protools ?
I ask only cause the one you have listed doesnt have it .
Also cause its next to impossible to find a compatible card.
I am so on the verge of ordering this but dont want to get stuck in the mud looking for a compatible firewire card.
Thanks!!
I really want to go dual core!!
Its on sale right now (the processor)
So I might order it anyways and take the plunge!

Get the A8N-SLI Premium motherboard. This has built in firewire support. I'll be changing to this motherboard soon on my list.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131540

Allen

[Allen Hallada]

i posted the following in a similar thread a week or so ago:

i am currently using a digi 001 running, pt 6.4cs9 with a dual core allenstein (asus a8n-sli premium mobo, athlon 64 4400+, 2 gig corsa! ir ram - i can post the full spec if u need).

i'm planning on buying a 002r in the near future so i can use pt7 but i thought i'd try the 001 to see if it worked. when i first installed the 001 i had a stack of 9129 and 9093 errors. very frustrating, anyway, i searched the digi answerbase and came up with this:


DAE Errors 9092, 9093 or 9094 on Windows XP systems with dual core processors.

These errors can be caused by problems with processor scheduling in dual core processors. The solution is to assign Pro Tools to run on a specific processor core.

To do this:

1. Launch Pro Tools, but do not create or open a session.

2. Right click on the Task Bar and select 'Task Manager'.

3. Click on the Processes tab, then right-click on ProToolsLE.exe and select 'Set Affinity' from the drop down menu.

4. Uncheck the box for CPU 0.

5. Click OK and close the Task Manager.

You will have to do this each time you launch Pro Tools unles! s you us e and application like THG Task Assignment Tool.

More info on the THG Task Assignment Tool can be found here:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20040528/index.html


which so far is working sweet =) but its real early days yet, i've literally just rebooted from my music hardware profile after installing my 001 for a second time.

i'm about to sort all the updates i need for my s/w (absynth and battery 2) and go finish the install, i'll post more when its been running for a few sessions.

i've not had an awful lot of time to use the system but it seems to be working fine. will be buying a 002r at the start of march so this will see me thru february just fine.

tim

Tim,
Way to go on this system. That is the first NF4 board I've seen working with the 001. Also the first dual core I've seen work with the 001. That opens up doors for others now. Any tricks to setting up the hard drives? I think the problem we ran into previously with the NF4 boards and the 001 was using the SATA ports. Are you running straight ATA drives or do you use SATA drives? Let me know your HD config here.
Thanks,
Allen

[Allen Hallada]

Allen, They both say the following in the specs..."Supports AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64FX/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64
AMD64 architecture enables simultaneous 32- and 64-bit computing
Supports AMD Cool 'n' Quiet Technology".

The only difference between the the motherboards is the chipsets A8N-E (NVIDIA nforce) vs. A8V-SE or Deluxe (VIA K8T890). Would you be kind enough to explain how the A8V-SE and keeping the AMD stuff will solve the problem because I haven't a clue on this one. Thank you for your time.

The NF4 chipset was problematic for PTLE versions under 7.0, but looking at that post above we may have solved the issue. Check it out before you give up on the A8N-E. The A8V has worked well for earlier PTLE versions with no problems. What hardware are you using, 001, Mbox?

Allen

[SpecialRetard]

Allen, I'm running an 001 with 5.3.1 . For the sake of this forum, I will unpack the CPU, motherboard, and ram tomorrow. Then I will re-install the hardware, run the WD raptors on the SATA ports, load my ghost image, set the processor affinity using the taskassign.exe shareware, and fire the PT. I will be able to tell within 10 minutes if it works or not (aside from the SATA problem). I also have the image on an IDE drive if I need to substitute. I will report back as soon as I can run a few prolonged tests. Hopefully this will help others, as others have kindly helped me. Thanks again.

[Allen Hallada]

Allen, I'm running an 001 with 5.3.1 . For the sake of this forum, I will unpack the CPU, motherboard, and ram tomorrow. Then I will re-install the hardware, run the WD raptors on the SATA ports, load my ghost image, set the processor affinity using the taskassign.exe shareware, and fire the PT. I will be able to tell within 10 minutes if it works or not (aside from the SATA problem). I also have the image on an IDE drive if I need to substitute. I will report back as soon as I can run a few prolonged tests. Hopefully this will help others, as others have kindly helped me. Thanks again.

I think it is the second SATA group (RAID) that caused the issue. Disable the RAID in bios. As Tim states below you may have to run the DEP fix or use XP SP1 still with PTLE 5.3.1 and use the Windows XP standard HD drivers, not the NF4 drivers that are on the disc.

Allen

[sbs]

Tim,
Way to go on this system. That is the first NF4 board I've seen working with the 001. Also the first dual core I've seen work with the 001. That opens up doors for others now. Any tricks to setting up the hard drives? I think the problem we ran into previously with the NF4 boards and the 001 was using the SATA ports. Are you running straight ATA drives or do you use SATA drives? Let me know your HD config here.
Thanks,
Allen

Allen

I have three HD, two WD Caviar SE SATA 120gig, (system and audio) and one WD Caviar IDE 200gig (samples and general storage).

There are 8 SATA sockets on the mobo, I'm using the regular ones (the second set of 4 are for a RAID config which is disabled in the BIOS, I'm at work at the moment and cant remember the brand of the second set). The IDE HD is sitting (alone) on the master socket of the primary IDE channel.

I'm running XP Pro SP2 with the DEP fix. I've not installed the tool thats mentioned in the answer base, I just set the affinity each time I load PT.

The mobo system disc has a set of NF4 drivers on it for the IDE setup, first time I set the machine up with these the machine freaked! I'm using the regular XP stuff and all seems well.

I haven't torture tested the system with a Davec I or II test maybe I will when I get the 002r. For the moment I'm just pleased to be able to run a 500meg drum kit in Battery 2 and still only be using half my system memory and not have to wait a day for the playback to roll after I hit the space bar!



btw, I chose the premium version of the mobo cos it uses a heatsink not a fan on the chipset. When I get home I'll post a full spec.

Tim

[Allen Hallada]

Much appreciated Tim. That is going to help alot of people here.
Great job.

Allen

[Allen Hallada]

Upgraded Allenstein is ready on post #1 with more info regarding setting up PTLE 5.3-6.9 to work with dual core processors.
Thanks to everyone here for your help.

Allen