Hardware questions

[Martinus]

Hi all. I'm Martinus and I'm new to this forum. It may be that this is the wrong place for this post, but I couldn't find anywhere else to put it.

I'm now in the process of building a new system for my audio work. That means that I'll have to build a new computer. My usual HW-dealer has sent me an offer on some parts that he has lying around. Now, he is not the kind of guy that knows too much of audio processing, so I thought it might be an idea to check out with you if this HW is suited to work with ProTools.

Now first of all, I'm buying a command 8 to control all of this. Do I have to have an additional soundcard as well, or is everything sorted out by the command 8 itself?

To the HW-bit:

Graphics card: Gainvard 9800x2

Mainboard: Asus P5E Deluxe, X48, Socket-775, DDR3, ATX, GbLAN, Firewire, 2xPCI-Ex(2.0)x16

Intel Core™2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz Socket LGA775, 1333MHz, 12MB, BOXED w/fan

Corsair Powersupply 750W Black, ATX/EPS, 140mm Fan, 8xSATA, SLI

Corsair TWIN3X 1600MHz DDR3, 2GB, DHX, 2x1GB, XMP (Intel Extreme), CL7-7-7-20

1. The graphics-card. To me it seems a bit "overkill" as I'm not a gamer. The only thing it has to do however, is to manage two 1920x1200 screens, but from what I can understand, a Radeon HD 4850 can do the trick for half the price. Does this matter for ProTools at all?

2. Quad-core processor. Is it supported, or for instance if I run Reason combined with Protools and audio-app #3 will they use one processor each?

3. RAM. Now, this offer includes DDR3-RAM, but how does this work with ProTools? After what I've read, there is little or no difference between DDR2 and DDR3 yet, except the price, and compability regarding future upgrades. In addition to that, this perticular RAM, has got a cache-latency of 7-7-7-20. This whole CL-thing has gone a bit over my head, but isn't it better with lower CL? Since you can get RAM with CL of 2.5 isn't this a bit slow then for audio processing? Or is it the MHz I primarily should look at here?

4. Firewire. The motherboard has got built-in firewire, but should I rather go for a dedicated card? I've heard of people experiencing problems when it comes to "picky" FW-soundcards, Could this be a problem with command 8 as well?

I would greatly appreciate any help here, as I'm about to spend a substantial amount of money (for me at least) on audio equipment. I would rather not end up with an expensive brick, or clicks and pops all over the projects.

Best regards
Martinus

[albee1952]

You still need a Digidesign interface (the Command8 is a controller only with no I/O). Look at Mbox2 Pro or the 003 family. You could buy the interface now and add a controller later(maybe a good idea since the Command8 is getting a bit long in the tooth). As for the quad and DDR3, I will let the intel guys answer that(but there are plenty of quad users)

1-I agree that it is overkill. I ran a pair of 22" widescreens from a $37 MSI nVidia 7300LE card. The Radeon should be fine.

2-I don't think that's how multi-core works but others will know more

3-as I understand it, the timings are offset by the clock multiplier. DDR1 RAM has timings like 3-3-3-5. DDR2 runs 5-5-5-12 but runs at double the clock(ddr2) so DDR3 should run at triple the clock for more speed(in spite of the slower "looking" numbers). Lots of info on a google search but makes my head hurt.

4-as long as the motherboard uses the Texas Instruments firewire chip, the onboard should work just fine(the Command8 uses USB I believe). My system runs fine on the built-in firewire but you can always add an approved card. I think Asus uses the correct chip(mine does)

Don't forget you need at least 2 hard drives(1 for sessions only). The system drive does not need to be very large. I am running a 40 gig!(but you should go with 80-120gig anyway). Your audio drive can be as large as you like but I would rather go with a pair of 500gig drives over a single 1TB(so if one crashes.....). BTW, Protools gets installed on the system drive. You still need to decide which Digi interface to get and since you seem like you want to go for the gold here, I recommend a firewire interface over the USB Mbox choices as the firewire units allow for Low Latency recording and skip the MIX knob which is a PITA (to me anyway).

[Martinus]

Thanks a lot for the reply, it cleared some things a bit up for me, but again some other questions arose :P The sales person I was in contact with, must have tried to sell me something he didn't have :P He told me that it (command 8) had 8 I/O ports, and that it used FW. Could that be the 003 Factory by the way? Is that one a bit dated as well? What I'm basically after, is 8 I/O, with at least 2 being phantom powered (or the possibility of that). This pretty much excludes the Mbox line as far as I've understood.

Firewire is a must. I've been playing around with a small external USB card for a bit, and that pretty much sucks. I want realtime sound, from up to 8 mics, without pops and clicks (no rhyming intended). What product would be the "best" then? I can see that the 003 rack+ factory perhaps would be the ultimate, but I'm not sure my budget can extend all the way there here in Norway.

Thanks for the info about the RAM, I think I'll go for the DDR3-version then, as I will be able to upgrade to something better later on as well. It made my head hurt too when I looked it up.

I totally forgot about the disks, which after what I've read may pose some problems as well. I was thinking of going for a RAID-setup (RAID 0 I think, the one that "makes two drives into one" or something), to improve speed and as a first-line backup system on both the system and the audio drive (4 drives in total). Alternatively, I wondered about going for a small SSD for the system, and RAID on the audio bit. After a bit of googling, it seems that this can cause ProTools to crash. Is there any extended info on this? I mean, as I've gotten it explained, PT can't notice whether it runs from a regular disk, or if it is on a RAID system - so how come this happens?

Another aspect here is why it is crashing from this? Is it because of PT being on RAID disks, or is it because the audio files are on a RAID disk, or is it a combination?

[albee1952]

Protools does not support RAID in any configuration so you will get the best performance by not trying to use it. Audio drives must be 7200 rpm. As for the question re. 003 and Command8. The 003 is a fresh product and should be around for quite a while(and has 8 analog ins and outs, plus 8 more on ADAT lightpipe ports{max 48K} plus 2 more on SPDIF). Command8 is a USB controller only. It has no I/O other than operating as a passthru for your studio monitors(and some have said that does not sound as good as bypassing it anyway). The Command8 is indeed several years old and I expect it will be replaced in the not to distant future. The 003 tabletop version has much more control on it for those that hate using the mouse. Lots more info is on the main site(www.digidesign.com)