Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[Allen Hallada]

Allen

sage like advice as ever, thanks.

i'll save the money and go with the 4400 and spend the cash on the ram (unless there are any hot babes reading the forum at a loose end this evening?). reading bb_aus's comments i think i'll just stick 3 gig in the machine and get on with it. haven't researched the 2.8 gig limit to xp's ability to see ram but sounds reasonable.

being a son of the early 80's (when i came of musical age rather than actually being born) i'm yet to discover the beauty of mr cash. problem might come when said hot babe prefers the wild rock n roll thing on screen but hey, deal with that if/when it comes along

last thing, can you think of a sound reason to throw caution to the wind and buy the dual core mac? i'm thinking of the m9590b/a model

muchos gracias amigo

tim

Tim,
The only problem with the Mac is the cost and probably is going to run more than getting the fastest dual core PC that will outperform it. If you like MacOSX then I'd go for it.

In regards to Mr. Cash, it never hurts to go back and see where all this wall banging music started. Especially his bass lines which were stellar and still are. I actually thought the early Elvis/Cash stuff had similar rythym although Elvis was a little faster tempo .

Allen

[bmmpxf]

Hi there. So, I've finally taken the plunge and bought a new system!

AMD X2 4400+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Sonata II Case
1 GB Crucial DDR400 (one stick, not 2 512MB)
etc etc.

I didn't buy a video card, mainly to save money. (Is anyone else annoyed that their nifty AGP cards are no longer supported?) I trash picked an OLD PCI video card (Videorage II+ from STB Systems...yes, that old), but STB (RIP) never made drivers for anything other than Win95. So, obviously, that's a dead end route.

Because this system is going to be used for Pro Tools exclusively, I'm looking for recommendations for an inexpensive PCI-Express video card. Important: The video card has to be fanless! I'm trying to build a super quiet system, and the only video cards I see (like the recommendation on page 1) have these gigantic uber-fragfest-fans, which I don't think is necessary.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mike

[CEGray]

Hey bmmpxf,

Looks like your onto a good start, but that one stick of ddr ram (1gig) to my understanding will create a bottleneck, why? because in order for your system to take advantage of double data rate using both channels you must have another stick of ram in the other slot! So having 2 (512meg) sticks would be better or if your just using that(1gig) to get up and running and then add another (1gig) later and then they should be matched pairs. Hope this help's

[Allen Hallada]

Hi there. So, I've finally taken the plunge and bought a new system!

AMD X2 4400+
Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Sonata II Case
1 GB Crucial DDR400 (one stick, not 2 512MB)
etc etc.

I didn't buy a video card, mainly to save money. (Is anyone else annoyed that their nifty AGP cards are no longer supported?) I trash picked an OLD PCI video card (Videorage II+ from STB Systems...yes, that old), but STB (RIP) never made drivers for anything other than Win95. So, obviously, that's a dead end route.

Because this system is going to be used for Pro Tools exclusively, I'm looking for recommendations for an inexpensive PCI-Express video card. Important: The video card has to be fanless! I'm trying to build a super quiet system, and the only video cards I see (like the recommendation on page 1) have these gigantic uber-fragfest-fans, which I don't think is necessary.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Mike

Check www.pricewatch.com for best prices on PCI-X cards. You should be able to find something around 100.00. Here is one http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merch...ricewatch&NR=1

Type fanless PCI in Newegg search window brings up a few also.

Allen

[Petander]

Because this system is going to be used for Pro Tools exclusively, I'm looking for recommendations for an inexpensive PCI-Express video card. Important: The video card has to be fanless!

Hello,

I have the same board and I bought a SAPPHIRE X800 GTO PCI-E 256 MB FIREBLADE without thinking much ... Just sent it back today, it made more noise than anything I´ve ever heard coming from the insides of a computer.


Do not even think about it if you want a quiet machine in a quiet room.


Now I have another Sapphire for trial, "Ultimate", it´s equipped with a heatpipe and it´s reasonably quiet. About $20 more gets you the heatpipe version, instead of an insanely loud fan.

Recommended for now, especially if you have a large case and a quiet case fan already in there. I know this card likes some ventilation, the heat has to go somewhere.

[guentherschmidt]

Sorry for the stupid question, but how much does the video card matter for PT performance? Is it worth it to splurge on a high-end video card or even have a dual card setup?
My choices are:

256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX
Dual 256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Dual 256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX with SLI Technology

Also, what's an optimal setup for hard drives? I could get an 80GB at 10000 RPM but that's going to fill up pretty quickly for me. Would it be better to just get a larger HD at 7200 RPM or perhaps a RAID 0 config (2 x 250GB SATA HDDs)?

Thanks in advance.

[mac goD]

I am in the process of purchasing parts for a new Allenstein machine I am building for my brother.
I am content with my allenstein (xp1700, a7v8x-x mobo, 1 gig of Kingston pc3200 ddr, radeon 9600 video card, windows xp pro SP1 and pro tools 6.1) but I want to build him something stable and powerful without going over budget. The budget is $650-700, and I already purchased a gig of Kingston pc3200 for the new computer (I will return these if they are not compatible). I will return the two, 200 gb maxtor drives and purchase two seagate drives
( http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...?EdpNo=1388892 .)

Now here comes the hard part. I cannot find the mobo and processor that is recommended for the $300+ allenstein machine. With that being said are the 64 3200+ (socket 939) or 64 3200+ (socket 754)compatible with PTLE 7? What MOBO should I be looking at for socket 939 or 754?

Any help is appreciated guys and I am looking to purchase the parts tommorow.

Thanks!

mac goD

EDIT: The $600-$700 budget is the TOTAL budget and includes the parts I have already purchased.

[mac goD]

Ok I did a little bit of research and I also got word that I can stretch the budget. I'll be purchasing everything on the first page except for the processor that was recommended, the ram and HDs. I'll be purchasing a 64 x2 3800+, two seagate drives and I already have the kingston ram.

I'll keep you guys posted on the situation.

[Petander]

Hello,


here´s another "Economy - Allenstein" A8N-E SLI Deluxe / Athlon 3800 x2 / PT 7.0 setup coming, it should be running within a week when the last parts are here.


My concern is also in the power department so I borrowed a realtime power consumption meter because... well, you know how those labels are on PSU´s anyway. When I get the stuff up and running (it will be an extremely minimal PT7 setup, hardware / connection -wise) I´ll post some numbers about power consumption.

Here we go: 3800 X2 + A8N SLI at 2500 MHz (Way overclocked, Davec2 32+86), Sapphire Ultimate PCIE adapter, one SATA-drive, one IDE and two TFT Displays.

Including the UPS it never goes above 250 Watts, the whole bunch with any load. My meter is before the UPS, the displays take about 25 W each and they are included in the count.

Not bad.

[mac goD]

^^ Hey man what firewire card did you use?