more (yes more) on motherboards

[musicfest]

hey,

I received my software but I'm yet to purchase the system. I was just wondering if everyone could tell me their setup (in particular the motherboard/cpu/ram/hard drives).

thanks-

Bill Roebuck
[email protected]

[QuikDraw]

Asus P3B-F
PIII 500
320Mb PC-100
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 16Mb
SB Live! Value
Promise UDMA 66 controller (I/O Magic brand)
Maxtor 9 2041U4 5400rpm DMA66 20Gb (system)
Maxtor 5 2049U4 7200rpm DMA66 20Gb (audio)
HP CD Writer+ 9100 EIDE
Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1212 EIDE
Zip 250 EIDE
3 1/2 floppy
Creative Modem Blaster Flash 56 PCI

I have NOT created a special Pro Tools hardware profile. All of my devices are enabled and working. I am able to play back the demo flawlessly. I have recorded 8 tracks optically from an ADAT lightpipe at 24 bit 48KHz and mixed and edited them. I got several instances of 1 band and 4 band EQ going on various tracks. Also a few compressors and limiters. I ran 2 D-Verbs too with no problem. I tried to run a third D-Verb and ran out of CPU power. At that time my CPU usage setting was at 65%. I've got it at 85% now but I haven't tried the same D-Verb experiment yet.

I had to jump through hoops to get the DMA 66 drives and controller to work with this motherboard, but once I figured out how to do it, it was fairly easy, and now works excellent.

I have the 5400rpm drive partitioned into 14Gb and 6Gb drives. My system is on the 14Gb partition. My swap file (virtual memory) is on the 6Gb partition, as well as a backup image of my C drive when it was first installed and configured for all my hardware and PTLE. My 7200rpm drive is dedicated solely for the Digi audio files. They are each running as a master with no slave drives on channels 1 & 2 of my DMA 66 controller.

I only have two problems. One is that my machine will not shut down properly after running PTLE. If I do not run PTLE it shuts down fine. Not a big deal to me, but I'm sure Digi will fix this minor bug eventually. My other problem is that my voice modem is not answering calls. That may have nothing to do with the Digi001, but I haven't troubleshot that one yet.

I hope everyone else has a good experience like mine. Now all I need is editing lessons!!! This is a LOT different than tape!

[B.Ray]

Intel SE 440BX-2
Intel PIII 600E
256MB RAM
WD 20GB 5400 RPM (System)
WD 20GB 7200 RPM (Audio)
ATI Xpert 98 AGP

No problems during installation, playback or recording.

[Roy]

Asus P3BF
Intel PIII-600
256Mb SDRAM
(4) IBM 7200rpm 20Gb drives
3Ware high speed EIDE Raid controller
48X EIDE CD
4X4X16 Yamaha SCSI re-writer
32Mb dual port Matrox G-400
Creative Labs Live128
Win'98 2nd ed.

Works like a charm, though from what I gather the raid configurations is overkill. You should be fine with a dedicated application drive and a dedicated audio drive---make 'em both 7200rpm UDMA/66 drives.

One other note: Asus has since released their CUBX board which has an Intel 440BX chipset AND supports UDMA/66 drives (the P3BF will work fine with UDMA/66 drives but you won't get the full advantages their 7200rpm speed). It's a new board and I haven't seen a user profile yet on these boards but the key is the chipset---stay with the Intel 440BX!

[Cool]

Please let me know about compatibility regarding Celeron Processors...Thank you

[s.d. finley]

COOL, celerons are less expensive becuase mircosoft disabled the math co-processor. so
no. Digi only supports pent 2 and 3's.

sdf

[crs117]

Actually the new Celerons are the have the exact same silicon as the PIII,s but intel (not microsoft) has disabled half of the L2 cache. Also to make a bigger difference between the performance of a celeron and a PIII (the celerons wouldnt look to inticing) intel only supports the celerons on a board running at 66 mhz FSB. If you over clock a a celerons FSB to 100 mhz, or even 133 you would not see such a drastic difference between the PIII's and celerons.

Will Celerons work with the 001, from everything i have read i dont see why not. i am not sure how much PT relies on the L2 cache, but if you have a fast enough celeron i dont think you should have that big of a deal. The main thing that will cause a problem for celeron users is the slower the CPU can access ram since it is running on a slower 66mhz bus. I am running a PII on an LX board that does not support anything faster then 66mhz and i have not had that big a problem besides screen refresh rates.

I hope this helps. I am not telling you to get a celeron, but i dont think you would have a big problem with it as long as you stuck to the BX mother board.

Christian

[musicfest]

Hi,

Getting back to my original post. If anyone could outline problems with this system - purchasing next Thursday - I would very much appreciate it.

intel piii 700e cpu
abit be6 rev2
128m sdram
20.4 ibm 7200rpm hd (AUDIO)
10.4 Seagate Ultra ata 66 HD (5400rpm) (SYS)
Atx miditower case
32M riva tnt2 m64 video card
48x lg cdrom
No sound card (does this matter?)
+all the other usual stuff

I'd like to get a system that I know will work, not have to save for weeks just cause I buggered up at this point. anyhow.. any advice would be appreciated.

Also, for using programs such as Wav Editors etc, do you need a standard sound card (ie does the digi001 pci card work for normal sound or just in protools ?)

Thanks, I look forward to your reply.

Bill Roebuck
[email protected]

[bstaley]

musicfest:

The configuration you listed looks like it should work flawlessly. You don't need any other soundcard for other editors. The 001 will work fine. You may want to consider some more RAM later on, but your system should be screamin'. Let us know how it works. I'm about ready to buy a new CPU for my BH6 board. (currently have PII 400).

[mark king]

Should fly but the recommended ram is 128min so I would go for more.

Here goes

Soyo SY-6BA+IV (440BX)
Pentium PIII650E
256Meg PC133Ram
I will be getting a new drive for audio soon but the system works great with 2x eide DMA33 drives at 5400rpm.
winman 2x2 midi card
s/b live removed as I kept getting errors.
Hp8100i CDRW
Matrox G400 dual head 32Meg
2x 17inch monitors.
I am using the AMIII card but the software works the same.