Best Desktops for Pro Tools LE

[Vinseph]

hey allen,

i see that you guys are using a KT266A. i know the KT133A is supported by digidesign, does that mean that this KT266A is also supported but its just a faster bus. and about the AMD 761, i know it isn't supported right? but you say it works the best for PTLE 5.1 on PC's.

i have pretty much the same setup as you but i use a ABIT kt7A mobo with 133MHz fsb. i got an AMD 1.4 with the KT133A chipset, should i upgrade to the KT266A and get a controller card to get more versatility and better performance?

you can get the track count over 24 with the Promise card? how so?

Thanks for your help

[Mark_Knecht]

Not exactly - you can still only get 24 audio tracks, but with more CPU power and a good disk drive interface, we are also about to get another 8-16 Aux tracks. This is useful if you want to bring back synths live, or max sub-buses fro mixing together drums or voices, etc.

Cheers,
Mark

Originally posted by Vinseph:
you can get the track count over 24 with the Promise card? how so?

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[JohnnyYen]

Hi Allan and everyone -
Thanks for the spec roundup re the AMD monster in a box; we've outgrown our present system and this looks like amazing performance for the money. So much so that we had a couple questions:

- Do you think it worthwhile to up the audio drive to 10,000/15,000 rpm?

and

- what do you think about adding a 1394 Firewire drive to store projects on, 120 GB. We seem to always have three or four different projects in varying stages of progress with significant gaps between sessions, like over a month. It would be nice to just dump the tracks into a third drive when they're not needed immediately.

Thanks again for all the research and advice.
Best,
John Armstrong/Gordon Nicholl
Paramount Recorders
Vancouver, BC

[JohnnyYen]

And now for part 2 ...
Re-reading the thread I tripped over this:

"... Hang on to your pants my friend because the "Clawhammer" is just around the corner. Think about that, over 80 Tracks and 400 plugins with a 3Ghz processor that doesn't require a noisy fan over the heatsink. I'm starting to feel sorry for those poor souls like PK that are switching to Mac now. Hea hea.

Allen (Drooling)"

Any reccomendations for configuring this system so as to be ready for this development? And any word on when this and the XP all-celear will be given?

Lastly, I see Allen mentions building these setups - do you do this regularly, as in could we hire you to do it, or is this just for your own studio?

Thanks again,
Best

JY
ParamountRecorders

...

[saxbill]

Finally got my system back (came in DOA the first time). Got the GA-7DX+, 512 MB Ram, one 40 gig hard drive for the time being (the other is running XP till we get support), CDrom, CDRW. I'm getting 24+12 on the davec, is there really any advantage to getting a promise controller with these numbers?

[Mark_Knecht]

Probably not in the dave_c test. Possibly in using it everyday.

Just go to work making some music and see if it's stable. You're running audio off of the system drive right now? This may get problamatic if your drive starts getting fragmented. For now, really great results.

Originally posted by saxbill:
Finally got my system back (came in DOA the first time). Got the GA-7DX+, 512 MB Ram, one 40 gig hard drive for the time being (the other is running XP till we get support), CDrom, CDRW. I'm getting 24+12 on the davec, is there really any advantage to getting a promise controller with these numbers?

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[JonB]

I've never put together a computer by myself, but I looked around the PCMechanic site, and it looks like something I can handle. I poked around newegg.com and put together a proposed system for $930. I'd like to know if anyone has suggestions on things I will need that I've forgotten, things I'm wasting my money on, or things that are just plain wrong with the following:

EVERCASE E4252W005A ATX MID Tower Case, Beige: 22.00

ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FMA). 350W Power supply: 63.00

Gigabyte GA-7VRX, VIA KT333 5P1A3D RETAIL: 96.00

AMD ATHLON XP 2000+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - OEM: 181.00

KINGSTON KVR333X64C25/512 512MB 32x64 PC2700 DDR RAM: 163.00

Lite On 32x12x40 CDRW Model LTR-32123S: 76.00

PROMISE ULTRA133TX2 CONTROLLER CARD - OEM: 35.00

Arctic Silver's NEW Premium Silver Polysynthetic Thermal Compound: Arctic Silver 3. 3-gram( 1 cc. ) tube: 6.00

Panasonic Panaflo Axial Fan 80x80x25.5mm, Ball Bearing, DC 12V, 2.08W, 2950 RPM, 39.6 CFM, 32.0 dB-A Model: FBA08A12H - OEM: 12.00

Thermaltake VOLCANO II. Heatsink + Dual Ball bearing Fan: 5.50

Teac 1.44MB 3.5 Inch Floppy Drive # FD235HFC291 - OEM Version: 9.00

MAXTOR Quiet Drive 60GB 7200RPM Model # 6L060L3 - OEM, DRIVE ONLY: 100.00

MAXTOR Quiet Drive 80GB 7200RPM Model # 6L080L4 - OEM, DRIVE ONLY: 123.00

ATI Radeon 32MB DDR 4X AGP Video Card - OEM: 39.00

Thanks in advance!

[Phil O'Keefe]

Jon, your list looks pretty good to me - it should provide you with excellent performance. Let us know if you have any problems with getting it all set up.

Only a couple of points: I have not heard of anyone using the 333 boards, or the PC2700 RAM, so you're kind of "trendsetting" or "trailblazing" there... Maybe Mark or Allen has heard of someone using those and can advise...

Second point - you'll probably need a few 80 pin cables for the hard disk drives and CD-RW drive. Each drive should be on the END of its own seperate cable, with the C drive hooked up to Promise IDE Primary and the D drive to Promise IDE Secondary... hook the CD-RW up to the standard mobo IDE Primary, and if you have a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, hook that up to the standard mobo IDE Secondary... IOW, you may need up to four cables, but you'll need at least three.

The 80 pin cables ARE important on those hard disks when using the Promise cards... and when they say "drive only", they mean "no cable or mounting hardware included", so take that into account and order accordingly. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Best of luck,

[JonB]

I have not heard of anyone using the 333 boards, or the PC2700 RAM, so you're kind of "trendsetting" or "trailblazing" there... Maybe Mark or Allen has heard of someone using those and can advise...

I thought I seen a post about them working, but I may be mistaken. Thanks for the warning.

Second point - you'll probably need a few 80 pin cables for the hard disk drives and CD-RW drive.

Yeah, I realized that after I posted. I'm confused about one thing - are there other IDE cables that aren't 80 pin ones, that I could get accidentally, that look like they would work but don't (or are inferior)? I'm confused why you seem to emphasize 80 PIN IDE cables.

and when they say "drive only", they mean "no cable or mounting hardware included", so take that into account and order accordingly

Noted. The case comes with "2 Removeable HD cages", so what more would I need in terms of mounting hardware? Screws?

[Phil O'Keefe]

Bump - I'll get back to you shortly Jon.